Winona, Minnesota

Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the U.S. State of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf.

The city is named after Princess We-Noh-Nah, daughter of Chief Wapasha (Wabasha) III.

The population was 27,592 at the 2010 census. Its annual celebration, Steamboat Days, is held in the summer. It is known as the stained glass capital of the United States.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 23.6 square miles (61.0 km²), of which, 18.2 square miles (47.2 km²) of it is land and 5.3 square miles (13.8 km²) of it (22.62%) is water.



Winona's primary suburbs are Goodview, Stockton, Minnesota City and Rollingstone to the west, Homer to the southeast and Fountain City to the north. Rochester is 44 miles to the west of Winona, La Crescent is 21 miles to the south, and La Crosse is 30 miles to the southeast.



Climate
Winona's weather station, as well as neighboring city, La Crescent's station, records the warmest climate of any in Minnesota, with a normal year-round average (1971–2000) temperature of 48.9°F, compared to 43.2° in Austin to the city's southwest or 45.4° in Minneapolis, to the northwest, which experiences a strong urban heat island effect. Temperatures are generally very mild by Minnesota standards year-round; the January mean is 17.6°, while that of July is 75.8°.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 27,069 residents. The population density was 1,485.0 people per square mile (573.3/km²). There were 10,666 housing units at an average density of 585.1 per square mile (225.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.47% White, 1.13% African American, 0.23% Native American, 2.65% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.35% of the population.

Ancestries: German (43.2%), Norwegian (15.5%), Polish (14.8%), Irish (13.0%), English (5.5%), French (3.6%).

There were 10,301 households out of which 23.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.3% were non-families. 35.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the city, the population was spread out with 18.0% under the age of 18, 27.5% from 18 to 24, 22.2% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,845, and the median income for a family was $48,413. Males had a median income of $31,047 versus $23,302 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,783. About 6.5% of families and 17.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.5% of those under age 18 and 10.7% of those age 65 or over.

History
The original plat of the City is located on a sand bar of the Mississippi River, and surrounded by river bottoms and wooded blufflands. Evidence gathered by archaeologists indicates that people lived in the valley as early as 9500 B.C. The earliest evidence of human habitation in Winona County is based on the discovery of a Woodland period site (circa 800 B.C.-900 A.D.). The present-day city of Winona was founded on the village of Keoxa. As the seat of the Wapasha dynasty, it was home to a Mdewakanton band of the eastern Sioux. The summer homes of the Keoxa natives were made of bark supported by a framework and poles. Their winter residence was a teepee made of about 8 buffalo hides sewn together with deer sinew, typically about 12 feet (4 m) high and 10 to 12 feet (3 to 4 m) in diameter, with a fire in the middle to keep the temperature inside the dwelling tolerable even in the coldest weather.



Lieutenant Zebulon Pike left Fort Bellefontaine on August 9, 1805 with orders to find the source of the Mississippi. On September 14, 1805, he reached the Mississippi Valley near island number 72 (on his map), which would one day be Winona, Minnesota, and recorded his impressions in his log.

Less than fifty years later, Pike's island 72 was selected by Captain Orrin Smith as a townsite on the west bank of the Mississippi River. For over twenty-five years, Smith had sailed the river between Galena, Illinois and Fort Snelling, Minnesota as owner and pilot of the river packet Nominee. In 1851 Smith learned that the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota would establish a reservation in the interior of the state, and realized that there would be a rush to develop townsites on the Minnesota side of the river. On October 15, 1851 Orrin Smith became the founder of Winona, by landing his ship's carpenter, Mr. Erwin Johnson, and two other men (Smith and Stevens) with the purpose of claiming title to the riverfront and surrounding prairie land. When the town site was surveyed and plotted by John Ball, United States deputy surveyor, it was given the name of "Montezuma", as requested by Johnson and Smith. Henry D. Huff bought an interest in the town site in 1853. With the consent of Capt. Smith, Huff erased the name of Montezuma and inserted the name of Winona on the plot, a name derived from the Dakota Indian word "We-no-nah", which translates to "first-born daughter".

Winona was settled by non-Native Americans in 1851, and the town was laid out into lots in 1852-3 with growth expanding rapidly over the years. The population increased from 815 in December, 1855, to 3,000 in December, 1856. In 1860 Winona had a population of 2,456, and was third largest city in Minnesota until the late 1880s. Part of the surge in population in 1856 was the fact that land claims became legal in 1855 with the completion of land surveys and the opening of a local federal land office. It was incorporated as a city in 1857.

Growth in Winona was built on a railway and steamboat transportation system, wheat milling, and lumber. In 1856 over 1,300 steamboats stopped at Winona. The railway system grew and the Winona Railway Bridge, built of steel and iron with a steam-powered swingspan over the river, was the second railway bridge to span the Mississippi. The first train crossed on July 4, 1891 and the bridge served the Green Bay & Western (GBW) and Burlington Route for the next 94 years until it was closed in 1985 and dismantled in the fall of 1990. In 1892, a wagon toll-bridge over the Mississippi, a steel high-bridge, was completed and remained in service until 1942. During the 1860s southern Minnesota was the greatest wheat producing region in the country and Winona was the main port for shipping Minnesota wheat. By 1870, Winona was the fourth largest wheat shipping port in the United States. In 1899, Bay State Milling was founded, and is still in operation today. John Laird started the first lumber mill in 1855; he later was joined by his cousins James and Matthew Norton in founding the Laird-Norton Co. The Winona sawmills reached their peak production in 1892 when they produced over 160 million board feet (380,000 m³) annually and ranked eighth in production of lumber in the upper Midwest.

A famous resident of Winona was J. R. Watkins, the man who invented the "money back guarantee" in 1868 when he started Watkins Incorporated. In the early 1900s he renamed the company the J. R. Watkins Medical Company. He died before the completion of the company's current factory and offices in 1911. Now called J. R. Watkins Incorporated, it is one of the oldest companies in the nation. The company also trades in Canada, China and as of May 2009 in the United Kingdom as Watkins UK. The company museum and factory are open for visitation and touring 6 days a week.

For a decade (1907–1917) Winona was home to pioneer American composer Carl Ruggles. Carl (Charles Sprague) Ruggles was born in East Marion, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1876. Trained as a violinist, he also studied theory and composition in Boston with Josef Claus and John Knowles Paine. (Plans to study composition with Dvorak in Prague were put off when a financial sponsor died). In 1907, he moved to Winona, where he founded, and for a decade conducted, the Winona Symphony. He also gave lessons, composed, and began painting during this time. Ruggles is often referred to together with composer Charles Ives.

In 1947 the Edstrom brothers (Harold and Everett), along with fellow musician Roger Busdicker, founded the Hal Leonard Corporation, currently the largest publisher of sheet music in the world.

Winona's population reached 19,714 in 1900, but thereafter declined for some years after the collapse of the lumber industry.

Transportation
U.S. Highway 14, U.S. Highway 61, Minnesota Highway 43 and Wisconsin State Highway 54 are the main routes into the city. Interstate Highway 90 is located a short distance south of the city.

Winona was once served by passenger railroads such as the Milwaukee Road, Burlington Route, and Chicago & Northwestern. Only the former Milwaukee Road station remains. It is now served by Amtrak's daily in each direction between Chicago and Seattle and Portland.

Winona Municipal Airport - Max Conrad Field serves general aviation in the area. It was once served by one passenger airliner, North Central Airlines until the mid-1970s.

Industry
Winona is home to the headquarters of the Watkins Corporation, Fastenal, Hal Leonard Corporation, Thern Inc., RTP Company, We-No-Nah Canoe, United Building Centers, Bloedow's Bakery, Badger Equipment Company, Winona Lighting, WinCraft Sports, and Winona Pattern & Mold,.

Top employers
According to the City's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Government and politics
Winona is located in Minnesota's 1st congressional district, represented by Mankato educator Tim Walz, a Democrat. At the state level, Winona is located in Senate District 31, represented by Republican Jeremy Miller, and in House District 31A, represented by Democrat Gene Pelowski.

Education
Winona became the site of the first normal school west of the Mississippi in 1858 with the establishment of Winona Normal School (now Winona State University). This was the beginning of Winona's tradition as a center of higher education. Saint Mary's College (now Saint Mary's University) was founded as a private Roman Catholic school in 1912. Later, as the necessary opportunity of higher education for women became apparent, the College of Saint Teresa was created. After Saint Mary's became co-ed in 1969, Saint Teresa closed down in 1988, and its facilities are now used, owned, and/or operated by Winona State, Saint Mary's, Cotter High School, and the Valéncia Performing Arts Academy of Saint Mary's University. Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical also has a campus in Winona.

There is also a relatively diverse variety of K-12 educational opportunities. Run by Independent School District 861, the local public school system includes seven elementary schools (four in the city of Winona), the Winona Middle School, and the Winona Senior High School. The Winona Area Catholic Schools system includes St. Mary's primary school, St. Stanislaus Elementary School, Cotter Junior High School, and Cotter Senior High School. There are also other non-preparatory private schools. Bluffview Montessori Charter School, located in Winona, was the first charter Montessori, and the second charter school overall in the United States. There are also two private Lutheran K-8 schools, and Hope Lutheran High School.

Religion
Winona is home to five Catholic Parishes, twenty nine Protestant Churches, one meetinghouse of the LDS Church, and one Islamic prayer center. Central Lutheran, Pleasant Valley Evangelical Free Church, and Living Light Church are the largest congregations among the Protestant churches.

Winona is the episcopal see for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is the mother church of the Diocese. Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church is a landmark Roman Catholic Church built in the Polish Cathedral style, and is known for its Old World opulence.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary located in Winona is sponsored by the Diocese of Winona. Winona is also the seat of the Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas, the United States seminary for the Society of St. Pius X. It previously was in Ridgefield, Connecticut, but moved to Winona in 1988.

Arts
In addition to the arts brought to the community by the local educational institutes, Winona has two professional theater companies, the Great River Shakespeare Festival and the Theatre du Mississippi. Additionally, the Minnesota Beethoven Festival brings world class artists to Winona for a month long season each summer...among them cellist Yo Yo Ma in 2010. There is also a brand new music festival, the Mid West Music Fest, scheduled for the first time on July 30 and 31 in 2010. Recently completed is the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, which encompasses work by both international and local artists, a collection of photographs by the river engineer Henry Bosse, and sculpture by Leo Smith. In particular their impressionist and Hudson River school collections are outstanding. The museum may host one of the best collections of Canadian maritime painting outside Canada. The new Laird-Norton addition (designed by celebrated architect Joan Soranno) to the Winona County History Center will open in June, 2010.

Media
Winona has two newspapers: the Winona Daily News, a daily morning paper; and the Winona Post, a bi-weekly paper with mid-week and Sunday editions. Papers from La Crosse, Rochester, and the Twin Cities are also commonly read.
 * Print

Winona receives TV signals from neighboring cities, including several channels each from La Crosse, Rochester, Eau Claire, and the Twin Cities, although what can be received depends on the location within the area, as the extensive system of valleys and ridges may block any or all signals. There is one local public broadcasting TV network, HBCI, which is available only to subscribers of the HBC cable company.
 * Television

Local Stations:
 * Radio
 * KWNO 1230 AM
 * KAGE 1380 AM
 * KQAL 89.5 FM
 * KSMR 92.5 FM
 * KAGE-FM 95.3
 * KWNO-FM 99.3
 * KHME 101.1 FM

Fringe Stations:
 * WKTY 580 AM, La Crosse
 * WIZM 1410 AM, La Crosse
 * WLSU 88.9 FM, La Crosse
 * WHLA 90.3 FM, La Crosse
 * KXLC 91.1 FM, La Crescent
 * WIZM-FM 93.3 FM, La Crosse
 * KCLH 94.7 FM, Caledonia
 * KQYB 98.3 FM, Spring Grove
 * KQEG 102.7 FM, La Crescent
 * WFBZ 105.5 FM, Trempealeau
 * WQCC 106.3 FM, La Crosse

Steamboat Days
Steamboat Days is the annual celebration in Winona. It is celebrated with a carnival, fireworks, a parade, and many other activities. For adults there are many other activities in which to take part. The celebration usually lasts six days.

Notable people

 * Harold "Hal" Edstrom, co-founder of Hal Leonard Corporation
 * Everett "Leonard" Edstrom, co-founder of Hal Leonard Corporation
 * Roger Busdicker, co-founder of Hal Leonard Corporation
 * Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!, formerly of Autodesk
 * Robert Henry Brom, Roman Catholic bishop
 * Tracy Caulkins, swimmer
 * Max Conrad. aviator
 * James Earle Fraser (1876–1953), sculptor, designer of the Buffalo Nickel and the "End of the Trail" statue
 * Paul Giel, athlete
 * James "J. R." Keller, former state senator and representative
 * William D. Mitchell, United States Attorney General
 * Thomas H. Moodie, former North Dakota governor
 * Winona Ryder, actress (named after the city and county, although she never lived there)
 * William Windom, actor, and his great grandfather, politician William Windom (1827–1891), who served as a Republican member of both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate from Minnesota; later became Secretary of the Treasury under presidents James Garfield, Chester Arthur and Benjamin Harrison. Actor William Windom's character of Glen Morley in The Farmer's Daughter television series (1963) was also a congressman from Minnesota.

Sister cities

 * 🇵🇱 Bytów, Poland
 * 🇯🇵 Misato, Miyagi, Japan
 * Winona Sister-City Website

Landmarks

 * Heffron Hall is a residential hall at Saint Mary's University that was built in 1920. There is talk that this dorm is actually haunted by a ghost.
 * Sugar Loaf is a lighted, rocky pinnacle (remaining after quarrying activity) that arises from one of the many bluffs that line Highway 61. It is located at the junction of Highway 61 and Highway 43/Mankato Avenue.