Austin, Minnesota
Austin is a city in Mower County, United States. The population was 24,718 at the 2010 census, it is the county seat of Mower County. The town was settled along the Cedar River and has two artificial lakes, East Side Lake and Mill Pond, it was named for the first settler in the area. Hormel Foods Corporation is Austin's largest employer, the town is sometimes called "SPAM Town USA". Austin is home to Hormel's corporate headquarters, a factory that makes most of North America's SPAM tinned meat, the Spam Museum. Austin is home to the Hormel Institute, a leading cancer research institution operated by the University of Minnesota with significant support from the Mayo Clinic. Austin has been named one of the "Top 10 Affordable Small Towns Where You'd Actually Want to Live," as well as one of the "Best Small Cities in America" for 2015. Fertile land and ease of access brought first trappers and the early pioneers to this region; the rich gameland attracted Austin Nichols, a trapper who built the first log cabin in 1853.
At that time there were "about twenty families in the area." More settlers began to arrive by wagon train in 1855, by 1856, enough people were present to organize Mower County. In 1856 the settlement adopted the name Austin, in honor of its first settler; that year the first hotel opened to travelers and the first physician moved to town, Dr. Ormanzo Allen; the first newspaper, the Mower County Mirror, was started in 1858. Mills, powered by the Cedar River, were the first industries in Austin, they provided much-needed lumber for the growing village. Growth was slow during the first two decades, but the Chicago, St. Paul railroad arrived in the late 1860s, hastening economic development; the town's first schoolhouse was constructed in 1865 and the first bank opened its doors the following year. In 1891, George A. Hormel opened a small family-owned butcher shop in Austin, which grew into today's Fortune 500 company, Hormel Foods. By 1896, area doctors, with the help of local Lutheran congregations, formed the Austin Hospital Association becoming St. Olaf Hospital, part of Mayo Clinic Health System.
Austin received its first college in 1897 when the Southern Minnesota Normal College and Austin School of Commerce were opened by Charles Boostrom. The college closed in 1925 and the city was without an institution of higher education until Austin Junior College opened in 1940. A 50-acre parcel of land was made into Horace Austin State Park by the Minnesota Legislature in 1913. At the time, the land was "one of the beauty spots of Southern Minnesota, but of late years has not been cared for and in places the banks have been disfigured by dumping along the shore of the stream," according to the bill's author, Senator Charles F. Cook; the park was converted to a state "scenic wayside" in 1937 transferred to city ownership in 1949. In the 1930s, Austin Acres was built with funding from the Subsistence Homesteads Division of the Department of the Interior, the Austin Parks Board was formed in the 1940s to oversee the growing number of green spaces within the city; the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center, established in 1971, a 500-acre nature preserve including the 60 acre Hormel Arboretum, purchased from Geordie Hormel with a state grant.
In 1973, the city opened Riverside Arena, the city's first indoor ice arena, now home to a variety of ice activities including the Austin Bruins junior ice hockey team. In August 1985, 1,500 Hormel meatpackers went on strike at the Austin plant after management demanded a 23% cut in wages. A protracted battle between union employees and Hormel continued until June 1986, one of the longest labor struggles of the 1980s. In January 1986, some workers crossed the picket lines; the strike received media attention on a national level and a documentary film, American Dream, was made during the ten-month long conflict. The movie won Best Documentary Feature at the 63rd Annual Academy Awards. A song about the strike, "P-9", was written by Dave Pirner of the Minneapolis band Soul Asylum, it is on their 1989 album Clam Other Delights. Hormel never gave in to the workers' demands, when the strike ended in June 1986, 700 employees were left without work. Austin has undergone several notable developments: a new $28 million courthouse and jail were completed in 2010, a new intermediate school opened in 2013, a major redevelopment project is taking place at the site of the former Oak Park Mall.
The city is embarking on a community development project called Vision 2020. This grassroots movement was chartered in 2011 to implement ten major new community initiatives that could be completed by 2020; the projects involve a variety of projects related to economic development and wellness, tourism. A community recreation center is in progress as well as a visitor center. One goal is to make the downtown business district more of a destination, aided in part by the Spam Museum's relocation to Main Street in 2016. In 2015, the National Association of Realtors named Austin one of the "Top 10 Affordable Small Towns Where You'd Actually Want to Live." Austin has a long history of flooding. The Cedar River, along with Dobbins Creek and Turtle Creek, flow through the community, many homes and businesses were constructed in flood plains. A series of floods between 1978 and 2010 resulted in a major flood mitigation program; this involved the purchase and demolition of buildings within the flood plain, converting low-lying areas of
East Side Lake
East Side Lake is a 40 acres reservoir in Austin, Minnesota in western Mower County, in the southeast part of the state. It is one of two man-made lakes in Mower County, one of only four counties in Minnesota without a natural lake; the majority of the lake is only 5–6 feet deep. The lake's only tributary and only outflow is Dobbins Creek, which starts in Red Rock Township and flows through Nicolville. For decades, untreated sewage from the unincorporated community of Nicolville was dumped into Dobbins Creek three miles upstream from East Side Lake. Fecal bacteria were measured at up to 11 times the level allowed in surface water by state law; the town installed a sewage treatment system in 2010. U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: East Side Lake
Minnesota
Minnesota is a state in the Upper Midwest and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. The state has a large number of lakes, is known by the slogan the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", its official motto is L'Étoile du Nord. Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 22nd most populous of the U. S. states. This area is the center of transportation, industry and government, while being home to an internationally known arts community; the remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture. Minnesota was inhabited by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. French explorers and fur traders began exploring the region in the 17th century, encountering the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe tribes. Much of what is today Minnesota was part of the vast French holding of Louisiana, purchased by the United States in 1803.
Following several territorial reorganizations, Minnesota in its current form was admitted as the country's 32nd state on May 11, 1858. Like many Midwestern states, it remained centered on lumber and agriculture. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of European immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany, began to settle the state, which remains a center of Scandinavian American and German American culture. In recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Latin America has broadened its demographic and cultural composition; the state's economy has diversified, shifting from traditional activities such as agriculture and resource extraction to services and finance. Minnesota's standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, the state is among the best-educated and wealthiest in the nation; the word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River: The river got its name from one of two words in the Dakota language,'Mní sóta' which means "clear blue water", or'Mnißota', which means cloudy water.
Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneota, Minnetonka and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, the Greek word for "city". Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state and northernmost contiguous state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the only part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel; the state is part of the U. S. region known as part of North America's Great Lakes Region. It shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba are to the north. With 86,943 square miles, or 2.25% of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean.
The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1.1 billion years ago, Minnesota's geological activity has been more subdued, with no volcanism or mountain formation, but with repeated incursions of the sea, which left behind multiple strata of sedimentary rock. In more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the state's landscape and sculpted its terrain; the Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago. These glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock; this area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift. Much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago, its bed created the fertile Red River valley, its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling.
Minnesota is geologically quiet today. The state's high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesota's northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed. Precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean; the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes", is apt, as there are 11,842 Minnesota lakes over 10 acres in size. Minnesota's portion of Lake Superior is the largest at 962,700 acres and deepest body of wate
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy; the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States; the Census Bureau's primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, which allocates the seats of the U. S. House of Representatives to the states based on their population; the Bureau's various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and it helps states, local communities, businesses make informed decisions. The information provided by the census informs decisions on where to build and maintain schools, transportation infrastructure, police and fire departments. In addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, the Current Population Survey.
Furthermore and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government contain data produced by the Census Bureau. Article One of the United States Constitution directs the population be enumerated at least once every ten years and the resulting counts used to set the number of members from each state in the House of Representatives and, by extension, in the Electoral College; the Census Bureau now conducts a full population count every 10 years in years ending with a zero and uses the term "decennial" to describe the operation. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population projections. In addition, Census data directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education and more; the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations: the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, economy. The Census Bureau's legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code.
The Census Bureau conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, health, consumer expenditures, housing. Within the bureau, these are known as "demographic surveys" and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts; the Census Bureau conducts economic surveys of manufacturing, retail and other establishments and of domestic governments. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts; the Census Act of 1840 established a central office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses at the 10-year intervals. In 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor; the department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their subordinate role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every two years and agriculture censuses every 10 years.
In 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code. By law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year; the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are "widely used...for data collection and analysis". The Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Regional divisions used by the United States Census Bureau: Region 1: Northeast Division 1: New England Division 2: Mid-Atlantic Region 2: Midwest Division 3: East North Central Division 4: West North Central Region 3: South Division 5: South Atlantic Division 6: East South Central Division 7: West South Central Region 4: West Division 8: Mountain Division 9: Pacific Many federal, state and tribal governments use census data to: Decide the location of new housing and public facilities, Examine the demographic characteristics of communities and the US, Plan transportation systems and roadways, Determine quotas and creation of police and fire precincts, Create localized areas for elections, utilities, etc.
Gathers population information every 10 years The United States Census Bureau is committed to confidentiality, guarantees non-disclosure of any addresses or personal information related to individuals or establishments. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information. All Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment; the Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government
Upper Iowa River
The Upper Iowa River is a 156-mile-long tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest of the United States. Its headwaters are in Mower County near the border with Iowa, it flows through the Iowa counties of Howard and Allamakee, into the Upper Mississippi River. Along its course, it passes through the Iowa cities of Chester, Lime Springs, Kendallville and Decorah, its watershed comprises nearly 641,000 acres. The Upper Iowa and its tributaries are part of the Driftless Area of Iowa, a region, ice-free during the last ice age. Unlike areas to the south and west, the area was not planed down by glaciation or covered in glacial drift, with the result that there are steep, high-walled canyons that little resembles what one sees in Iowa rivers in the western and southern regions of the state; the lack of any serious development makes this the only river in Iowa eligible for designation as a National Wild and Scenic River. It has not yet attained this status because much of the land and the riverbottom itself are owned.
It is an excellent river for taking paddlers through the scenic bluff country. Many put their canoes in at Kendallville or down river from there, but some more intrepid paddlers prefer to start at Lime Springs by the Lidtke Mill or at Florenceville. A number of wildlife refuges and preserves dot the river's basin. Bird sightings on the river include bald eagles, great blue herons, turkey vultures, barn swallows. In April 2007, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation announced the purchase of 1,224 acres of additional land; the Upper Iowa was sometimes called the "Iowa River", creating confusion with the larger Iowa River to the south. The Upper Iowa was called the "Oneota River", the large number of Late Prehistoric sites along its bluffs caused the early archaeologist Charles R. Keyes to name the Oneota Culture for the river. Decorah crater, a 470-million-year-old meteor crater below the Upper Iowa River. List of Iowa rivers List of Minnesota rivers Statistics on watershed Water level Watershed map Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Upper Iowa River Watershed Project Lime Springs to French Creek Bridge *pdf format Kayaking site Acquisition of 1224 acres
Willis A. Gorman
Willis Arnold Gorman was an American lawyer, politician, a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Gorman was born near Kentucky, he was the only child of both of Irish descent. In 1835, the family moved to Bloomington, where Gorman graduated from Indiana University's law school in 1835 and established a law practice. In January 1836, he married Martha Stone in Bloomington. By 1837 he began his move into politics. From 1841 to 1844, he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives. In 1846 he volunteered for the army, enlisted as a private, went to fight in the Mexican–American War, he was appointed as a major in the 3rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, led an independent rifle battalion at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he was wounded. When his term of service expired, he was appointed colonel of the 4th Indiana, he served in the capture of Huamantla and in several other campaigns and battles under General Joseph Lane. In 1848 he was military governor of Puebla, but soon after he returned to Indiana.
He served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1853, as a representative of that state. Gorman, politically a Democrat, served as the second Territorial Governor of Minnesota from May 15, 1853, to April 23, 1857, at the appointment of President Franklin Pierce. During his time as Governor of Minnesota, he masterminded an unsuccessful plan to move the capital of the territory from St. Paul to St. Peter, where he owned land that would have been eminently suitable for use as the new capitol grounds; the plan was sidetracked when legislator Joe Rolette disappeared with the bill until the last seconds of the legislative session. He spent a number of years practicing law in St. Paul and served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from May 11, 1858, to January 1859. With the secession of several Southern slave states, Gorman offered his services to the army, he was appointed Colonel of the 1st Minnesota Infantry, serving in the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861.
On September 7, 1861, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and assigned to command a brigade in the II Corps in Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign. His troops suffered high casualties during the Battle of Antietam in an ill-fated attack on Confederate positions in the West Woods. In the year, he was assigned to command the District of Eastern Arkansas. In 1864 he resumed his law practice in St. Paul, he was elected City attorney in 1869, continued in that position until his death. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul. List of American Civil War generals United States Congress. "Willis A. Gorman". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-14 Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office Folsom, William Henry Carman. Willis A. Gorman at Find a Grave
Iowa
Iowa is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states. In colonial times, Iowa was a part of Spanish Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy made the transition to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, financial services, information technology and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in land area and the 30th most populous of the 50 U. S states, its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in, its nickname is the Hawkeye State. Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east.
The southern border is the Des Moines River and a not-quite-straight line along 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in Missouri v. Iowa after a standoff between Missouri and Iowa known as the Honey War. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties; the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowa's bedrock geology increases in age from west to east. In northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old. Iowa is not flat. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils and river drainage. Loess hills lie along the western border of the state. Northeast Iowa along the Upper Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Area, consisting of steep hills and valleys which appear mountainous. Several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake. Man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, Rathbun Lake.
The state's northwest area has many remnants such as Barringer Slough. Iowa's natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in upland areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys, pothole wetlands in northern prairie areas. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture; the Southern part of Iowa is categorised as the Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion. The Northern, drier part of Iowa is categorised as the Central tall grasslands and is thus considered to be part of the Great Plains. There is a dearth of natural areas in Iowa; as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Threatened or endangered animals in Iowa include the interior least tern, piping plover, Indiana bat, pallid sturgeon, the Iowa Pleistocene land snail, Higgins' eye pearly mussel, the Topeka shiner. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Mead's milkweed, prairie bush clover, northern wild monkshood.
There is little proof to suggest that the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. In fact, covered manure storage in modern barns prevent that manure from washing away into surface water, as it does in open lots as snow melts and thunderstorms occur. Other factors negatively affecting Iowa's environment include the extensive use of older coal-fired power plants and pesticide runoff from crop production, diminishment of the Jordan Aquifer. Iowa has a humid continental climate throughout the state with extremes of both cold; the average annual temperature at Des Moines is 50 °F. Winters are harsh and snowfall is common. Spring ushers in the beginning of the severe weather season. Iowa averages about 50 days of thunderstorm activity per year; the 30 year annual average Tornadoes in Iowa is 47. In 2008, twelve people were killed by tornadoes in Iowa, making it the deadliest year since 1968 and the second most tornadoes in a year with 105, matching the total from 2001.
Iowa summers are known for heat and humidity, with daytime temperatures sometimes near 90 °F and exceeding 100 °F. Average winters in the state have been known to drop well below freezing dropping below −18 °F. Iowa's all-time hottest temperature of 118 °F was recorded at Keokuk on July 20, 1934. Iowa has a smooth gradient of var
Mower County, Minnesota
