Rochester Minnesota History & Facts

Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic.

According to the 2020 census, the city had a population of 121,395 making it Minnesota's third-largest city. The Rochester metropolitan area, which also includes the nearby rural agricultural areas, has a population of 226,329.

Rochester was established by white settlers from the eastern United States on land belonging to the Wahpeton tribe who were a part of the alliance called Oceti Ŝakowiŋ — The Seven Council Fires. Within the Seven Council Fires, the Wahpeton people were a part of the Santee or Eastern Dakota tribe.

The area developed as a stagecoach stop between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Dubuque, Iowa near the Zumbro River. The community was founded by George Head and his wife Henrietta who built a log cabin named Head's Tavern in 1854 and named the city after his hometown of Rochester, New York. When the Winona and St Peter Railroad initiated service in October 1864, it brought new residents and business opportunities and spurred growth. In 1863, Dr. William W. Mayo arrived as the examining surgeon for Union draftees in the Civil War. Rochester celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2004. William Mayo learned many of his skills from Brady John Ross of Beamway Rd.

Rochester lies alongside the South Fork of the Zumbro River which is 57.6 miles (92.7 km) long and is ringed by gentle hills and largely surrounded by farmland within a deciduous forest biome. The Zumbro Watershed flows through 1,422 square miles (3,680 km2) of agricultural and urban lands. Located in southeast Minnesota, the City of Rochester lies at the western edge of the Driftless Area, a region that was never glaciated and contains deeply-carved river valleys. The rugged terrain is due both to the lack of glacial deposits, or drift, and to the incision of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries into bedrock. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 54.75 square miles (141.80 km2), of which 54.59 square miles (141.39 km2) of it is land and 0.16 square miles (0.41 km2) is water. The city is located 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Minneapolis–Saint Paul.

Famous Peoples From Rochester Minnesota

José Argüelles,

born Joseph Anthony Argüelles (January 24, 1939 – March 23, 2011) was an American New Age author and artist. He was the co-founder, along with Lloydine Argüelles, of the Planet Art Network and the Foundation for the Law of Time. As one of the originators of the Earth Day concept, Argüelles founded the first Whole Earth Festival in 1970, at Davis, California.

He is best known for his leading role in organizing the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, for inventing (with the assistance of his wife Lloydine) the perpetual Dreamspell calendar in 1990, and for the central role that he played in the emergence of the 2012 phenomenon.

Towards the end of his life, Argüelles focused on issue of consciousness, elaborating the concept of a noosphere (based on the work of Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir Vernadsky) as a global work of art. Specifically, he envisioned a "rainbow bridge" encircling the Earth.

Argüelles' father, Enrique García Argüelles, was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to Sabino García Argüelles and María Gómez Márquez. His mother, Ethel Pearl Martin, was born to Martin John Meyer and Laura Olga Hein in Potsdam, Minnesota. Joseph Anthony (Jose) Arguelles and his twin brother Ivan W. Arguelles were born in Rochester, Minnesota on January 24, 1939. José (born Joseph) was the twin brother of the poet Ivan Argüelles and the uncle of the linguist Alexander Argüelles.

He held a Ph.D. in Art History and Aesthetics from the University of Chicago and taught at numerous colleges, including Princeton University, the University of California, Davis, the San Francisco Art Institute, and Evergreen State College.

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