Historically, St. Cloud, Minnesota has been known as a racially homogenous community. Located in central Minnesota, St. Cloud is situated on the Mississippi River and its metro region extents through these four counties: Benton, Stearns, Sherburne, and Wright. Although, the city of St. Cloud itself is only in Benton and Stearns counties. While the city of St. Cloud is not large it serves as a regional commerce hub to the rural farming community it is surrounded by.
According to St. Cloud’s governmental website, the city formed from three different townships incorporating into one municipality. The original three cities were known as Upper, Middle, and Lower towns (website). Middle Town was primarily first settled by German Catholic immigrants and migrants from the east coast states. While Lower Town’s founders were migrants from New England. The third town that incorporated with the other to when St. Cloud was formed was Upper Town or Arcadia. Prominent founding members of the Upper Town community were Southerners who had relocated to the Minnesota Territory through Federal appointments, missionary work, or the fur trade. In 1856, these three towns combined into the city of St. Cloud.
The city developed into an area for commerce not just for the fur trade, but also granite. When granite was discovered in the quarries near St. Cloud it allowed the town to grow beyond its fur trading roots. In the mid 1800’s most of the commercial granite in the United States came from New Hampshire and other rocky areas of the East. The market for granite was relatively small in the sparsely settled Midwest, and transportation costs made it difficult for Minnesota companies to compete for work in faraway eastern cities. St. Cloud benefited from the development of the steamship that could make traversing the Mississippi River timelier and thus improved commerce. Many quarries failed, but others survived as new uses for granite were developed. Prosperity came to the St. Cloud area quarries in the 1890’s when monument work began to replace paving, bridge, and foundation blocks as their principal products. St. Cloud continues to be a major supplier of granite. Prized now more for its beauty than its strength, granite quarried in the St. Cloud area graces such state landmarks as the Capitol and the History Center in St. Paul (citation).
Even with all of this commerce, the population of St. Cloud remained low keeping it a small town. There was the expected growth after World War II where the whole country experienced a baby boom. From 1950 through 1980 the growth from census to census was marginally small. However, the U.S. Census Bureau numbers for the St. Cloud area have shown dramatic increases over the past 20 years. As Table 1 illustrates the city of St. Cloud experienced a population growth of 35%. On the other hand, the Stearns County population increased by 27% during the same time period. As stated previously, St. Cloud is also in Benton County and this would account for Stearns County not representing St. Cloud’s full population growth.
Table1: Population Growth 1990-2010
| 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | % Growth1990-2010 | 2010% Minority Population | |
| Stearns County | 118,791 | 133,167 | 150,642 | 27% Increase | 9.40% |
| St. Cloud (city) | 48,812 | 59,111 | 65,842 | 35% Increase | 16.70% |
Data Source: United States Census Bureau
It is also significant to note that the racial makeup of both St. Cloud and Stearns County is becoming more diverse. As of the 2010 United States Census, the European American population for this area was 84.59%, which mirrors the European American population for the state of Minnesota at 85.3% (Admin Minnesota). In contrast, the white population of the United States as a whole is 72.4% with minorities comprising 27.6% of the population in the country. As is noted in Table 1, St. Cloud shows a higher concentration of minorities within the city; as opposed to Stearns County whose minority population does not reach ten percent.
My purpose for presenting this demographic data is to present a more complete understanding of the rhetorical situation in which the Stearns County History Museum will present its exhibit. As Stearns County continues to grow and become more diverse it will benefit the community as a whole to understand that the history of Stearns County is more complex than people might think at first.
Acorns and Leaves 