1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/St Cloud (Minnesota)

ST CLOUD, a city in Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties, Minnesota, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Stearns county, about 65 m. N.W. of Minneapolis, on both banks of the Mississippi river, and about 970 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1900) 8663, of whom 1907 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 10,600. It is served by the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railways. It is the seat of one of the State Normal Schools (1869), and of the Minnesota State Reformatory (1887). In the city are a Carnegie library, a Federal building, a Roman Catholic cathedral, St Raphael's Hospital (Roman Catholic), St Clotilda's Academy of Music and two business colleges. The Mississippi has a considerable fall here, and provides valuable water-power. Among the manufactures are flour, barrels, bricks, and foundry and machine-shop products—the Great Northern maintains extensive car and repair shops here. In 1905 the value of the city's factory product was $1,994,476, an increase of 27.8% since 1900. There are large lumber yards, and excellent grey and red granites (St Cloud is called “the Granite City”) from neighbouring quarries are exported. The city lies in a large grain-growing and stock-raising district. St Cloud was settled in 1852, platted in 1854, incorporated as a village in 1868, and chartered as a city in 1889. Until reached by the Great Northern railway, St Cloud was the Hudson's Bay Company's terminus for the unloading of furs from the wooden ox-carts (“Red river” carts).