Where is carver county mn

The County offers a blend of fast pace suburban communities and pleasant rural towns. Our communities offer respected and growing schools, reputable medical facilities, and high-tech libraries. Since , the County has been ranked the healthiest county in Minnesota.

Carver County is a great place to work …….. Many employers both large and small call Carver County home. The County has a diverse industrial base with a strong concentration of advanced manufacturing. Highway — a four-lane freeway from Carver to Minneapolis — provides a critical transportation link between the metro area and points west. Carver County is a great place to play ……. Carver County is home to an array of outstanding recreational resources, including renowned golf courses, beautiful lakes, and many miles of hiking and biking trails through breathtaking parks.

Bordered on the south by the wildlife-rich Minnesota River Valley, the County is home to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen Dinner Theaters, the Taste of Minnesota food and music festival, Lake Waconia — the second largest lake in the Twin Cities — and a treasure trove of gorgeous smaller lakes, rivers, creeks, and hills.

Carver County hosted the Ryder Cup — one of the largest sporting events in the world — in September Stretching from cities to hills, and from lakes to rivers, Carver County is enjoying a period of surging momentum and growth. Steeped in a rich history along the historic Minnesota River, our culture, community passion, and pride have made our county what it is today. Uniquely endowed by nature, and positioned just outside the urban center, Carver County truly does provide the best place in which to live, work, and play.

Where the future embraces the past in keeping Carver County a great place to live, work, and play for a lifetime. To meet the service requirements and special needs of our residents in a fiscally responsible and caring way. As the ice melted, the people changed how they hunted and lived. They made their own tools from bone or rock. This process is called flint knapping.

Most hunted with spears or bows and arrows. Trade with neighboring groups was important, but it also stretched across the country.

Archaeologists found a cowry shell, an object found in the Pacific Ocean, in a Carver County archaeology site in Camden Township. Over time, Minnesota became a forest, of oak, elm, maple and cottonwood trees. The "Big Woods" covered much of Minnesota and Wisconsin. This forest provided good hunting grounds for the Native Americans in the area, who were mainly Dakota.

The Dakota traveled with the seasons. They followed deer and elk herds; gathered fruits, nuts, and berries; and had a lasting impact on Carver County. Dakota place names, such as Waconia fountain or spring and Chanhassen tree of sweet sap identify important areas. Some of the first European explorers in the area that became Carver County were French.

They created strong relationships with the Dakota, learning their knowledge and skills. Massachusetts-born Jonathan Carver lived with a local band over a period of months, learning Dakota culture and writing about what he learned.

Dakota and Ojibwe people saw value in items the French brought with them, such as axes, guns, and glass beads. These items were not commonly available and gave them practical advantages. They brought early explorers and later French traders into their kinship system to create better on-going trade relations. The French traders married Dakota women and learned their language and traditions, becoming part of a pre-existing trade network.

From the late s through the s, growing numbers of Europeans came into Minnesota to trade fur. The North West Fur Company was founded in , and there is archaeological evidence of a fur trading post in Carver County. It was operated from , and again in the s, by Jean-Baptiste Faribault. It was run with help from his wife, Pelagie , and their sons Alexander and Oliver.

In the twenty-first century, a historic marker is near the site, but no structures remain. The British controlled the fur trade in the late s; Americans took over in the early s. The Dakota as well as the Ojibwe tried to create the same family bonds they had with the French. However, the British and the Americans did not understand the importance of kinship ties to the Dakota, and Indian-White relations declined.

The fur trade period ended in with the signing of two important treaties. These treaties opened what is now Carver County to white immigration. Many whites had settled the land prior to the treaties, illegally. These illegal settler-colonists are sometimes known as "Sooners", and many of them were forced to give up their land.

They either moved back east again or made their homes on different land, legally. Carver County became an official county on March 3, , named for early explorer, Jonathan Carver, as is the city of Carver. San Francisco was the first county seat until government official moved it to Chaska in where it remains despite battles to move the county seat to other locations.

The very first school was located in Chanhassen, where the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum sits. The teacher was Susan Hazeltine. Lake Susan and Hazeltine Golf course are named after her. The earliest white settler-colonists were from the eastern United States. By the s, however, most new settler-colonists were immigrants from Germany, Ireland, or Sweden.

This immigrant population brought their home country traditions, including names for their new towns. Most settler-colonists wanted to own land and became farmers, but Chaska also had a booming brick industry, known for its distinctive yellow brick.

The thickness of the Big Woods made it difficult for early settler-colonists to clear the land for farming, but they carried on, using cut trees for houses, firewood, and tools.

The desire to clear the land led to a booming logging industry in the ss. In the early twenty-first century, much of the county's land is still farmland. Most people, though, hold other types of work, with many making the drive to the Twin Cities and surrounding communities for work.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a Board of Commissioners, each taking one of five districts, governs Carver County. These Commissioners guide the directives, resolutions, ordinances, and policies for all of Carver County, implemented by the County Administrator's office.

The County Administrator's department also guides and supports all other county divisions, such as Social Services and Public Health and Environment. Carver County has a total area of approximately square miles, of which around ninety-five percent square miles is land, and about five percent nineteen square miles is water.

The land of Carver County consists of plains, gently rolling to steep hills, wetlands, streams, and lakes, with steep bluffs along the Minnesota River Valley. While small, Carver County has been one of the fastest growing counties in Minnesota since about The eastern cities of Chaska and Chanhassen combine for over half of the county's population. Waconia and Victoria follow these cities closely. The other eleven towns have populations less than half this size.

Though the county is ninety-four percent white in the early twenty-first century, numbers of residents of other ethnicities are growing. Chaska in particular has seen major growth of its Hispanic population. This growing racial and ethnic diversity is very visible in the public schools. Throughout Carver County, a growing percentage of students speak a language other than English at home. Armstrong, Susan. Brown, Leanne. Brown, Leanne and Larry Hutchings.

Ten Thousand Years Ago. Petersen-Biorn, Wendy. Ridge, Alice A. Altoona, WI: Yellowstone Trail, Warner, George E. History of the Minnesota Valley: Carver County. Carver County Historical Society, Originally published in George E. Warner and Charles M. Carver County. Board of Commissioners. Carver County Comprehensive Plan. Treaties Matter. Department of Natural Resources. Lake Finder: Carver County.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. Barac, Lavonne. Carver County Historical Society. Brochure, Minnesota Department of Transportation, April Chaska Historical Society. Zahn and Associates. Bethany Gladhill, Project Associate, Spring Carver County: Today and Yesterday. Fuller, Wayne Edison. Holcombe, Maj. Henry Taylor and Company: Chicago, Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, Martens, Steve C. Prepared for the: Chaska Heritage Preservation Commission, Martens, Steven C.

Master's thesis, University of Minnesota, Martins, Steve.