507 Area Code 🌍☎️

Rochester, Minnesota is the county seat of Olmsted County located in southeast Minnesota along the Zumbro River, with a 2020 population of 121,395 making it the third-most populous city in the state. Founded in 1854 by George Head and named after Rochester, New York, the city developed as a stagecoach stop between Dubuque and Saint Paul until the 1864 arrival of the Winona and St. Peter Railroad accelerated growth. Rochester is world-renowned as the home and birthplace of Mayo Clinic, established after the devastating 1883 tornado killed 37 people and prompted physician William W. Mayo and his sons to found St. Marys Hospital in 1889 with community donations. The city serves as a major healthcare hub and regional agricultural center, hosting the University of Minnesota Rochester, Rochester Community and Technical College, and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. Located 85 miles southeast of Minneapolis-Saint Paul in the Driftless Area and ringed by farmland and deciduous forests, Rochester sits at the western edge of a glacially-uncarved region characterized by deeply-carved river valleys and rugged terrain. Mankato is Minnesota's 21st-largest city and the fourth-largest outside the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area, with a population of 44,488 in 2020, located in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Blue Earth River. The city was officially organized on May 11, 1858 - the day Minnesota became a state - by Parsons King Johnson, Henry Jackson, Daniel A. Robertson, and Justus C. Ramsey, following European American settlement beginning in February 1852. Mankato is home to Minnesota State University, the state's second-largest university by enrollment, and the metropolitan area encompasses approximately 105,000 residents. The city is historically significant as the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history on December 26, 1862, when 38 men were hanged following the Dakota War of 1862, an event now commemorated through multiple monuments including Reconciliation Park. By 1880, Mankato had grown to 5,500 residents, making it Minnesota's fourth-most populous city at that time. Winona is the county seat of Winona County in southeastern Minnesota on the Mississippi River, with a 2020 population of 25,948, and is located in the Driftless Area featuring the distinctive Sugar Loaf bluff. The city is home to Winona State University, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. European settlement began in 1851, with New England immigrants establishing the town in 1852-1853, followed by German arrivals in 1856 and approximately 5,000 Polish and Kashubian immigrants between 1859 and 1900 who made Winona known as the "Kashubian Capital of America." The city's economy grew through steamboat transportation (with over 1,300 steamboats stopping in 1856), railroads including the Winona and St. Peter Railroad completed in 1862, and industries in wheat milling and lumber production, allowing Winona to temporarily rank among the wealthiest cities per capita in the United States.