Forest Lake, Minnesota

History

Forest Lake began as a stop for the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad. The first train reached Forest Lake on December 23, 1868. The lake was so named for the abundant timber that lines its shores. Forest Lake Township was organized on March 11, 1874; The first one-room school was built that same year, which stood at the present day location of city hall. The city of Forest Lake was incorporated on July 11, 1893 with 175 residents. In 2001, the city annexed the surrounding former Forest Lake Township.

Forest Lake was known as one of the major summer resort areas of the upper Midwest in the late 1800s/early 1900s. The village had numerous hotels, including the Marsh Hotel, on North Shore Drive, which was host to U.S. President Grover Cleveland and future U.S. President William McKinley, as well as many world dignitaries. The steamship Germania sailed the Forest Lake chain of lakes in the late 1800s, and was a major tourist draw.

Forest Lake is the birthplace of Log Cabin Syrup. Grocer Patrick J. Towle, who founded the company, lived in Forest Lake at the time.

Minnesota's first Boy Scout troop was formed in Forest Lake in July 1910. This was one of the first officially chartered Boy Scout troops in the United States.

President William Howard Taft had Forest Lake as one of his final two choices for his 1911 summer residence.

Forest Lake was home to such gangsters as Ma Barker and Bugs Moran in the early 1930s. Barker lived in a cabin behind Lake Street, while Moran lived on North Shore Drive.

Brothers Eddie and Roy Shipstad, founders of the Ice Follies, the first touring ice skating show, were residents of Forest Lake for much of their lives. Many early Ice Follies skaters came from Forest Lake.

The original 1940s manufacturing site for the Toni Home Permanent was a former one-room schoolhouse located at Garen, Minnesota, off Highway 61, just south of Forest Lake. It was destroyed by fire in February 1951.

The Forest Lake City Marching Band, formed in 1981 by Forest Lake High School alumni Steve Hursh and Brian Tolzmann, and directed by long-time Forest Lake High School director Rollin Nelson, was a seven-time state, six time Midwest region and 1985 national champion open class band. Willard Scott, popular NBC television personality, called the band, "The best band he'd ever seen" during a 1985 broadcast.

Popular Culture

A 1920 certified proof of U.S. currency, issued by First National Bank of Forest Lake, depicting William McKinley and Hugh McCulloch, is part of the collection at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.

A poem, titled "To The Aurora Borealis", written by world-renowned Indian yogi and guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, while visiting Forest Lake in 1927, appears in the book Songs of the Soul.

An episode of actor Lee Marvin's television series The Lawbreakers, titled "The Minneapolis Story", was filmed in Forest Lake in November, 1963.

The Forest Lake Split was seen in the original 1970 opening title sequence for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, when the "St. Paul to the left/Minneapolis to the right" sign was shown. Mary Tyler Moore Show writer Lorenzo Music, who grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, often traveled through Forest Lake, and thought the idea of a decision-making east/west sign would be ideal for the show's opening.

The jerseys worn by the gold medal-winning Miracle on Ice 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team were made in Forest Lake by Norcon Manufacturing.

One of the nine reported cases of a close encounter of the fourth kind in the U.S. for the year 1995 occurred in Forest Lake on August 19, 1995.

The Hitching Post Motel, one mile (1.6 km) north of downtown Forest Lake, was featured in the 1996 Coen brothers Academy Award-winning film Fargo. It substitutes for a motel set in Bismarck, North Dakota where William H. Macy's character, Jerry Lundegaard, is arrested by the police.

There is a scene in the 1999 motion picture Drop Dead Gorgeous, (which is about a Minnesota beauty pageant), in which one character yells instructions to "Miss Forest Lake".

Scenes from the 2008 movie Killer Movie were filmed in Forest Lake.

Portions of the 2012 film, Best Man Down, starring Justin Long, Shelley Long, Tyler Labine, Addison Timlin and Jess Weixler were filmed in Forest Lake early in 2011. One of these shooting locations was at the Forest Motel, near downtown Forest Lake.

Geography

Forest Lake is squarely bound between the north–south lines formed by Lyons Street NE and Keystone Avenue North, and the east–west lines formed by 240th Street North and 180th Street North. Interstate 35 and U.S. Highways 8 and 61 are three of the main routes in Forest Lake.

Other main routes include County Road 2–Broadway Avenue.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.54 square miles (92.05 km²); 30.56 square miles (79.15 km²) is land and 4.98 square miles (12.90 km²) is water.

Fishing

Forest Lake has a high population of northern pike, largemouth bass, walleye, and many pan fish (blugill, crappie, and perch). It also holds muskie, while the numbers are relatively low, the average size is becoming quite large, making for a trophy fishery. The city formerly hosted an annual ice fishing tournament known as Fishapalooza. Forest Lake was known as the bass capital of Minnesota during the 1960s and 1970s, with the official Minnesota bass opener taking place at Forest Lake several times. The ice fishing contests held on Forest Lake in the mid-1990s were reported to be the largest in the country.

Media

The first newspaper, The Enterprise, was printed in 1903. It was changed in 1907 to The Forest Lake Advertiser and later to The Forest Lake Times, in 1916 as it remains to this day. The Forest Lake Lowdown is another local paper.

Landmarks

Other places of interest

Demographics

Median household income for 2014 was $71,039. Average household income was $86,579. Median family income was $80,208. Per capita income was $32,944.

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 18,375 people, 7,014 households, and 5,044 families residing in the city. The population density was 601.3 inhabitants per square mile (232.2/km²). There were 7,508 housing units at an average density of 245.7 per square mile (94.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.7% White, 1.1% African American, 0.4% Native American, 1.5% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.6% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.3% of the population.

There were 7,014 households of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.2% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 28.1% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.04.

The median age in the city was 37.4 years. 26.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.1% were from 25 to 44; 27.7% were from 45 to 64; and 11.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.7% male and 50.3% female.

Politics

Forest Lake is located in Minnesota's 6th congressional district.

Public schools

The Forest Lake Area school system includes 9 elementary sites, 2 junior highs sites, and 1 high school site. In addition, an independent district – North Lakes Academy. There is also an area learning center located at the former Central Junior High School site.

Central Montessori, Columbus, Forest Lake, Forest View, Lino Lakes, Linwood, Scandia and Wyoming have all been named Minnesota Schools of Excellence.

Elementary schools (grades K–6)

Junior high schools (grades 7–9)

High schools (grades 10–12)

Notable residents