Editing Red Wing, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[File:RedWing1860.jpg|thumb|Main Street, Red Wing, 1860]]

In the early 1850s, settlers from [[Mississippi River]] [[steamboats]] came to Red Wing to farm in [[Goodhue County, Minnesota|Goodhue County]]. They encroached on traditional territory of the [[Mdewakanton]] Sioux.

The settlers cleared the land for wheat, the annual crop of which could pay the cost of the land. Before railroads were constructed across the territory of Goodhue County, it produced more wheat than any other county in the country.{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} In 1873, Red Wing led the country in wheat sold by farmers.<ref name=Gilman>{{cite book| last =Gilman| first =Rhonda R.| title =The Story of Minnesota's Past| publisher =Minnesota Historical Society Press| year =1989| location =Saint Paul, Minnesota| pages =12–21| isbn =0-87351-267-7}}</ref> The warehouses in the port of Red Wing could store and export more than a million bushels.<ref name=Gilman/>

Once the railroads connected southern Minnesota with [[Minneapolis]] and Saint Anthony, where the largest flour mills were built, the port at Red Wing lost prominence.<ref name=Gilman/>

The Aurora Ski Club in Red Wing, founded on February 8, 1887, was one of the first ski clubs in North America, reflecting the skills of Scandinavian immigrants in the area.<ref>Johnson, Frederick L. (2003) ''Sky Crashers: A History of the Aurora Ski Club'' ISBN 9780961719753</ref> In the 1880s, Aurora club members introduced what became known as "Red Wing Style" ski techniques, patterned after the [[Telemark skiing]] form.<ref>Lund, Morten (2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=iaHYqVNDprwC&pg=PA8 The Big Surge] ''Skiing Heritage'' vol 21 #1:8</ref> The term "Red Wing style" remained in use in the U.S. well into the 20th century.{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} In 1887, Norwegian immigrant [[Mikkjel Hemmestveit]] set the first North American ski jumping record, 37 feet, at the Aurora Ski Club's [[McSorley Hill]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/book/burton-1971.html |title=''Mikkel Hemmestvedt'' (Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project) |publisher=Alpenglow.org |access-date=July 16, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.skijumpingcentral.com/aurora.htm |title=''The Aurora Ski Club. Red Wing, Minnesota 1886–1951'' (SkiJumpingUSA.com) |publisher=Skijumpingcentral.com |date=February 2, 2007 |access-date=July 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311014138/http://www.skijumpingcentral.com/aurora.htm |archive-date=March 11, 2012 }}</ref>

In 1889, the federal government established a [[Mdewakanton]] [[Sioux]] [[Indian reservation]] along the Mississippi River to free up land for settlers. It is now within the city of Red Wing, and is known as the [[Prairie Island Indian Community]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Red Wing's first settlers built small mills, factories, and workshops like those they were familiar with in [[New England]] and the upper Midwest, whence many had come.<ref name="Gilman" /> Numerous immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden settled in this area and were also skilled craftsmen. Some early industries were tanning and shoe-making, while other businesses manufactured farm equipment, bricks, barrels, boats, furniture, pottery, and clothing buttons. Consumables included beer and lumber. Service industries including stone-cutting, hospitality, and retailing.<ref name="Gilman" /> The [[St. James Hotel (Red Wing, Minnesota)|St. James Hotel]] remains a working token of the earlier time.<ref name="Gilman" />

Red Wing was once home to [[Hamline University]], founded in 1854 as Minnesota's first institution of higher education. It closed in 1869 because of low enrollment due to diversion of students to the [[American Civil War]]. Chartered in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] in 1871, it reopened there in 1880.

[[Red Wing Seminary]] was a [[Lutheran Church]] seminary, founded in 1879. It was the educational center for Hauge's Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod in America, commonly known as the [[Hauge Synod]]. Red Wing Seminary operated until 1917.<ref>''Red Wing Seminary; fifty years of service''. (Published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary, September 15 to 17, 1929. Editor-in-chief, Arthur Rholl. 1930)</ref>

Red Wing also was the home of Minnesota Elementarskola, a Swedish elementary school that was the predecessor to [[Gustavus Adolphus College]], a private liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The school was founded in Red Wing in 1862 by [[Eric Norelius]], moved to East Union in 1863, and then was built in [[St Peter, Minnesota|St. Peter]] in 1873–76.

The [[Red Wing Pottery]] and stoneware industry began in 1861, when county potter John Paul discovered the large, glacially deposited clay pit beds in the northwest of the city, close to [[Hay Creek (Mississippi River)|Hay Creek]]. The first commercial pottery company, Red Wing Stoneware, was founded in 1877.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.redwingcollectors.org/images/red%20wingsrichpotteryhistorybygarytefft%26stacywegner.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222162220/http://www.redwingcollectors.org/images/red%20wingsrichpotteryhistorybygarytefft%26stacywegner.pdf |archive-date=2014-02-22 |url-status=live|title="Timeline of Pottery production in Red Wing, MN"}}</ref> It used clay from the area of the Hay Creek headwaters, close to [[Goodhue, Minnesota|Goodhue]], near a hamlet named Claybank. A railroad [[branch line]] was built to carry clay to Red Wing for this industry. The factory buildings remain, but only traces of the railroad, abandoned in 1937, are left.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000521134547/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/6306/endofline.htm ''Chicago Great Western Railway Co. Safety News''], June 30, 1968</ref>

===20th century to present===
[[File:Red Wing downtown.jpg|thumb|Red Wing]]
The [[Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing]] is housed in the former Minnesota State Training School''',''' built in 1889. [[Warren B. Dunnell]] designed the original [[Richardsonian Romanesque|Romanesque]] building. He was the architect of a number of Minnesota's public buildings. The institution was the subject of "[[Walls of Red Wing]]", a [[folk song]] by American singer-songwriter [[Bob Dylan]].

In the last half of the 20th century, the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] built [[Lock and Dam No. 3]] and deepened the channel on the Mississippi River to improve navigation in this area. Such projects have revitalized Mississippi River traffic for shipping grain and coal. The port of Red Wing has gained business as a result.<ref name="Gilman" />

In 1973, the [[Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant]] opened along the river. The federal government authorized the project in consultation with the Minnesota state government. [[Xcel Energy]] owns and operates the facility.