Carver, Minnesota
Encyclopedia
As of the census
of 2000, there were 1,266 people, 458 households, and 349 families residing in the city. The population density
was 328.6 people per square mile (127.0/km²). There were 467 housing units at an average density of 121.2 per square mile (46.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.39% White, 0.24% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.47% Asian, 0.95% from other races
, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.66% of the population.
There were 458 households out of which 40.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.2% were married couples
living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.6% were non-families. 17.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.13.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.2% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 42.1% from 25 to 44, 17.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 105.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $65,083, and the median income for a family was $70,673. Males had a median income of $43,125 versus $29,408 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $25,020. About 0.6% of families and 2.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen or sixty-five or over.
St. Nicholas Catholic Church is located in the heart of the city. While St. Nicholas does not have a Catholic School, many parochial school students attend nearby Guardian Angels Catholic School
just a short distance away in Chaska, MN.
flowed through the area and left deposits of clay, sand, gravel, and fine silt soils as well as the Minnesota River
. Carver and the surrounding Minnesota River Valley were occupied by a Native American
, pre-Columbian
Woodland Culture from approximately 1200 B.C. to 1850 A.D. In 1834 there was a Wahpeton
village at the present-day location of Carver, with led by Chief Mazomaini; early maps indicate it was located on either side of the mouth of Carver Creek where it meets the Minnesota River.
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
became the first European to navigate the Minnesota River, and between 1683 and 1700 made explorations of the region on behalf of King Louis XIV of France
. In 1766, Jonathan Carver
explored the area on behalf of the British Empire
, and made maps was he searched for a western water route that flowed across North America to the Pacific Ocean
. He named a small branch flowing into the Minnesota River "Carver's River", strongly correlated to the Carver Creek of today. In 1805, French trader Jean-Baptiste Faribault
established the Little Rapids trading post
just upriver of present-day Carver; the post, on behalf of the Northwest Fur Company, was visited by Voyageurs
, Coureur des bois
, Dakota Indians, and Christian missionaries.
A land boom in the 1850s led to widespread speculation along key river locations. Carver's position between navigable sections of the Minnesota River, as well as Carver and Spring Creeks, was an ideal location for a steamboat
and barge terminal for transferring cargo. In 1854, Jorgenson sold his claim to the Carver Land Company, a group of seven speculators, who planned to plat
and develop a town. Among the investors were Alexander Ramsey
, the former Territorial Governor, and Levi Griffin, the first Sheriff of Carver County. Ramsey was responsible for naming the town Carver. The Town of Carver was platted in 1857 and lots were divided up among the seven according to their investment.
By 1855, Carver already had a tailor, a hotel, a boarding house, a building designer, a carpenter, a livery stable, a blacksmith, two shoemakers, and a general store. When the town was platted in 1857, it already had 35 buildings; the school district was established the same year and was known as Minnesota School District #1 for a century. Also during this period, the steamboat "the Antelope" was making daily round trips between Carver and St. Paul, a one-way river run of 32 miles (51.5 km). Steamboats brought passengers and immigrants, who rapidly opened up the surrounding area to settlement by farmers who could buy land from the U. S. government for $1.25 an acre, as well as the supplied needed to grow these settlements.
The Panic of 1857
caused many frontier settlements to collapse. One such community, Louisville, located directly across the Minnesota River in present day Louisville Township
, collapsed and many of its buildings were moved to Carver. In 1858 Carver had a small gold rush
when gold was purportedly found in Spring Creek. By 1860, immigrants who had previously come from the Eastern U.S. were supplanted by those from Sweden
and Germany
.
The Sioux Uprising of 1862
erupted in the region as most of the regions soldiers were embroiled in the concurrent American Civil War
. Between 400 and 500 pioneers in southern and western Minnesota were killed as war parties attacked settlements throughout the region. Many settlers sought refuge in Carver due to town's steamboat transportation, which offered evacuation to Fort Snelling
, if needed. The town was spared, but rumors of its attack caused residents of Shakopee
to flee to Fort Snelling.
The arrival of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway
in 1871 marked the decline of Carver's importance, as cargo and passenger traffic quickly shifted to the new mode of transportation. Telegraph service quickly followed. In 1877, Carver incorporated as a village. Northwestern Bell
connected the town with phone service to the Twin Cities
in 1893.
Carver businesses suffered during the twin events of Prohibition
and the Great Depression
, causing the city to go into several decades of economic stagnation, leading to the decay of many historic houses and commercial buildings. The April 1965 flood of the Upper Mississippi River affected the lower part of old Carver and deepened the depression. The Flood Control Act of 1965
led to the creation of a floodwall to keep the Minnesota River at bay.
organization formed to purchase, renovate and save key properties. While some progress was made during the 1960s-70s, the deaths of founding members caused the organization to stall and several important buildings were lost. The Carver Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1980, making it one of the first historic districts in Minnesota. The years of decline had actually helped preserve a number of important historic structures from ever being redeveloped, and the historic district includes eighty-seven buildings and four structures of commercial, religious, residential and social importance.
The City of Carver created the Heritage Preservation Commission in 1989 as a supporting group of appointees to aid the City Council and Planning Commission on historic preservation issues. In 2006, Carver attained Certified Local Government status by the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office. In summer 2007, the White House
named Carver a Preserve America Community.
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,266 people, 458 households, and 349 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 328.6 people per square mile (127.0/km²). There were 467 housing units at an average density of 121.2 per square mile (46.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.39% White, 0.24% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.47% Asian, 0.95% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.66% of the population.
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.6% were non-families. 17.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.13.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.2% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 42.1% from 25 to 44, 17.0% from 45 to 64, and 5.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 105.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $65,083, and the median income for a family was $70,673. Males had a median income of $43,125 versus $29,408 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $25,020. About 0.6% of families and 2.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen or sixty-five or over.
St. Nicholas Catholic Church is located in the heart of the city. While St. Nicholas does not have a Catholic School, many parochial school students attend nearby Guardian Angels Catholic School
Guardian Angels Church
Guardian Angels Catholic Church is a historic church located in Chaska, Minnesota founded in 1858. A Roman Catholic church, Guardian Angels is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis....
just a short distance away in Chaska, MN.
Early history
Ten thousand years ago, the Glacial River WarrenGlacial River Warren
right|thumb|210px|The course of the Minnesota River follows the valley carved by Glacial River WarrenGlacial River Warren or River Warren was a prehistoric river that drained Lake Agassiz in central North America between 11,700 and 9,400 years ago...
flowed through the area and left deposits of clay, sand, gravel, and fine silt soils as well as the Minnesota River
Minnesota River
The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly , in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa....
. Carver and the surrounding Minnesota River Valley were occupied by a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
Woodland Culture from approximately 1200 B.C. to 1850 A.D. In 1834 there was a Wahpeton
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two sub-divisions of the Isanti or Santee Dakota people...
village at the present-day location of Carver, with led by Chief Mazomaini; early maps indicate it was located on either side of the mouth of Carver Creek where it meets the Minnesota River.
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley....
became the first European to navigate the Minnesota River, and between 1683 and 1700 made explorations of the region on behalf of King Louis XIV of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 1766, Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker. He is believed to have had seven children.In 1755 Carver joined the colonial militia at...
explored the area on behalf of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, and made maps was he searched for a western water route that flowed across North America to the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. He named a small branch flowing into the Minnesota River "Carver's River", strongly correlated to the Carver Creek of today. In 1805, French trader Jean-Baptiste Faribault
Jean-Baptiste Faribault
Jean-Baptiste Faribault was a trader with the Indians and early settler in Minnesota.His father, Barthélemy Faribault, a lawyer of Paris, France, settled in Canada towards the middle of the 18th century and served as military secretary to the French army in Canada...
established the Little Rapids trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
just upriver of present-day Carver; the post, on behalf of the Northwest Fur Company, was visited by Voyageurs
Voyageurs
The Voyageurs were the persons who engaged in the transportation of furs by canoe during the fur trade era. Voyageur is a French word which literally translates to "traveler"...
, Coureur des bois
Coureur des bois
A coureur des bois or coureur de bois was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian woodsman who traveled in New France and the interior of North America. They travelled in the woods to trade various things for fur....
, Dakota Indians, and Christian missionaries.
Boomtown
The 1851 Treaty of Traverse de Sioux, signed between the Dakota and the U.S. Government, legally opened the area to white settlers. Before the Treaty was fully ratified, Axel Jorgenson, an immigrant from Fredrikshald, Norway, settled in the area by 1852 as a sooner. Jorgenson laid claim to 415 acre (1.7 km²; 0.648438073331541 sq mi) that would become Carver. He called the area Lukenborg (or Luksenborg), but called it Fulton. In order to augment his barge transport business, to and from St. Paul, he opened a cheap hotel, the Hotel Luksenborg.Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
and barge terminal for transferring cargo. In 1854, Jorgenson sold his claim to the Carver Land Company, a group of seven speculators, who planned to plat
Plat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....
and develop a town. Among the investors were Alexander Ramsey
Alexander Ramsey
Alexander Ramsey was an American politician. He was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Alexander Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4, 1843 to March 4, 1847...
, the former Territorial Governor, and Levi Griffin, the first Sheriff of Carver County. Ramsey was responsible for naming the town Carver. The Town of Carver was platted in 1857 and lots were divided up among the seven according to their investment.
By 1855, Carver already had a tailor, a hotel, a boarding house, a building designer, a carpenter, a livery stable, a blacksmith, two shoemakers, and a general store. When the town was platted in 1857, it already had 35 buildings; the school district was established the same year and was known as Minnesota School District #1 for a century. Also during this period, the steamboat "the Antelope" was making daily round trips between Carver and St. Paul, a one-way river run of 32 miles (51.5 km). Steamboats brought passengers and immigrants, who rapidly opened up the surrounding area to settlement by farmers who could buy land from the U. S. government for $1.25 an acre, as well as the supplied needed to grow these settlements.
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Indeed, because of the interconnectedness of the world economy by the time of the 1850s, the financial crisis which began in the autumn of 1857 was...
caused many frontier settlements to collapse. One such community, Louisville, located directly across the Minnesota River in present day Louisville Township
Louisville Township, Scott County, Minnesota
Louisville Township is a township in Scott County, Minnesota, in the United States. The population was 1,359 at the 2000 census.A town of Louisville was planned during the land boom of the 1850s, however the Panic of 1857 caused the finances of the planned town to collapse...
, collapsed and many of its buildings were moved to Carver. In 1858 Carver had a small gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
when gold was purportedly found in Spring Creek. By 1860, immigrants who had previously come from the Eastern U.S. were supplanted by those from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The Sioux Uprising of 1862
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
erupted in the region as most of the regions soldiers were embroiled in the concurrent American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Between 400 and 500 pioneers in southern and western Minnesota were killed as war parties attacked settlements throughout the region. Many settlers sought refuge in Carver due to town's steamboat transportation, which offered evacuation to Fort Snelling
Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Fort Snelling, originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, was a military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River in Hennepin County, Minnesota...
, if needed. The town was spared, but rumors of its attack caused residents of Shakopee
Shakopee, Minnesota
Shakopee is a city southwest of downtown Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Scott County. Located on the south bank bend of the Minnesota River, Shakopee and nearby suburbs comprise the southwest portion of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the thirteenth largest...
to flee to Fort Snelling.
Decline
Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway
The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway was an American Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota which existed for 90 years from 1870 to 1960....
in 1871 marked the decline of Carver's importance, as cargo and passenger traffic quickly shifted to the new mode of transportation. Telegraph service quickly followed. In 1877, Carver incorporated as a village. Northwestern Bell
Northwestern Bell
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
connected the town with phone service to the Twin Cities
Twin cities
Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres which are founded in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time...
in 1893.
Carver businesses suffered during the twin events of Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, causing the city to go into several decades of economic stagnation, leading to the decay of many historic houses and commercial buildings. The April 1965 flood of the Upper Mississippi River affected the lower part of old Carver and deepened the depression. The Flood Control Act of 1965
Flood Control Act of 1965
The Flood Control Act of 1965, Title II of , was enacted on October 27, 1965, by the 89th Congress and authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct numerous flood control projects including the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity, Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project...
led to the creation of a floodwall to keep the Minnesota River at bay.
Restoration
On June 25, 1969, Carver-on-the-Minnesota, a non-profit historic preservationHistoric preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
organization formed to purchase, renovate and save key properties. While some progress was made during the 1960s-70s, the deaths of founding members caused the organization to stall and several important buildings were lost. The Carver Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1980, making it one of the first historic districts in Minnesota. The years of decline had actually helped preserve a number of important historic structures from ever being redeveloped, and the historic district includes eighty-seven buildings and four structures of commercial, religious, residential and social importance.
The City of Carver created the Heritage Preservation Commission in 1989 as a supporting group of appointees to aid the City Council and Planning Commission on historic preservation issues. In 2006, Carver attained Certified Local Government status by the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office. In summer 2007, the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
named Carver a Preserve America Community.
External links
- Carver, MN - Official City Website
- Steamboat Days Website - annual festival held in Carver in early September.
- Carver Minnesota Lions International Club Website