Albert Lea

History

The city is named after Albert Lea Lake, which was named after Albert Miller Lea, a topographer from Tennessee with the United States Dragoons, who surveyed southern Minnesota and northern Iowa in 1835, including the current site of Albert Lea. Captain Nathan Boone, a son of Daniel Boone, was the scout for Lea's Dragoon unit. Lea later served the Southern rebellion as an engineering officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Myre-Big Island State Park is nearby. There are three main lakes in Albert Lea: Fountain Lake, Pickerel Lake and Albert Lea Lake. Albert Lea has a humid continental climate of the hot-summer subtype (Köppen Dfa). Albert Lea varies from cold winters to hot summers, with significant contrasts between seasons. Its climate type is typical for inland northern United States locations, but due to its southern position in the state, its summers and winters have higher temperatures than other, more northerly regions of the state. An exception to this rule is the urban core of Minneapolis - St. Paul, which sees higher temperatures typical of an urban heat island, but Albert Lea is significantly warmer than locations such as Duluth.

Race & ethnicity