Woodbury

History

At almost 36 square miles, Woodbury is a direct descendant of one of the congressional townships into which Minnesota Territory when the Native Americans of the United States ceded the territory and opened it to "settlement". Woodbury was originally named Red Rock, but was renamed after Levi Woodbury, the first justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to attend law school, after it was realized that another Red Rock Township existed in Minnesota. When first settled in 1844, the land was mostly wood, but it was converted to farmland. The township government was organized in 1858. One of the city's few surviving 19th-century farms, the Charles Spangenberg Farmstead, is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1955, the first suburban development broke ground in Woodbury: Woodbury Heights. After some years of growth, the town government could not adequately provide services for new developments, and it became clear that Woodbury needed the government of a village with extra privileges. The earliest proposal for incorporation officially came in 1963 after two years of debate. The Minnesota Municipal Commission had recently found that the fragmented way in which the Minneapolis suburbs and the suburbs around White Bear Lake had developed was disadvantageous, as it made coordinating sewers, public water systems, and other utilities difficult. Thus, the commission had been encouraging towns to incorporate in full whenever possible. Since 1961, the Town of Cottage Grove had been petitioning to become a village, and the Minnesota Municipal Commission took it upon itself to push for a joint incorporation of Woodbury and Cottage Grove as the Village of Washington. The two town commissions agreed to the idea, and the issue was put up for a vote during the…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and (2.32%) is water. }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  54,913
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  46,536
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  45,893
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  45,680
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  45,463
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  42,150
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  36,901
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  34,671

Largest nearby schools

• STILLWATER AREA HIGH SCHOOL
  High · STILLWATER · 2,647 students · 26.5:1 ratio
• EAST RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL
  High · WOODBURY · 2,021 students · 43:1 ratio
• Woodbury High School
  High · WOODBURY · 1,979 students · 44:1 ratio
• Park High School
  High · COTTAGE GROVE · 1,938 students · 35.2:1 ratio
• TARTAN SENIOR HIGH
  High · OAKDALE · 1,683 students · 20.3:1 ratio
• LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL
  Middle · WOODBURY · 1,145 students · 52:1 ratio
• WOODBURY MIDDLE SCHOOL
  Middle · WOODBURY · 1,108 students · 36.9:1 ratio
• SKYVIEW COMMUNITY MIDDLE
  Middle · OAKDALE · 1,004 students · 16.2:1 ratio