HISTORY OF ROSEMOUNT
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The town of Rosemount (Township 115) is situated in the northern central portion of Dakota County and is situated in a geological area, the terminal moraine of a glacier. The northern area is filled with pothole ponds created by departing chunks of ice, while the southern section is the glacial flood plain. There are numerous sand and gravel deposits in the area as well as acres of flat, open treeless prairie. The area was originally hunted by the Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands of Dakota. On August 5, 1851, Chief Little Crow and other chiefs, signed a treaty at Pilot Knob in Mendota, turning the land over to the federal government.
In April 1853, before Township 115 was opened to settlement, brothers William and Walter Strathern, from Scotland, staked their claim and built their homes and farms. The land on the surveyed plats on the east end of Township 115 was called Rich Valley.
In early 1854 the first claim in western Township 115, was James Diffley, a native of Ireland. Diffley staked his claim, returned to St. Paul but then returned in 1855 and build his home near what was to be Dodd Road.
Early 1855 (before Minnesota became a state) Andrew Keegan, a surveyor, was appointed by the Dakota County Board of Commissioners, as the first postmaster of Township 115. Keegan had claimed 160 acres, Township 115, on a lake, in 1854 and had built a shanty to live in. He opened the post office in his shanty cabin, choosing to call the post office, Rosemount, after a town he was familiar with in his native country of Ireland.
As part of organizing the State of Minnesota, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners met on April 6, 1858 to establish the names of county’s townships. In accordance with an act passed by the first state legislature, they designated congressional Township 115, as one of its first 17 townships, by the name Rosemount.
The following month, on May 11, 1858, the organizational meeting was held by citizens of the new township, at the home of Thomas and Bridget (McMenomy) Dowd. Considerable discussion took place as to whether they should adopt the name of Rosemount. Apparently, some of the non-Irish citizens present did not care to have the town named after a village in Ireland. They suggested Saratoga. A vote was taken, and Rosemount was retained.
The first major road in the area was built by Captain William B. Dodd who was commissioned by the State of Minnesota, to link Mendota with St. Peter, Minnesota, in April of 1853. The Dodd Road, as it came to be called, was sixty-five miles long. The first town itself was located along Dodd Road, when the Mary Morrison home was used as a hotel called the “Prairie House”, with Mrs. O’Donnell opening a store in one of the rooms. In 1859 W.S. Hardwick built a second hotel, calling it the “American House.”
When the railroad was planned near Dodd Road, there was a disagreement between the railroad and some landowners. As a result, in 1864, the first railroad station was built by Minnesota Central, a half-mile east of Dodd Road. In 1867 the railroad also built an elevator, where a new business district developed around it. The elevator is still being used today. The former “American House”, west of town was moved into the Village in 1873.
The Village was laid out by J.A. Case in 1866 and incorporated in 1875. The land was on a portion of the John Murphy’s land, which he had sold to the town. Today it includes Rosemount’s elementary, middle and high schools, as well as the Steeple Center, The Rosemount and the Robert Trail Library. By 1880 the population of the township was 848 and the village 116.
The biggest change in Rosemount was on March 31, 1942, when the government officials announced the 11,500 acres of in Rosemount and Empire Townships, were to be acquired by the US War Department to build an ammunition plant. E.I DuPont de Nemours Company (DuPont) was assigned the contract to build what was known as the Gopher Ordnance Works, producing white smokeless rifle and cannon powder.
On August 1, 1947, the University of Minnesota acquired 8000 acres and buildings, from the War Department, for agricultural research. Now known as UMore Park. The University also used the Rosemount campus for their Department of Aeronautical Engineering, This was the beginnings of Rosemount Engineering Company, later known as Rosemount Aerospace, (now operating as Collins Aerospace). During the 1946-48 polio outbreak, some buildings were used as a hospital. The current site is now Dakota County Technical College.
In 1962 the U.S. Navy leased land from the University of Minnesota and built an Astronautics Group Satellite Injection Facility on the site. Detachment BRAVO was decommissioned in August 1997.
January of 1971, the Village and Township of Rosemount merged, becoming a statutory city in January of 1975, with the basic form of government. “City” replaced “Village” to comply with a new state stature for incorporated municipalities. Rosemount’s population in 1990 was 8,591; and in 2023, it was 27,590.
There is a strong Irish tradition in Rosemount. Named after a town in Ireland; City logo features a shamrock; The Rosemount High School teams use the nickname the “Irish”; and the city festival called Leprechaun Days. Most of the original settlers that staked claims were Irish Catholics. But we can’t forget that many Germans also populated the town of Rosemount, that helped form what Rosemount is today.