Winona is the county seat of Winona County6. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 27,069. Winona is the birthplace of actress Winona Ryder (Winona Horowitz) and the aviator Max Conrad. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf hill. Its annual celebration, "Steamboat Days," is held in the summer. It is home to the headquarters of the Watkins Corporation and Fastenal. Historically a community that was once served by a half-dozen passenger railroads, its current service is the once-daily Empire Builder, an Amtrak service between Chicago and Seattle/Portland.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 61.0 km2 (23.6 mi2). 47.2 km2 (18.2 mi2) of it is land and 13.8 km2 (5.3 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 22.62% water.
Winona's primary "suburbs" are Goodview, Stockton, and Minnesota City to the west and Homer to the east. Rochester is 40 minutes west of Winona and La Crosse 30 minutes southeast.
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 27,069 people, 10,301 households, and 5,325 families residing in the city. The population density is 573.3/km2 (1,485.0/mi2). There are 10,666 housing units at an average density of 225.9/km2 (585.1/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 94.47% White, 1.13% African American, 0.23% Native American, 2.65% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. 1.35% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 10,301 households out of which 23.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% are married couples living together, 8.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 48.3% are non-families. 35.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 12.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.27 and the average family size is 2.94.
In the city, the population is spread out with 18.0% under the age of 18, 27.5% from 18 to 24, 22.2% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 29 years. For every 100 females there are 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $32,845, and the median income for a family is $48,413. Males have a median income of $31,047 versus $23,302 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,783. 17.3% of the population and 6.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 11.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Evidence gathered by archaeologists tells us that people lived in this valley as early as 9500 B.C. The earliest evidence of human habitation in Winona County is based on the discovery of a Woodland tradition site (circa 800 B.C.-900 A.D.). Before its founding by white settlers, Winona was the home of a band of Dakota (Sioux) led by the great Wapasha dynasty. The local tribe was the Medawakantonwan. Their summer homes were made of bark supported by a framework and poles. Their winter residence was a teepee made of about 8 buffalo hides sewn together with deer sinew, typically about 12 feet (4 m) high and 10 to 12 feet (3 to 4 m) in diameter, with a fire in the middle to keep the temperature inside the dwelling tolerable even in the coldest weather.
Lieutenant Zebulon Pike left Fort Bellefontaine on August 9, 1805 with orders to find the source of the Mississippi. On September 14, 1805, he reached the Mississippi Valley near island number 72 (on his map), which would one day be Winona, Minnesota, and recorded his impressions in his log.
Less than fifty years later, Pike's island 72 was selected by Captain Orrin Smith as a townsite on the west bank of the Mississippi River. For over twenty-five years, Smith had sailed the river between Galena, Illinois and Fort Snelling, Minnesota as owner and pilot of the river packet Nominee. In 1851 Smith learned that the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota would establish a reservation in the interior of the state, and realized that there would be a rush to develop townsites on the Minnesota side of the river. On October 15, 1851 Orrin Smith became the founder of Winona, by landing his ship's carpenter, Mr. Erwin Johnson, and two other men (Smith and Stevens) with the purpose of claiming title to riverfront and surrounding prairie land. When the town site was surveyed and plotted by John Ball, United States deputy surveyor, it was given the name of Montezuma as requested by Johnson and Smith. Henry D. Huff bought an interest in the town site in 1853. With the consent of Capt. Smith, Huff erased the name of Montezuma and inserted the name of Winona on the plot, a name derived from the Dakota Indian word We-No-Nah, which means "first-born daughter", in reference to the princess daughter of the previously mentioned Dakota chief Wapasha.
Winona was settled in 1851, and the town was laid out into lots in 1852-3. Its growth was very rapid. The population increased from 815 in December, 1855, to 3,000 in December, 1856. In 1860 Winona had a population of 2,456, and was third largest city in Minnesota until the late 1880s. Part of the surge in population in 1856 was the fact that land claims became legal in 1855 with the completion of land surveys and the opening of a local federal land office. It was incorporated as a city in 1857.
Growth in Winona was built on a railway and steamboat transportation system, wheat milling, and lumber. In 1856 over 1,300 steamboats stopped at Winona. The railway system grew and the Winona Railway Bridge, built of steel and iron with a steam-powered swingspan over the river, was the second railway bridge to span the Mississippi. The first train crossed on July 4, 1891 and the bridge served the Green Bay & Western (GBW) and Burlington Route for the next 94 years until it was closed in 1985 and dismantled in the fall of 1990. In 1892, a wagon toll-bridge over the Mississippi, a wooden high-bridge, was completed and remained in service until 1942.
During the 1860's southern Minnesota was the greatest wheat producing region in the country and Winona was the main port for shipping Minnesota wheat. By 1870, Winona was the fourth largest wheat shipping port in the United States. In 1899 Bay State Milling was founded, and is still in operation today. John Laird started the first lumber mill in 1855; he later was joined by his cousins James and Matthew Norton in founding the Laird-Norton Co. The Winona sawmills reached their peak production in 1892 when they produced over 160 million board feet (380,000 m3) annually and ranked eighth in production of lumber in the upper Midwest.
However, Winona was not able to completely absorb the collapse of the lumber industry as the Wisconsin white pine forests became depleted, even though the city had sought to expand its industrial base. In 1900 Winona population of 19,714 peaked and for the next few decades declined and remained unstable. Winona's pattern of growth had stopped. As of 2006, Winona's official population consists greatly of college students.
Source:
WinonaMinnesota.com
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