Blaine ( ) is a suburban city in Anoka and Ramsey Counties in Minnesota, United States. It was once a rural town, but Blaine's population began to grow significantly in the 1950s. For several years, Blaine led the Twin Cities metro region in new home construction. The population was 70,222 at the 2020 census. The city is mainly in Anoka County, and is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.
Interstate 35W, U.S. Highway 10, and Minnesota State Highway 65 are three of the main routes in the city.
History
Phillip Leddy, a native of Ireland, was recorded in the 1857 census
In 1865, Blaine's first permanent resident, Greenberry Chambers, settled on the old Townsend claim. Chambers was a former slave who moved north from Barren County, Kentucky, after the American Civil War. Around 1884, Chambers and his family moved to St. Paul.
In 1870, George Wall, Joseph Gagner, and others settled in the area and it began to grow.
In 1877, Blaine separated from Anoka and organized as a township. That year the first election was held and Moses Ripley was elected the first chairman of the Board of Supervisors. Ripley, who had come to Minnesota from Maine, persuaded his fellow board members to name the new township in honor of James G. Blaine, a U.S. Senator, statesman, and three-time presidential candidate from Maine. By 1880, Blaine's population had reached 128.
While many other Anoka County communities experienced growth due to farming, Blaine's sandy soil and abundant wetlands discouraged farmers, and it remained a prime hunting area. Blaine's growth remained slow until after World War II, when housing developments began in the southern part of town and the community became more suburban. Blaine's population grew from 1,694 in 1950 to 20,573 in 1970, 57,186 in 2010, and 70,222 in 2020. By 2023, the population was over 72,500.
The land development technique of sand mining opened thousands of acres of peat sod farms up for development. Beginning with the development of the Knoll Creek, Club West, Pleasure Creek, and TPC Twin Cities, existing land was modified through extensive grading efforts in large open-water areas. The sand from the excavation of those ponds was used to raise the level of a site. Such modifications are needed to accommodate the development of the homes and neighborhoods. The success of mining sand made further development possible. The centerpiece of those developments is the Lakes of Blaine. Corporate residents include the Aveda Corporation, Infinite Campus, PTC Inc, MagnetStreet, the parking lot portion of a Medtronic Development, and Dayton Rogers Manufacturing.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Blaine is from Minneapolis and from St. Paul.
Blaine can be accessed from several major roadways in the Twin Cities, including Minnesota State Highway 65, Interstate 35W, University Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Hamline Avenue, U.S. Highway 10 and Minnesota State Highway 610.
Major landforms
The Blaine area was covered by a large glacier that shaped the landscape during the late Wisconsinan glaciation. The land used to be covered by river valleys 200 feet deep. The valleys filled with sediment. One valley ran northeast to southwest under Lino Lakes. As the glaciers retreated, the water gathered into a lake that covered much of Anoka County. Huge ice chunks were left in the glacier's wake. They melted and formed depressions that filled with water. This became the chain of lakes between Lino Lakes and Circle Pines.
Four major named water bodies are partially or completely within the city limits. Sunrise Lake, part of The Lakes housing development, is the largest body at 158 acres and a depth near 40 feet. The next-largest is Laddie Lake, Blaine's only naturally occurring lake, which is also partially in Spring Lake Park, at 77 acres, with a maximum depth of six feet. The third-largest is Club West Lake, at 39 acres and depths up to 25 feet, also man-made, in the Club West Housing development. Loch Ness is 11 acres, is managed by the city, and has a fishing dock. Several other large bodies of water in Blaine are not classified as lakes.
Blaine is creating a 500-acre open space plan. It started acquiring portions of the property in the late 1990s, but most of it was acquired after Blaine voters approved a $3.5 million referendum in 2000. A tentative long-range plan calls for the construction of a nature center by 2020. The 70-acre Kane Meadows Park next to The Lakes development has been the centerpiece of this program.