Inver Grove Heights is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 35,801 at the 2020 census. The city was formed on March 9, 1965, with the merger of the village of Inver Grove and Inver Grove Township. Inver Grove Heights is southeast of Saint Paul; nearby communities are South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, Eagan, Newport, and Saint Paul Park (the last two across the Mississippi River).
History
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After the signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, settlers from Ireland and Germany quickly staked claims in the rolling countryside west of the Mississippi River. Those of Irish descent farmed the eastern part of the community, while Germans cleared the wooded land to the west for their farms. French and English settlers built their homes along the river. The township of Inver Grove Heights was named after the Irish fishing village of Inver and the German town of Grove. Records show that 240 farms, four churches, and four school districts were founded by 1880. On March 9, 1965, the village of Inver Grove and Inver Grove Township merged to form Inver Grove Heights.
Historic sites in Inver Grove Heights include:
- Chief Medicine Bottle's Village: formed in 1836, became Pine Bend village and post office
- Salem Evangelical Church: First congregation in Minnesota of the Evangelical Association of North America was organized here on March 2, 1857
- Josiah Burwell's House: where Inver Grove Township was first organized in 1858, at Rich Valley Road and 102nd Street
- Duke's Restaurant: built in 1906 as Pierkarski's butcher shop; restaurant offered food to railway workers; later became Jersey's Bar
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water.
Interstate Highway 494 (a beltway bypass of Minneapolis–Saint Paul), U.S. Highway 52, Minnesota Highway 55, and Minnesota Highway 3 are four of Inver Grove Heights's main routes. 80th Street East (numbered from downtown Saint Paul) crosses the city in an east–west direction.
In 2022, a meteoric impact crater was identified in the Pine Bend Bluffs Scientific and Natural Area in southern Inver Grove Heights. It has been informally named the "Pine Bend impact" and has been dated to 500 million years ago. It has a diameter of about four kilometers.