Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is the county seat of Blue Earth County. It is the 21st-largest city in Minnesota and fourth-largest outside of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, with a population of 44,488 at the 2020 census. The Mankato–North Mankato metropolitan area has an estimated 105,000 residents.
Mankato lies along a large bend of the Minnesota River at its confluence with the Blue Earth River. The city is home to Minnesota State University, the state's second-largest university by enrollment.
History
thumb|left|[[Blue Earth County History Center]]
Mankato Township was not settled by European Americans until Parsons King Johnson in February 1852, as part of the 19th-century migration of people from the east across the Midwest. New residents organized the city of Mankato on May 11, 1858, the day Minnesota became a state. The city was organized by Johnson, Henry Jackson, Daniel A. Robertson, Justus C. Ramsey, and others.
A popular story says that the city was supposed to have been named Mahkato, but a typographical error by a clerk established the name as Mankato. According to Warren Upham, quoting historian Thomas Hughes of Mankato, "The honor of christening the new city was accorded to Col. Robertson. He had taken the name from Nicollet's book, in which the French explorer compared the 'Mahkato' or Blue Earth River, with all its tributaries, to the water nymphs and their uncle in the German legend of Undine...No more appropriate name could be given the new city, than that of the noble river at whose mouth it is located." While it is uncertain that the city was intended to be called Mahkato, the Dakota called the river Makato Osa Watapa ("the river where blue earth is gathered"). The Anglo settlers adapted that as "Blue Earth River".
thumb|left|The [[1862 Mankato mass execution|mass execution of the 38 Sioux (Dakota) at Mankato, Minnesota, 1862]] On December 26, 1862, United States Volunteers of the State of Minnesota carried out the largest mass execution in U.S. history at Mankato after the Dakota War of 1862. Companies of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Minnesota Infantry Regiments, and Minnesota Cavalry oversaw the hanging of 38 men: 35 Santee Sioux and 3 biracial French/native American, for their involvement in the war crimes committed during the uprising. A USV military tribunal reviewed nearly 500 cases, of which 303 received a death sentence, but President Abraham Lincoln requested the court files. He reviewed them, placing the rape cases at the top, and pardoning 265. Episcopal Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple urged leniency, to which Lincoln responded that he had to take a balanced approach. His position and dismissals were unpopular in Minnesota. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event a large granite marker was erected that stood at the site until 1971, when the city took it down. Today, a different monument marks the execution site. Across the street are two monuments to the Native Americans in what it called Reconciliation Park. The Blue Earth County Library, Main street and Reconciliation Park cover the immediate vicinity of the execution site.
In 1880, Mankato was Minnesota's fourth-most populous city, with 5,500 residents.
Former Vice President Schuyler Colfax died while traveling through Mankato on January 13, 1885.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Winters are cold, with snow cover (continuous most winter seasons) beginning typically between mid-November and mid-December, ending in March most years. However, Mankato often receives less snow than areas to its north and east. For example, Minneapolis, northeast of Mankato, averages over of snow per winter season, compared to Mankato's seasonal average of . The coldest month, January, has an average monthly temperature around . Dangerously low wind-chill temperatures are a significant hazard during the winter months, as Arctic air outbreaks rush into the area from Canada, borne on high winds; this can bring about ground blizzard conditions, especially in nearby rural areas.
Summers are warm, with occasional but usually brief hot, humid periods, often interspersed with pushes of cooler air from Canada, often preceded by showers and thunderstorms. The hottest month, July, has an average monthly temperature of around . Precipitation falls year round, but falls mostly as snow from December to February, sometimes March, and as showers and thunderstorms during the warmer season, from May to September. Mankato's average wettest months are from June to August, with frequent thunderstorm activity. Mankato lies on the northern fringe of the central United States’ main tornado belt, with lower risk than in Iowa and Missouri to the south. The highest-risk months for severe thunderstorms and (rarely) tornadoes, are May through July. However, a very unusual early tornado outbreak affected areas within of Mankato on March 29, 1998, when an F3 tornado hit St. Peter, to the north. On August 17, 1946, tornadoes struck southwestern areas of Mankato and the town of Wells to the southeast, killing 11 people.