Princeton is a city in Mille Lacs and Sherburne counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota, at the junction of the Rum River and its West Branch. It is north of Minneapolis and east of St. Cloud, at the intersection of Highways 169 and 95. The population was 4,819 at the 2020 census and an estimated 5,311 in 2022.
Lumbering
Princeton's location near the junction of the Rum River and its West Branch was critical to the town's development. In 1847, Daniel Stanchfield led an expedition to explore the Rum River. potato farming, starch production, dairy, and distilled spirits production, in which the town's distillery continues to play a key role.
Geography
Princeton is at the southern end of Mille Lacs County and extends south into the northeast corner of Sherburne County. The city center is about three-quarters of a mile north of the county border. U.S. Highway 169 passes through the west side of the city on a four-lane bypass, leading north to Milaca, the Mille Lacs county seat, and south to Elk River, the Sherburne county seat. State Highway 95 passes through the north side of the city, leading east to Cambridge and west to St. Cloud.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Princeton has a total area of ; are land and , or 4.31%, are water.
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|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<br>2020 Census
99.4% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.6% lived in rural areas.
There were 2,104 households in Princeton, of which 27.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 36.5% were married-couple households, 18.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 35.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
- Clarence C. Mitchell (1897–1986), Minnesota state senator
- Kevin Odegard (born 1950), guitarist on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks
- Robert J. Odegard (1920–2013), Minnesota state representative
- Jerome P. Peterson (1936–2018), Minnesota state representative
- Paul Sather (born 1971), college basketball coach
"Coke Geysers" world record attempt
The Princeton High School Student Council organized a community effort to break the world record for simultaneously erupting coke geysers on May 27, 2011. The record of 2,854 bottles was set in October 2010 in the Philippines. Hundreds of students participated, with a goal of setting off a series of 3,000 geysers, a figure they exceeded with 3,051 total simultaneous eruptions. But Guinness World Records personnel did not officiate the event and never made the record official. Students say the idea grew from a plan for a graduation prank into a way to put their small town on the map. of the attempt was broadcast on Minnesota NBC News affiliate KARE 11 and edited by a YouTube user named Physics314Nerd.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Princeton is served by the Princeton Municipal Airport.
Major highways
The following routes are located within the city of Princeton:
- 20px U.S. Highway 169
- 20px Minnesota State Highway 95