# Waconia *City in Carver County, Minnesota, United States* Waconia is a city in [[Carver County, Minnesota]], beside Lake Waconia, which gave the city its name.[^1][^2] The Minnesota Historical Society's MNopedia traces the name to the [[Dakota]] *Bdé Wakonia*, "lake of the fountain." It dates the platting of the town to March 1857 and records incorporation as a village in 1880 and as a city in 1921.[^2] The 2020 census counted 13,033 residents.[^1] The documentary record for Waconia in this pack is local and historical. It covers a Catholic parish organized in 1857 and a parish school opened in 1860.[^2][^3] It covers a Swedish settler's 48-year daily journal, which his family donated to the [[Minnesota Historical Society]].[^4] It also covers a county historical society that moved to Waconia in the mid-1940s.[^5] Waconia appears in two pairs of the project's at-issue catalogue, both in its block on Carver County's founding period. Each pair is set beside a 2025 presidential action.[^6][^7] ## Who MNopedia records that Germans began arriving in Waconia in large numbers in 1857, and that settlers from Bohemia, Sweden and Switzerland followed. It credits Ludwig Sudheimer and Michael Scheidnagel with the first homes.[^2] MNopedia also counts Carver County among the three core first-wave Swedish settlements in Minnesota. Swedish settlement in the county began in 1855 at East Union, Watertown and Swede Lake; MNopedia dates Swede Lake from 1856.[^8] Andrew Peterson was born Anders Petterson on October 20, 1818. He landed in Boston on July 2, 1850, and settled permanently in Minnesota in 1855, near Scandia and Waconia.[^4] He grew an orchard of more than 200 apple varieties. In January 1888 the Minnesota Horticultural Society voted unanimously to give him an honorary life membership.[^4] He kept a daily journal for 48 years, until his death on March 31, 1898. His farmstead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[^4] O.D. Sell of Mayer founded the [[Carver County Historical Society]] in 1940 from his personal collection. The collection was kept in attics and barns, then in Mayer's school building, and moved to Waconia in the mid-1940s.[^5] Sell served as president for the society's first twenty years. MNopedia credits him with establishing "a strong working relationship between the CCHS and the county government."[^5] In 1960 the society opened a permanent building co-funded with the county; Sell died shortly before it opened.[^5] ## What St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church was organized in 1857, and its building was put up in 1858 at a cost of $600.[^2] St. Joseph's Catholic School opened in Waconia in 1860.[^3] MNopedia lists it third among seven Carver County private schools founded between 1857 and 1914: - Emanuel Lutheran in Hamburg (1857) - Guardian Angels Catholic in [[Chaska]] (1858) - St. Joseph's in Waconia (1860) - St. Bernard in Cologne (1876) - St. John's Lutheran in Chaska (1886) - Zion Lutheran in Mayer (1905) - St. Mark's Lutheran in [[New Germany]] (1914)[^3] The city's current schools comprise five run by [[Waconia Public Schools]], plus two private schools: St. Joseph Catholic STEM School (PreK–8) and Trinity Lutheran School (K–8).[^1] MNopedia names the [[Waconia Brewery]] among the town's early businesses.[^2] The Minnesota Historical Society's research guide to breweries lists no Carver County brewery among its collections. The project's source notes treat the Waconia Brewery as the only confirmed historic brewery in the county.[^9][^2] ## When - **February 20, 1855** – Carver County is established. It is organized in March 1855, with [[San Francisco Township]] as the first county seat.[^10] - **1855** – Swedish settlement in the county begins, and Andrew Peterson settles near Scandia and Waconia.[^8][^4] - **March 1857** – Waconia is platted. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is organized the same year, and its building follows in 1858.[^2] - **1860** – St. Joseph's Catholic School opens.[^3] A post office has operated at Waconia from that year.[^1] - **1880** – Waconia becomes a village.[^2] - **1884 to the late 1920s** – The resort period at Coney Island of the West on Lake Waconia.[^1] - **March 31, 1898** – Peterson dies, ending his 48-year journal.[^4] - **1921** – Waconia becomes a city.[^2] - **1940** – The Carver County Historical Society is founded. It moves to Waconia in the mid-1940s and opens a permanent building in 1960.[^5] - **1978** – Peterson's farmstead is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[^4] ## Where Waconia sits within Carver County. MNopedia gives the county's area as 376 square miles, 95% of it land, with 125 lakes and the [[Minnesota River]] and Crow River.[^11] The Carver County Historical Society's driving tour gives the same 376 square miles.[^10] MNopedia's county entry glosses *Waconia* as "fountain or spring."[^11] The [[United States Census Bureau]] puts the city at 4.39 square miles. Of that, 4.34 square miles is land and 0.05 is water.[^1] The principal roads through the city are State Highways 5 and 284 and County Highway 10.[^1] Several Waconia buildings appear on the National Register of Historic Places. They include the City Hall, three houses on West Main Street (417, 429 and 453), and Coney Island of the West, an island in Lake Waconia.[^1] Coney Island's cottages, boathouses and resort hotels drew visitors mainly between 1884 and the late 1920s. The trade declined once automobiles let vacationers travel farther.[^1] A parade scene in the film *Drop Dead Gorgeous* was shot on 1st Street near St. Joseph's Catholic Church.[^1] ## How many - **2020 census:** 13,033 residents, a median age of 37.6, 4,659 households and 4,826 housing units, 3.5% of them vacant.[^1] - **2010 census:** 10,697 residents and 3,909 households.[^1] - **County forecast:** Carver County's *2040 Comprehensive Plan*, adopted February 4, 2020, forecasts about 161,400 county residents in 2040.[^12] ## In the at-issue record **Pair AI-Carver-036 (rank 36).** This pair lists Carver County's seven parochial schools and their founding dates, St. Joseph's in Waconia (1860) among them. It describes them as a parallel school system "in its own language" built before the state built one in English.[^3] The catalogue cites a single source for the pair. The MNopedia entry, as summarized in the pack, confirms the schools and dates but does not state the language of instruction.[^3] The pair's anchor is the executive order *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity* (January 2025).[^6] The catalogue describes the anchor as marking the institution the State later moved against. The record assembled here does not establish what action, if any, the State took against these schools.[^6] **Pair AI-Carver-038 (rank 38).** This pair concerns Peterson's 48-year journal.[^4] MNopedia, as summarized in the pack, documents the journal, its end at his death on March 31, 1898, and its later donation by his family to the Minnesota Historical Society.[^4] The pair adds three points: that [[Vilhelm Moberg]] found the journal about fifty years later, that Moberg acknowledged it as a source for his emigrant novels, and that scholars take Peterson as the model for Karl Oskar. Those statements rest on the pair's two cited sources and are not in the pack's MNopedia summary.[^4] The pair's anchor is *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (March 2025). The catalogue treats the journal as the counter-example: a private record placed in public custody, which survives and can be checked.[^7] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Waconia, Minnesota* (revision 1381935389, retrieved 2026-10-27) — establishes census counts, area, roads, post office, schools, National Register listings and the film location. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waconia,_Minnesota [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: City of Waconia* (n.d.) — establishes the March 1857 platting, the Dakota name, early settlers, St. Joseph's church (1857/1858, $600), village 1880, city 1921 and the Waconia Brewery. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/city-waconia [^3]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Private Schools in Carver County* (n.d.) — establishes the seven Carver County private schools and their founding dates, 1857–1914, including St. Joseph's, Waconia (1860); this is the basis of at-issue pair AI-Carver-036. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/thing/private-schools-carver-county [^4]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Peterson, Andrew (1818–1898)* (n.d.) — establishes Peterson's birth, arrival, 1855 settlement, orchard, 1888 honorary membership, 48-year journal ending March 31, 1898, its donation to MNHS and the 1978 National Register listing; this is the basis of at-issue pair AI-Carver-038. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/peterson-andrew-1818-1898 [^5]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Carver County Historical Society* (n.d.) — establishes the 1940 founding by O.D. Sell, the move to Waconia in the mid-1940s, Sell's presidency and the 1960 county co-funded building. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/group/carver-county-historical-society [^6]: The White House, *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity* (January 2025) — the anchor document for at-issue pair AI-Carver-036. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/ [^7]: The White House, *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (March 2025) — the anchor document for at-issue pair AI-Carver-038. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/ [^8]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Swedish Immigration to Minnesota* (n.d.) — establishes Carver County as one of three core first-wave Swedish settlements, with settlement from 1855. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/swedish-immigration-minnesota [^9]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Breweries in Minnesota* research guide (n.d.) — establishes that the guide lists no Carver County brewery among its collections. https://libguides.mnhs.org/breweries [^10]: Carver County Historical Society, *Carver County Driving Tour* (n.d.) — establishes the county's establishment on February 20, 1855, its organization in March 1855, its area of 376 square miles and San Francisco Township as first county seat. https://www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org/pdfs/CarverCountyDrivingTour.pdf [^11]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Carver County* (n.d.) — establishes the county's 376 square miles (95% land), 125 lakes, the Minnesota and Crow Rivers, and the gloss of "Waconia" as "fountain or spring." https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/carver-county [^12]: Carver County, *2040 Comprehensive Plan* (adopted February 4, 2020) — establishes the county population forecast of about 161,400 for 2040. https://www.carvercountymn.gov/departments/public-services/planning-water-management/planning/plans/2040-comprehensive-plan