Economic Growth and Jobs in Eagan MN

Eagan MN is Number 14 among the Top 100 Best Places to Live in America named by CNNMoney.com. It is a southeastern suburb of Minneapolis and approximately two miles northeast of the Minnesota Zoo. Eagan in surrounded by a number of parks and lakes, offering outdoor activities around the year. The large Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge and Fort Snelling State Park are about four miles northwest of Eagan and border the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The year 2010 is the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Eagan and a website commemorating this milestone is found at the embedded link.

The area of Eagan on the west side, called Cedarvale, is under revitalization to increase its economic health and attraction to residents and visitors. Demolition extended from 2007 - 2008, with reconstruction to extend several years into the future. including modern residences, businesses, and a transit station around a walkable suburban/urban neighborhood.

• Mall of America
• Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

• Minnesota Zoo

  Minnesota Zoo connecting people, animals and the natural world

• Mississippi National River and Recreation Area - Southeast of Eagan
• Walker Art Center

state park and zoo contains 500 acres of forested hill country and zoological exhibits. In comparison, the Detroit Zoo stands on 125 acres and the Columbus Zoo in Ohio covers 580, of which only half is developed so far. Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, which seems huge to me, spans 216 acres; and Cincinnati Zoo sits at about 70 urban acres in the downtown area.

Minnesota Zoo includes a small working family farm and a city high school. Its newest exhibit as of 2008 is a $24 million display of far eastern Russia called Russia’s Grizzly Coast. This is the first of its kind outside of Russia and in addition to the bears, includes sea otters, Amur leopards, wild boars, and other native animals.

Other regions of this star operated zoo are arranged by trails:

• Medtronic Minnesota Trail - wildlife form Minnesota
• Northern Trail - animals from above the 45th parallel North Latitude
  
• Tropics Trail - indoor trail featuring tropical animals and insects
  
• Discovery Bay - Marine animals.
• High School of Environmental Studies - Public school located on 12 acres in the zoo. Field trips available take the students on serious study tours to the far corners of the globe and extreme environments.

The Presidential Citizens Medal for 2010 was awarded to 13 individuals that have performed extreme volunteer services to their follow Americans for many years. One of these honored men, one of two among 11 women to receive the honor, is Mr. George Weiss, Jr., who is from Marine, Minnesota (see map below) and a US Veteran of World War II, serving in the USMC. .

Back in 1979, he began the Fort Snelling Memorial Rifle Squad, near Eagan MN. After 31 years in 2010, the squad continues to offer 130 volunteers that perform Final Military Honors at the funerals and memorial services for US Veterans, honoring their service and their memory and comforting their families. The squad is the first of its type in the nation.

Minnesota was first inhabited by First Nation and Native American peoples from at least 10,000 years previous to today. Wars occurred in the Eagan and Fort Snelling area between native nations, and among native nations and European settlers from time to time before and after the American Revolution.

After War of 1812, the US Government constructed a series of military forts in Minnesota and, manned them with federal Indian Agents and soldiers in order to protect the surrounding territories from British, French, and Canadian invasion and to keep Native Americans and their lands sovereign while related treaties were written. The military forces blocked the waterways from all non-US citizens and protected fur and other traders as they passed.

Unfortunately, they also intervened in inter-tribal conflicts and tried to make peace between the Ojibwe and Dakota Nations. Fort Snelling became a concentration camp for the extermination of the Dakota (see link below) after conflict between the two nations. Interestingly, the Eagan area is now in Dakota County.

The Dakota Nation lived largely around southern Minnesota and did gradually move out of the state and to the west, but kept tracts of land in Minnesota up to 1863. However, they kept the Red Pipestone Quarry as their own for some time (see links).

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1. Engineers - IT, mechanical, electrical, other.
2. Registered Nurses (RNs)
   
3. Project Managers
4. Business Analysts
5. Crew Members - Casual Dining, Fast Food, Drug Stores
6. Salespeople
7. Customer Monitoring Job
8. Shift Supervisors
9. Inventory Takers
10. Assistant Managers

Additional High Demand Employment Opportunities

1. Pharmacy Technicians
2. Administrative Assistants
3. Account Executives
4. Supply Chain Jobs
5. Pizza Hut - All Positions

IT, Sales, Business Services, and Healthcare are big employers in this area.

Largest employee pools are consistently employed by these top local companies:

1. Thomson Reuters
2. Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN
3. Northwest Airlines
4. Lockheed Martin - Part of the NASA Commercial Crew
5. US Postal Service
6. United Parcel Service (UPS)

7. Midwest Coca-Cola Bottling

• Argosy University/Twin Cities
• Brown College
• Everest Institute
• IT Training Center
• Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts
• Northwest Technical Institute
• Rasmussen College, Eagan / Saint Paul
• St Thomas Academy Dev Office