The City of “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment”
Read and reflect on the following questions:
- What did you know about Northfield before you came to St. Olaf? What have you learned since, and how has it changed your understanding of this community?
- How does your concept of identity change in response to your environment? Has your idea of self identity changed after becoming a St. Olaf student and being a part of the Northfield community?
This place we now call Northfield rests on the traditional homelands of the Wahpekute and other Bands of the Dakota Nation. Settled by Norwegian and other European immigrants in the mid-late 1800s, the community was surrounded by farming, with much of its subsequent economy supporting agricultural production. It is unique in that is it home to two 100+ year old private liberal arts colleges. These two factors gave rise to the motto seen on the town signs: “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” Northfield is more widely known as the place where outlaw bandit Jesse James and the James-Younger gang were defeated, thanks to the heroics of Joseph Lee Heywood and other community members.
Learn more by visiting the Northfield Historical Society or investigating St. Olaf’s history and relationship with Northfield by visiting the College Archives.
Today, Northfield is a community of a little over 20,000–one quarter of whom are college students! The City of Northfield is governed by an elected seven-person City Council that makes decisions about the community including streets and infrastructure, the 35+ municipal parks and open spaces, housing and economic development, public art, and more (meet all of your elected officials on St. Olaf’s Vote webpage). Students at St. Olaf may choose to register to vote in the City of Northfield at the polling location in Buntrock Commons or wherever they consider home.
Northfield’s active and engaged citizenry supports 17 City of Northfield boards and commissions. Plus numerous nonprofits in issue areas such as housing, environmental sustainability and climate action, food security, disability access, healthcare equity, youth engagement, aging, and more! See the map at the bottom of the page to explore these issue areas and ways to get involved.
The community’s demographics have shifted significantly within the last 30 years, too, as a growing Latine community have settled in the area. Many are from the Maltrata, Mexico area, and you can learn more about this community at the Radio and News website from Carleton.
In addition, more commuters from the Twin Cities make their home here. An estimated 60% of Northfield residents commute to Hennepin and Ramsey counties.
- All Are Welcome – video created by Carleton Students covering Northfield’s Municipal ID program, implemented in 2017. (6 mins)
- Local artist and activist Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo has documented many aspects of the Northfield community, including Making Noise ~ The story of a skatepark and Ways of Being Home/Creando hogar about the connection between Northfield and Maltrata, Mexico.
- Poverty in Northfield Part 1 and Part 2 – Video discusses poverty levels in Rice County and the work of the Community Action Center. (4 mins), produced by Carleton students.
- Healthy Community Initiative’s Systems Transformation work – video (1:30 mins)
The broader Rice County area
Read and reflect on the following questions:
- How do you make sense of your home’s location? How does that compare to how Northfield is contextualized?
- How do you make sense of your positionality as a St. Olaf college student who is transplanted into these communities for what is likely to be a relatively short amount of time? How do your various identities impact this positionality?
- What questions do you have about the broader area? How could you go about finding answers to those questions?
While you might have heard some people call this area “the middle of nowhere,” this place you are now a part of as a St. Olaf student IS a specific somewhere, complete with its own distinct histories, communities, and current realities. You’ve read a bit about the city of Northfield, but it’s important to recognize that Northfield is also part of a larger geo-political place of Rice County. The county is governed by five county commissioners who represent both rural farmers and city residents.
Furthermore, there are other ways to locate this place and make sense of its location. For instance, Northfield is located within the Cannon River watershed which spans multiple counties and cities. The Cannon River which runs through downtown Northfield exits into the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minnesota. Clean River Partners is a nonprofit that works across the watershed on education, protection, and improvement of this vital natural resource.
Another way to locate this place is from a Dakota perspective. Northfield is located within Mni Sota Makoce, the homelands of the Dakota which spans across southern Minnesota into eastern South Dakota, western Wisconsin, and northern Iowa.
The county seat and other large city in the county is located in Faribault (population: 24,420). While it still remains true that the majority of residents in Rice County identify as white and of European descent, Faribault is home to growing populations of Somali and Latine communities. Some residents have worked diligently at welcoming newcomers through such organizations as the Faribault Diversity Coalition. Leaders within these communities have also started their own initiatives, such as the Somali-led efforts around Waano (afterschool learning center) and Surad Academy (charter school).
For more about Faribault and Rice County’s history, visit the Rice County Historical Society.
Counties act as a gateway for millions of dollars from the U.S. federal and Minnesota state governments to provide services to its residents, such as public assistance for children, families, and mental health; public health and emergency preparedness (like 911), veterans services, and documentation of births, deaths, property, and other public legal matters. In addition, counties in Minnesota also administer elections throughout the county.
Many nonprofits which started in Northfield have now gone county-wide within the last 10 years, including Healthy Community Initiative, Community Action Center, and the Rice County Area United Way, while others have always served residents within the entire county, such as HealthFinders Collaborative and Rice County Habitat for Humanity.
- Understanding Environmental Justice in Minnesota interactive map by the MPCA. Look closely at Northfield & Faribault communities. Tabs on top of the map allow you to see different overlays.
- How did Minn. become one of the most racially inequitable states?
- Rocky beginning, growing acceptance: The Somali experience in Faribault
- Dakota History in the Faribault Region
- MidWest of Somalia – film highlighting the Somali American population of the Midwest (30 mins)
- Somalis Out Loud Podcast – produced as part of a participatory action research project between Carleton and Faribault
Engaging with the local community
As you can see from the map below, right here in St. Olaf’s immediate neighborhood there are numerous civic and community organizations that help the community and its members thrive. Many of these organizations are working to address the same social challenges that appear in larger cities and elsewhere in the world–food access, educational equity, immigration and human rights, affordable and safe housing, racial justice, quality healthcare, and more.
Community takes many forms for the St. Olaf community. Beyond the hill, both faculty and students have shown support to Northfield and Rice County through various partnerships and projects through class with an Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) component, Volunteer Network (VN), community-based work study, and more. Being active in the community extends to almost every academic department, and can vary from Analytical Physics III (PHYS232) students creating free STEM kits for the Northfield Library to Opera Civic Engagement (MUSIC268) students working with Prairie Creek Community School youth on a one-act opera to joint classes with older adults from FiftyNorth in The Aging Brain (PSYCH340). Other community organizations like Project Friendship, Clean River Partners, Northfield Public Schools, and more have been collaborating with Oles for many years as well. To explore upcoming ways to take part in these meaningful partnerships, check out the ACE courses page for upcoming coursework offered and Spotlights page to learn about past ACE experiences.
Reflection Questions:
- What are your responsibilities/duties to a community? Both ones that you identify with and ones that you do not?
- What are the implications of being welcomed into a community in which you have more privilege?
- What does it mean to interact with a community you do not identify with?
- What does it mean to be authentic in how you experience community?
- What it means to be a part of a community? What does community mean to you?
Explore the map and its different layers (you can add or remove layers using the toolbar arrow icon in the upper left hand corner of the map). Then reflect on how you want to engage with your new local community during your time at St. Olaf College. You might consider visiting the St. Olaf volunteering page to learn more about different pathways for contributing meaningfully to your new community.
Reflection Questions
- What do you think St. Olaf and its community members, like you, have in terms of responsibilities and obligations to the local community? How do we live into those responsibilities and obligations?
- Do you think Northfield is the land of “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment?” Why or why not?
- After exploring this map, how do you want to engage with your new local community during your time at St. Olaf College? What is one action step you’ll take to begin to engage meaningfully, responsibly, and ethically with the local community?
This page is for informational purposes only and was last updated on September 20, 2023. For updates or feedback, please email Alyssa Melby (melby1[at]stolaf.edu).