About Everything Red Wing

The purpose of Everything Red Wing is to organize everything having to do with Red Wing Minnesota  in a series of useful linked pages. Originally there was no need to be wordy. However, Google thinks I look like a computer and for that reason EverythingRed Wing.com gradually slid down the search rankings to a point that it’s nearly invisible. Computer algorithms insist I prove my humanity by writing something. So if you choose to read on and begin to think I’m a little strange… blame it on Google.

About Red Wing, Minnesota

In Red Wing when people refer to “The Shoe” They mean Red Wing Shoe Company. If they say they work “out at the Plant” they mean “Prairie Island Nuclear Plant”. If they say they work at “T.I.” They work at Treasure Island Casino which is run by “The Tribe” which is  The Prairie Island Mdewakanton Tribe.

There are places that are part of our identity and people talk about them all of the time:

If you say you are headed for “The Island”, for those who have seen the advertisements, it seems logical you'd be going to Treasure Island Casino, but  it’s more likely you are heading just across the river to Wisconsin which we have always called “The Island”.

Wisconsin is obviously east of Minnesota, but it is north of Red Wing because the The Mississippi River, which forms the Minnesota, Wisconsin border, runs east and west here. There is great fishing  for Walleye at “The Dam” which is Lock and Dam number 3 just upriver from town, which puts you , once again next to Prairie Island. Prairie Island is across the river from Diamond Island in Wisconsin. So there are three Islands: Prairie Island Diamond Island  and “The Island”.

You can fish in the river for Walleye year round because you are in an area the DNR calls Boundary Waters… which is different from the Boundary Waters everyone talks about.

Everyone knows about Barn Bluff which is by the Mississippi River and right next to Memorial Bluff. However, if someone talks about “Twin Bluff” they are most likely talking about the Middle School which is miles away next to a big hill called “Coon Hill”. Just up the road, also in the shadow of  Coon Hill, is Sunnyside School which is a grade school for younger kids.

Don’t confuse Sunnyside Grade School with Burnside Grade School, which is for the older Grade School kids and located in Burnside. The Burnside neighborhood and Burnside school are northwest of downtown Red Wing on Highway 61.

Mayo Health Systems runs our relatively modern Hospital which they purchased from Fairview Hospital. Curiously, as of March 2016, if you google “Red Wing Hospital”, Google chooses to highlight a listing for Fairview with a photo, phone number and address. They helpfully state the hospital is permanently closed.  So much for the humanity of Google.

A couple of fun facts about Red Wing:

Red Wing is located at the edge of an area called the “Driftless Region”, an area of Minnesota and Wisconsin left untouched by the last Glaciation.

Red Wing was the world’s largest wheat market in 1873