Ben Utecht

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with... 52,557 students in 2011–2012. Minnesota's athletic teams are known collectively as the Minnesota Golden Gophers and compete in in NCAA's Division I, as members of the Big Ten Conference for most sports. The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, but it was later moved about a mile downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of University and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from Pillsbury. It was upgraded from a preparatory school to a college in 1869. The campus now has buildings on both river banks. The 'East Bank", the main portion of the campus, covers 307 acres .
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Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, the city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census. It is Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest city located outside of the... Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The territorial legislature created Olmsted County on February 20, 1855, with Rochester named county seat in 1857. Rochester developed as a stagecoach stop between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Dubuque, Iowa. When the railroad arrived in the 1860s, it brought new residents and business opportunities. In 1863, Dr. William W. Mayo arrived as the examining surgeon for draftees in the Civil War. On August 21, 1883, the Great Tornado demolished much of Rochester, leaving 37 dead and about 200 injured. There was no medical facility at the time, so Mayo and his two sons worked together to care for the wounded. Donations of $60,000 were collected and the Sisters of St. Francis, assisted by Mayo, opened a new facility named St. Marys Hospital in 1889.
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