Blaine, Minnesota is a city in Anoka and Ramsey counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 57,186 at the 2010 census. The city is located mainly in Anoka County, and is part of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul urban area. Interstate Highway 35W, U.S. Highway 10, and Minnesota State Highway 65 are three of the main arterial routes in the city. Until 1877 Blaine was part of the city of Anoka, Minnesota. Phillip Laddy, a native of Ireland, is recognized as the first settler in Blaine and settled near a lake that now bears his name, Laddie Lake, in 1862. Laddy died shortly after his... arrival and his survivors moved on to Minneapolis. Another early settler was the Englishman George Townsend, who lived for a short time near what would today be Lever St. and 103rd Ave. It was not until 1865 that Blaine’s first permanent resident, Green Chambers, settled on the old Townsend claim. Chambers was a former slave who moved north from Barren County, Kentucky, following the Civil War. In 1870 George Wall, Joseph Gagner, and soon others settled in the area and it began to grow. In 1877 Blaine separated from Anoka and organized as a township of its own.
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