SAVAGE

A short history of Savage

In the 17th century, French fur traders and explorers explored the Minnesota River valley. After 1750, Mdewakanton Dakota then settled at Chief Black Dog's camp—near what is now Black Dog Lake in Burnsville. Dakota used the Minnesota River valley region including present-day Savage for fish, game, boating and camping.

In 1852, traders established a small post at the confluence of the Credit River and the Minnesota River. William Byrne, who immigrated from County Kilkenny, Ireland, to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1840, arrived in the area shortly after, via steamboat from Fort Snelling. Already established in business and trade, he and other Irish and Scottish settlers built Hamilton Landing, a port for boats, named after the city he immigrated to in Canada. The town incorporated in 1892 as the village of Hamilton. Byrne later settled another nearby area which became Burnsville.

The Chicago & North Western (present day Union Pacific Railroad) railway line reached the site in 1865, and in 1866 the town gained a post office. Hamilton became the crossroads of trade and service in the region with the Credit River, Minnesota River, the valley's wagon and road trails, and the rail line.

The post office was later renamed Glendale Post Station in 1894 and formed Glendale Township to the west of Hamilton, but was later consolidated with Savage in 1969. The roughly 17 blocks of the late 19th-century town remain as Savage's downtown along Highway 13.

In 1902, Minneapolis entrepreneur Marion Willis Savage purchased racing horse Dan Patch and trained and raced him at his farm in the limits of Hamilton. Dan Patch's notoriety grew as the horse began breaking speed records, and with it grew the town's prestige. In 1904 the townspeople renamed the community after Savage with the post office officially confirming. In 1906 at the Minnesota State Fair, Dan Patch broke the world pacing mile record at 1 minute and 55 seconds, a record that remained unsurpassed for 54 years.

During World War II, Savage was home to Camp Savage, a Military Intelligence School (MIS) language program, which taught Japanese to American military personnel. Established in 1942, the school trained with niseis and improved military intelligence of the time. It was later relocated to Fort Snelling and is commemorated at Normandale College's Japanese garden. At about the same time, Cargill, Incorporated, began building ships for the U.S. Navy at the newly constructed Meadowland Shipyard, renamed Port Cargill (former site of Hamilton Landing). To launch the ships, 14 miles (23 km) of the Minnesota River were dredged down to 9 feet (2.7 m) from Savage to the Mississippi River confluence. About 3,500 people were employed during peak production resulting in 18 auxiliary oil and gas carriers and 4 tugboats constructed. After World War II the port began shipping agricultural commodities.

Savage remained undeveloped in the postwar housing boom, isolated by the Minnesota River and without a direct interstate connection. Lack of available construction materials in the immediate area also prevented development. By the 1980s, with the upgrade of Highway 13 and construction of the Highway 169 Bloomington Ferry Bridge in 1996 across the Minnesota River, Savage finally boomed as one of the growing exurbs with low-cost greenfield land in the metropolitan area. The citizens of Savage reclaimed some of their history in the early 21st century, when it relocated the displaced Savage Depot built in 1880 by the then Chicago, Minneapolis and Omaha Rail Road.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Savage, Minnesota, revision 1378605069 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.