City of North Branch
Here is a little history on our little town. North Branch was founded in 1881 with 149 families, 139 houses, two grain elevators, a sawmill, a three-story “flouring” mill, a tin shop, two hotels, four general stores, a warehouse and a boarding house. That is a pretty good start, especially being so far from a large city. Improvements in transportation would continue to bring the Twin Cities closer and closer. Around 1920 State Highway 61 was built providing a direct route to Duluth.
In 1958 it was announced that the interstate freeway would be coming through Chisago County. 11 years later the freeway to Duluth was finished bringing hope for growth in business and population. More people started commuting longer distances to work and North Branch started to become a commuter community. In 1995, the phone companies included the North Branch in the metro loop. Now it wasn’t a long distance call anymore!
North Branch has always welcomed newcomers, and it still does today with over 300 acres of industrial park sites, new construction homes and a new commercial retail area. A true sense of community pride shows at community events, the school district, places of worship, and with the local residents.
You will find yourself fitting right in!!
North Branch Area Library
The library’s new facility was built in 2006 bringing great resources to the area. As a branch of the East Central Regional Library (Cambridge) it recognizes the support of the all-volunteers fostering public attention on its needs and raising funds to continue the valued programs.
Since it’s start over 250 patrons visit the facility daily making use of the many programs provided including: checking out books, magazines, videos, e-audios (downloadable books to MP3 players), also making use of the copy machine, microfilm reader/printer and fax service.
Also check out Story time, and the summer reading program.
Chisago County Trails, Parks, & More…
 Developed in 1992 the Chisago County Parks and Trails Foundation, a non-profit organization set out to enhance the parks and trails. Their mission to improve safety for pedestrians, bikers, skaters, and anyone wanting to enjoy recreation away from automobiles. Chisago County Parks strive to improve the quality of life through the unique natural resources and outdoor recreation opportunities.
Chisago County Historical Society
The Chisago County Historical Society is a non-profit organization recognized for education. They provide genealogy workshops and year round educational programs. They also sponsor folk art demonstrations, and local community festivals full of food and fun. Membership is open to all. The early Queen Anne house features a Research Library with book shelves lined with publication relating to county history and early pioneers, local events, family history, and cemetery burials. The collection is ever growing and is available for reference to remain on site.
Also available are micro film copies of early newspapers.
North Branch Area Public Schools
 With more than 4000 students enrolled Independent school district #138 has a lot to offer their students and the community. Grades K-12 serve central Chisago County and northeastern Isanti providing technology as part of the curriculum, available transportation for more than 3000 students with state-of-the-art buses equipped with cameras for safety, and offering outstanding extra curricular activities. The goal and hope is for every student to be a part of an extra curricular activity. Offered are athletics, fine arts, and activity programs, numerous clubs and organizations including Speech Team, Math League, Knowledge Bowl and events such as fall plays and one act performances.
Education doesn’t stop at the primary grades. Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) is offered for parents with children infants to 5 years of age, also providing community preschool and early childhood screenings free of charge. http://www.northbranch.k12.mn.us
Community Education programs offer educational, recreational, and social activity for the North Branch youth and adults. Programs range from trips to classes such as Mad Science System 2 to Red Cross Babysitting Training along with so many others. Check out their website for offered classes and activities. www.nbaceonline.org/
Wild River State Park
Enjoy the beautiful views of the St. Croix River while you camp, hike, ride horse, canoe, cross-country ski or take part in the other many activities. Camping options range from semi-modern camping, group camping, back packing or reserve the guest house with all the amenities of home. The visitor center is open year round with exhibits and environmental education programs available for all ages.
Try one of the many adventures from discovering lesser-known wonders in the park using your GPS system or go on a treasure hunt of your own following the clues and using your puzzle-solving skills to find the final cache, remove the token and redeem it for a unique enameled mini-medallion along with bragging rights- be an adventurer just like in the movie “National Treasure.” Be sure to check the website www.dnr.state.mn.us for special deer hunts and other State Park events. Open daily from 9-4 pm Chisago County For population, economy, job market etc…. www.epodunk.com Shopping- North Branch Outlets www.northbranchoutlets.com Enjoy the outlet mall with many name brand stores from Old Navy, Nike, Gap and more! North Branch is also close to Forest Lake, Pine City, and Cambridge which offer other shopping such as Target, Wal-Mart Super Centers, Cub Foods, and more. |