Willmar, Minnesota

Agricultural expansion and Willmar's establishment as a division point on the Great Northern Railway determined its growth. The first settlers arrived during the 1850s, attracted to the fertile land and abundant timber and game. The Dakota War of 1862 left the township abandoned for several years. The advent of the railroad in Kandiyohi County in 1869 brought new settlers. Many were of Swedish and Norwegian origin; residents of Scandinavian heritage are still a majority. In 1870, Leon (Chadwick) Willmar, a Belgian acting as an agent for the European bondholder of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, bought the title to Section 1 of Willmar Township. Willmar was established as the county seat in 1871 and was incorporated as a village in 1874 and as a city in 1901. Willmar was the site of a bank robbery by the Machine Gun Kelly gang on July 15, 1930. They robbed the Bank of Willmar (later Otto Bremer Trust) of about $70,000 () and wounded three people. The Willmar Memorial Auditorium, designed by architect William Ingemann, was the largest assembly hall within 70 miles when completed in 1938. It was funded by the city of Willmar and the state and federal governments as a Depression-era works project. It contains several murals by Richard Haines commissioned by the Federal Art Project, and wood paneling in the oak doors by WPA artists. From 1977 to 1979, Willmar was the site of the Willmar 8, a strike of female workers confronting sexual discrimination at a local bank. The strike was reported in mainstream media and a documentary. File:2012-0821-Kandiyohi-WillmarHospital.jpg|thumb|The former state hospital campus is now the MinnWest Technology Campus and is one of several of the city's listings on the National Register of Historic Places. Bradley Joseph's music draws inspiration from his childhood in Willmar, and his company, Robbins Island Music, is named after a Willmar city park. Willmar was home to the annual Sonshine Festival, a Christian music festival, from 1982 to 2014. ==Geography==

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. The 45° latitude line passes just south of Willmar, placing it approximately halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Climate ==Demographics==

2020 census As of the 2020 census, Willmar had a population of 21,015. The median age was 34.2 years. 27.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.3 males age 18 and over. There were 7,875 households in Willmar, of which 32.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 41.4% were married-couple households, 18.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 32.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. In 2005, the city received attention from national media after several Somali-American high school students gave Willmar High School its first cross-country state championship in 20 years. The team won the state tournament and attended the Nike Nationals in both 2005 and 2006. The city gained attention from Sports Illustrated, and NBC Nightly News ran a story on Willmar's changing complexion and acceptance of its new citizens. Willmar received more national attention when an opinion piece about immigration and Willmar by Thomas Friedman appeared in the New York Times on May 14, 2019. On January 16, 2026, national news outlets—including MS NOW—reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ate a meal at a Mexican restaurant in Willmar, then returned later in the day to arrest the employees who had provided their meal. ==Education==

Willmar is home to Ridgewater College, a community and technical college on the site of a former military base. It has a sister college in Hutchinson. Ridgewater enrolls over 5,500 students and provides a moderate range of programs, in addition to providing access to some four-year programs through relationships with universities in the MnSCU system. It is also home to Willmar High School and Willmar Community Christian School. ==Transportation==

U.S. Highways 12 and 71 and Minnesota State Highways 23 and 40 are four of the main routes in the city. Willmar greatly benefited from being at the junction of multiple railway lines. From Willmar, the Great Northern Railway had lines radiating east to Minneapolis and St. Paul, northwest to Fargo and Seattle, northeast to St. Cloud and Duluth, and southwest to Sioux Falls and Yankton. Willmar was served by numerous passenger trains over the years. The last passenger train left Willmar station in 1979. ==Sports==

Newspapers • West Central Tribune • La Gran America (Trilingual newspaper) Magazines • Seasons of Minnesota Television stations • UHF-TV Inc. WRAC TV - Regional Access Channel Broadcast Pay television services • Charter Communications • DirecTV • Dish Network Radio stations ==Notable people==

• Thomas K. Berg – politician and lawyer • Wallace Gustafson – lawyer and politician • Olof Hanson – architect • Bonnie Henrickson – head women's college basketball coach at UC Santa Barbara • Roy C. Jensen – farmer and politician • Dean Johnson – politician • Robert George Johnson – politician • Carl O. Jorgenson – politician • Bradley Joseph – composer and recording artist • Pinky Nelson – astronaut • Alec G. Olson – politician • Earl B. Olson – founder of the Jennie-O Turkey company • Kenneth L. Olson – United States Army soldier • Jim Pederson – professional football player • Henrik Shipstead – politician • Curt Swan – illustrator of Superman comics from the 1950s to the 1980s • Rick Swenson – dog musher and Iditarod participant • Alan Welle – politician and businessman • Henry G. Young – lawyer and politician ==Sister cities==

• Yakutsk, Russia • Vileyka, Belarus ==References==