Floodwood is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States.

The Savanna Portage was a major route for transportation in the southern Arrowhead, but its importance was magnified greatly with the arrival of European fur traders, who used the route to access rich resources of beaver and other fur animals in the upper Mississippi valley.

[5] This led to a local population boom in anticipation of the opportunities the railroad would bring.

In 1893, the year that local government was first organized, the first Floodwood School building was constructed of logs.

By the time the 1900 United States census was conducted, Floodwood had a population of 224, which, within the next 10 years, more than doubled to 481.

The community continued to grow until the 1918 Cloquet Fire nearly ended the city's history.

But the practical importance of the rivers, Floodwood's greatest economic resource, ended.

The creamery became the main support of the local economy, selling dairy products across the world until it closed in the late 1960s.

This began a trend that has endured to the present: the last time a census showed an increase in Floodwood's population was in 1960.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 1.42 square miles (3.68 km2), all land.

The area surrounding the city largely comprises forests, wetlands and, where conditions permit, dairy farms.

Nearby peat bogs employ many people from Floodwood, Meadowlands and other communities in southwest Saint Louis County.

The Savanna Portage, together with the three rivers that meet in the city, contributes much to local culture.

The racial makeup of the city was 97.22% White, 0.99% Native American, 0.20% Asian, and 1.59% from two or more races.

[15] Kletscher, among others, argued that smaller communities did not have things like libraries that they could close to save funds and that the only way they could continue to function in the face of cuts in state funding would be to raise property taxes, which they did not want to do because residents of these communities are often poor, and they feared the burden would be too much for them to handle.