It is the center of a contiguous urban area, with Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, St. Joseph, Rockville, and St. Augusta directly bordering the city, and Foley, Rice, Kimball, Clearwater, Clear Lake, and Cold Spring nearby.

The approximately 30 undeveloped islands are a popular destination for kayak and canoe enthusiasts during safe river levels and flow.

Cloud area opened up to homesteading[17] after the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed with the Dakota people in 1851.

[18] John L. Wilson, a Yankee homesteader from Columbia, Maine, with French Huguenot ancestry and an interest in Napoleon, named the settlement St.

The Métis, bringing furs to trade for supplies to take back to their rural settlements, camped west of the city and crossed the Mississippi in St.

Lower Town was founded by settlers from the Northern Tier of New England and the mid-Atlantic states, including former residents of upstate New York.

[23] Upper Town, or Arcadia, was plotted by General Sylvanus Lowry, a slaveholder and trader from Kentucky who brought slaves with him, although Minnesota was organized as a free territory.

[25][24][26] Jane Grey Swisshelm, an abolitionist newspaper editor who had migrated from Pittsburgh, repeatedly attacked Lowry in print.

At one point Lowry organized a "Committee of Vigilance" that broke into Swisshelm's newspaper office and removed her press, throwing it into the Mississippi River.

[26] The U.S. Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott ruled that slaves could not file freedom suits and found the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, so the territory's prohibition against slavery became unenforceable.

Cloud's chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, and raised money for the building of a statue in memory of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln that still stands near the St. Germain Street bridge.

Miller was a "Pennsylvania German businessman", lawyer, writer, active abolitionist, and personal friend of Alexander Ramsey.

[34] On 26 January 1918, President Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter to Bishop Joseph Francis Busch thanking him for his support of the war effort.

[37] In 2021, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) credited decade-long city investments in stormwater filtration with reducing Lake George's phosphorus levels well below the state standard.

It called Lake George one of three "success stories" in the state, and planned to remove it from a list of impaired waters.

[38] Granite bedrock quarried in the area has been estimated to be 1.7 billion years old and was exposed after several miles of rock above it eroded.

The city lies on a band of modern Mississippi river sediment surrounded by land scoured several times by Wisconsin Age glaciers beginning about 35,000 years ago, ending with the Lake Superior St. Croix lobe.

It features a recreation center for senior citizens, a dog park, and numerous softball, baseball, and soccer fields.

Cloud has been moved by Congressional redistricting to a wide variety of Minnesota regions, including northern, south central, northwest and southwest.

In Congressional district maps in effect since 2003, it has been grouped with rural areas and suburbs north and west of the Twin Cities.

The city makes up the majority of population of Minnesota State Senate District 14, which straddles the Mississippi River and includes parts of three counties,[68][69] represented by Aric Putnam.

Minnesota House District 14A includes generally western parts of the city as well as Waite Park, St. Augusta and adjacent rural areas,[70] represented by Bernie Perryman.

Cloud, neighboring Sauk Rapids and parts of rural Benton and Sherburne Counties,[71] represented by Dan Wolgamott.

Cloud's wastewater plant converts sugar-laden liquids from local food and beer manufacturers into fuel and fertilizer.

Cloud, St. Augusta, Clearwater, Waite Park, St. Joseph, Haven Township, and parts of Sauk Rapids.

Cloud is home to several higher education institutions, including Minnesota's third-largest university, St.

Cloud State University students operate cable-only UTVS (channel 180), which includes local news and broadcasts from a studio on campus.

[89] Bus service within the city and to neighboring Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and Waite Park is offered through St.

An innovative system gives transit buses a slight advantage at stoplights in order to improve efficiency and on-time performance.

Cloud State University with the western terminus of the Northstar Commuter Rail line in Big Lake, by the way of Northstar Link Commuter Bus, which in turn links to the Metro Transit bus and light rail system at Target Field Station in downtown Minneapolis.