Where to Stay in Burnsville, Minnesota

What is Burnsville known for?

Burnsville stands on a bluff above the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River, and that ground gives the city its outlook over the valley. The Minnesota Zoo lies close by. Families head for Nickelodeon Universe and the Water Park of America, both within the metro's southern reach, while older Dakota County survives in the Gideon H. Pond House.

What are the main landmarks in Burnsville?

Two houses carry the oldest names here. The Gideon H. Pond House and the Emil J. Oberhoffer House stand for the Dakota County that predates the suburbs, and both are listed among the heritage buildings of this stretch of the Minnesota River. The Minnesota Zoo is the largest draw nearby.

Beyond it the list turns to indoor attractions: Nickelodeon Universe, the Log Chute, Sea Life at Mall of America and rides including the Fairly Odd Coaster, the Pepsi Orange Streak and the SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge. The Works rounds out the roll.

What is the history of Burnsville?

The date on the record is 1855. Burnsville takes its start from that year, when the ground on the bluff above the south bank of the Minnesota River first carried the name, upstream from the meeting of that river with the Mississippi River. Two houses survive from the early decades.

The Gideon H. Pond House and the Emil J. Oberhoffer House are the buildings the city still lists from before the suburban century, and they sit on the older ground near the water rather than out among the newer streets. Rail came next. The Minneapolis Saint Paul Rochester & Dubuque Electric Traction Company Depot is the surviving mark of the electric traction era, a period when the corridor between Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the towns south of them was being tied together by track.

Then the metro arrived. Burnsville and the suburbs around it became the southern portion of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and the city that had begun as bluff-top settlement in 1855 filled out across roughly 69 square kilometres of valley and upland. The river still marks the northern edge.

Older Dakota County shows through only where the two houses and the depot stand.

Where is Burnsville?

The bluff does the work. Burnsville sits on high ground above the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from where that river joins the Mississippi River, so the northern edge of the city looks out over the valley. Dakota County spreads south from there.

The city covers roughly 69 square kilometres in the northern temperate band, with Minneapolis 15 miles away and the rest of Minneapolis-Saint Paul beyond it.

What is the climate of Burnsville?

The valley air does the sharpening. Burnsville lies far from any coast in the northern temperate band, and the Minnesota River valley below the bluff carries the cold down through the winter months while the summer sits warm over the same ground. Seasons swing hard here.

Indoor places take the winter, among them Nickelodeon Universe, SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium and the Water Park of America, while the Minnesota Zoo and the river paths belong to the warm half of the year.

How do you get to Burnsville?

Minneapolis is the way in. Downtown lies 15 miles north, which makes the run into Burnsville short by metro standards and puts the whole of Minneapolis-Saint Paul within a daily reach from the bluff. Cars carry most of it.

The Minneapolis Saint Paul Rochester & Dubuque Electric Traction Company Depot survives as a reminder that rails once did the same job, but the crossing of the Minnesota River decides how long a journey south actually takes.