:''There are also two Byron Townships in Minnesota.'' Byron is a city in Olmsted County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States, approximately west of Rochester and six miles (9.6 km) east of Kasson on U.S. Route 14. It is surrounded by Kalmar Township. The population was 6,312 at the 2020 census. Local industries are in the form of

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

services and

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

. A

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

is situated next to the

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

line that runs through town, which is owned by the

Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Before its purchase, it was the largest Class II railroad in the United States, operating across South Dakota and southern Minnesot ...

. Schmidt Printing (a subsidiary of

Taylor Corporation Taylor Corporation is a privately owned print and communications company headquartered in North Mankato, Minnesota, and was founded in 1975 by businessman Glen Taylor. The company comprises more than 90 locations and employs nearly 10,000 emplo ...

) is another major company in town. Byron is also a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for nearby Rochester, Minnesota.

History

Byron was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1864. A post office called Byron has been in operation since 1868. by George W. Van Dusen which he named after his birthplace of

Byron, New York Byron is a town in Genesee County, New York, United States. The town is named after a famous poet, Lord Byron. It on the northern border of the county, and lies northeast of the city of Batavia. The population was 2,369 at the 2010 census. The ...

. Byron was incorporated in 1873. Before the town was established, a small community known as Bear Grove was west of present-day Byron.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all land.

Climate

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 4,914 people, 1,796 households, and 1,366 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,891 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 96.2%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.7%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.1% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.5% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population. There were 1,796 households, of which 44.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 23.9% were non-families. 18.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.15. The median age in the city was 33.1 years. 31.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.8% were from 25 to 44; 24.3% were from 45 to 64; and 7.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.4% male and 50.6% female.

Transportation

Byron has in town and local community to community transportation provided by Rolling Hills Transit. The transportation is fare based and rides can be scheduled by calling their office or visiting their website at rhtbus.com. A commuter bus service to Rochester is operated by Rochester City Lines and has three trips daily through Byron each day. Two of those three go directly to a

park-and-ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

lot on the eastern edge of town, while the third zigzags through the city to pick up riders. The DM&E rail line was originally built by the Winona and St. Peter Railroad, which reached west through town to neighboring Kasson in 1865. The station was west of what is now Byron Avenue, and was rebuilt in 1883. The

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of t ...

gained control of the Winona and St. Peter a few years after the line reached Byron. The C&NW operated the line until the 1980s, when it was spun off to create the DM&E.

Community and government

Byron has a mayor and a four-member city council. There are also four other government boards including an economic development authority and a park board. Byron City Hall is near the elementary school on 10th Avenue. It is also a fairly new structure. The old city hall is in the center of town at Byron Avenue and 4th Street and was built in 1938. The city's first water tower was built next to that location in 1935, and torn down around 2004. The Byron city flag consists of three stripes of blue, white, and green. It has five stars on the top blue stripe, and a bear in the center of the white stripe. The flag's design was chosen in a citywide contest and the winning design was designed by Jeff and Allison Ihrke. The weekly ''Byron Review'' newspaper covers city events. It is owned by Community News Corporation, which also operates papers in Hayfield and Dodge Center.

Education

Parks and recreation

Parks

One of the major parks in the county, Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo, is 3.5 miles north of town. The zoo has dozens of animals from 30 different native species, including a number of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, a

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

, wolves, otters,

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

, and some

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

. Byron has several city parks, a public pool open in the summer, and many recreational fields, such as soccer and baseball fields.

Golf

Byron is home to Somerby Golf Club and Community, a private golf club and community on the north side of the city. Links of Byron was a nine-hole public course that closed in 2015.

References

External links

City of ByronByron Chamber of CommerceByron Public Schools
{{authority control Cities in Minnesota Cities in Olmsted County, Minnesota Rochester metropolitan area, Minnesota 1873 establishments in Minnesota