Prior Lake Real Estate
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Prior Lake Real Estate Blog

Location- Prior Lake is located within Scott County less than 25 miles from Minneapolis and less than five miles from Savage. Prior Lake is centered around the 16-square mile lake that shares its name. 2003 Prior Lake Housing Statistics Houses Sold Avg List Price Avg Sold Price % of Listing Price Received Avg Days On Market 452 $342,742 $339,230 %99.98 41

City of Prior Lake

History- Prior Lake’s first inhabitants were the Indians. Signs of the early Indians were in the form of five huge hawk effigies with a wing spread of 150 feet, low mounds of earth rising three or four feet in height. They dated back perhaps 1,200 years to the Effigy Mound Culture of the Late Woodland Period, but were eventually destroyed along with most other burial mounds, which were scattered about MDE MA-YA-TON (Lake-of-the-Blue-Banks), now known as Prior Lake. Since the permanent villages were located in the Minnesota River Valley, two Dakota divisions known as the Santee, who hunted and fished here during their summers. They were WA-HPE-TON (Dwellers in the Leaves). The other division was the MDE-WA-KANTON-WAN (People of the Spirit) whose villages spread from Shakopee down the river to Winona. By 1800, forced land cessions and removal to reservations erupted into the Sioux uprising. Following that event, the Indian was removed from the state, but the Sioux would slowly migrate back to ancestral lands in southern Minnesota. The general settlement did not begin until the 1850s when settlers came into the Prior Lake area following the Indian trails. Prior Lake is named for landowner and railroad employee Charles H. Prior, who brought the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad lines through town, but wasn’t able to get it to go through the town of Prior Lake. The Village of Prior Lake was incorporated in May of 1891.

Shopping- Prior Lake’s residents benefit from the town’s economy, which is supported primarily by commercial, retail and banking establishments. The Mystic Lake Casino is located within the boundaries of Prior Lake, and is the only casino/hotel in the Twin Cities region.

Recreation- Prior Lake is comprised of 32 parks with an amateur baseball complex at Memorial Park, an athletic complex including nine baseball/softball fields and three football/soccer fields at the Ponds Park, Sand Point and Watzl’s swimming beaches on Prior Lake, a new youth athletic complex at Thomas Ryan Memorial Park, Lakefront Park (the crown jewel in the Prior Lake park system), and 22 neighborhood parks that include picnic shelters, ball fields, play equipment, trails, and basketball courts. Prior Lake is also home to the world-class Wilds golf course, designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morish. The Wilds was recently rated fourth-best new public golf course in the United States by Golf Digest magazine.