Just west of Winona County is Olmsted County (pop. 144,248).  Its county seat is Rochester, the third-largest city in Minnesota.

Rochester was named for Rochester, New York; its population has grown from 40,663 in 1960 to 106,769 in 2010.

Most of downtown’s tall buildings are part of the Mayo Clinic.

Rochester is famous for its Mayo Clinic; Dr. William Worrall Mayo (1819-1911) started the medical practice that eventually became the Mayo Clinic.

Statue of William W. Mayo

More than 30,000 people work at the Mayo Clinic, and the clinic has more than a million patient visits each year.

IBM is another large employer in Rochester, with more than 4,000 workers at its Rochester facility.

IBM Rochester (1958), designed by Eero Saarinen

Downtown Rochester’s Chateau Theatre (1927) was converted into a Barnes & Noble bookstore in 1994.

Minnesota’s finest “atmospheric” theater

The University of Minnesota Rochester opened in downtown Rochester in 2006.

This building combines classrooms and student residences.

The 38-room Mayowood Mansion, home of three generations of the Mayo family, is open for tours.

Stewartville (pop. 5,916) was the birthplace of Richard Warren Sears (1863-1914), cofounder of Sears, Roebuck, and Company.

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