Contract For Deed Shakopee is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Minnesota It is located southwest of Minneapolis. Sited on the south bank bend of the Minnesota River, Shakopee and nearby suburbs comprise the southwest portion of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the sixteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 3.7 million people. The population was 43,698 at the 2020 census.
The river bank’s Shakopee Historic District contains burial mounds built by prehistoric cultures. In the 18th century, Chief Shakopee of the Mdewakanton Dakota established his village on the east end of this area near the water. Trading led to the city’s establishment in the 19th century. Shakopee boomed as a commerce exchange site between river and rail at Murphy’s Landing.
Once an isolated city in the Minnesota River Valley, by the 1960s the economy of Shakopee was tied to that of the expanding metropolitan area. Significant growth as a bedroom community occurred after U.S. Highway 169 was realigned in 1996 toward the new Bloomington Ferry Bridge.
The city is known for the Valleyfair amusement park and the Canterbury Park racetrack.
Education
Shakopee Public Schools (ISD 720) include five elementary schools, two middle schools and one senior high school, as well as a couple learning centers. The schools are:
- Red Oak Elementary
- Sun Path Elementary
- Sweeney Elementary
- Eagle Creek Elementary
- Jackson Elementary
- Shakopee West Middle School
- Shakopee East Middle School
- Shakopee High School
- Tokata Learning Center
- Pearson Early Learning Center
- Central Family Center (closed for 2020-2021 School year for renovations)
Shakopee is also the location of the Shakopee Area Catholic Schools.
Living Hope Lutheran School is a Christian Pre-K-8 school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Shakopee.
Shakopee has a campus of the Globe University/Minnesota School of Business, a private career college.