Place:Pine Island, Goodhue, Minnesota, United States

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Pine Island is a city in Goodhue and Olmsted counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 3,263 at the 2010 census. Most of Pine Island is located within Goodhue County, but a small part extends into Olmsted County, making that small portion part of the Rochester metropolitan area.

The community has a strong agricultural base, but has been transitioning over time into a bedroom community for nearby Rochester which employs many local residents. Large development is planned for the Olmsted County side as it becomes a suburb of Rochester, including the Elk Run Bioscience Park, and the state's first diverging diamond interchange.

Pine Island was temporarily thrown into the national spotlight in 2002 for having been the home town of the Midwest pipe bomber Luke Helder. More recently the new city council voted to eliminate the position of city administrator. This necessitated a change in the official city code dividing the responsibilities of city administrator between remaining city employees.

Ralph Wilford Samuelson (July 3, 1904 – August 28, 1977), the inventor of water skiing, moved here from Lake City, Minnesota to raise turkeys and remained here until his death in 1977.

Pine Island was flooded in September 2010, causing U.S. Highway 52, a major highway connecting the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area and Rochester, Minnesota, to be closed. This resulted in traffic-filled detours. The City is working with State legislators and area towns in developing a flood mitigation work group called Zumbro & Friends to help mitigate future effects of flooding by slowing water flow along the various branches of the Zumbro River.

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