St. Cloud’s Solid Appeal

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – After more than six decades, this central Minnesota city is bringing granite back to its name … literally.
The city and the surrounding area will be branding itself as Granite Country U.S.A., according to Julie Lunning, executive director of the St. Cloud Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Central Minnesota’s ties to the stone trade go back to the late 1800s, with major quarry operations such as nearby Cold Spring Granite Co. still in operation. St. Cloud received the tag as a “busy, gritty Granite city” from a Chicago newspaper in 1904.
Local boosters erected a sign welcoming people to the Granite City in the early 1900s, although the display was removed in 1938.
The bureau and a 20-member Granite Steering Committee plan to bring back the identification with local stone, taking a cue from tourism efforts in another U.S. granite-producing area: Barre, Vt.
The St. Cloud effort includes plans for manufacturing and quarry tours, as well as a self-guided tour book highlighting granite buildings and other stone-related areas. A granite interpretive center and outdoor amphitheater at the local Quarry Park and Nature Preserve is also in the works, along with an annual Granite Festival.