Burnsville, MN

Burnsville (/ˈbɜːrnzvɪl/ BURNZ-vil) is a city 15 miles (24 km) south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city is situated on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.7 million residents. At the 2020 census the population was 64,317.^[2]

The name Burnsville is attributed to an early Irish settler and land owner, William Byrne. His surname was recorded as “Burns” and was never corrected.^[5]

Burnsville stands on land that once contained a village of Mdewakanton Dakota. Later, it became a rural Irish farming community. Burnsville grew rapidly following the construction of Interstate 35, becoming Minnesota’s 14th-largest city in the 2020 census. Now the ninth-largest suburb in the metro area and a bedroom community of both Minneapolis and Saint Paul, it was fully built by the late 2000s. Burnsville’s downtown area is called Heart of the City with urban-style retail and condominiums.^[6] The Burnsville Transit Station serves as the hub and headquarters of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, providing regional bus service to five other suburbs.

Burnsville is home to a regional mall (Burnsville Center), a section of Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve, 310-foot (94 m) vertical ski peak Buck Hill, and part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.