RETROSPECTIVE

Burnsville, in the year 1950, was a quiet township with a population of 583 people. School was taught in one room containing eight grades. Farmers planted corn, raised hogs, and socialized with one another. A few "ex-urbanites" had moved in, quietly, almost unnoticed. The Town Board bet yearly, every citizen had a voice in the business at hand. Irish families generally ran things, although Germans and Swedes were to be found on Town and School Boards.

Suddenly, the bulldozers came. By mid-decade, Iverson and Suburban Builders began to develop Vista View and Northview. The Burnsville Heights area began about 1957. Ordean Spande, Vern Loken, George Bohn, E.E. Jones, Grommesch, Ess, Schunk, Milliman and others were building houses. Area names such as Terrace Oaks, West View Hills, Valley Highlands, Timberland Knolls, White wood, Skyline and Sunset Terrace came into being.

The boom started in 1962 when Pemtom platted River Hills. That year 252 single family homes were constructed. The next year 524 homes went up, in 1964 and 1965 a total of 994 more homes. The population was estimated at 3,804 in 1961, four years later it tripled to 10,700. By 1965 the Town Board gave way to a Village Council-Manager government system. The School Board was at wits end. Traffic snarled, in more ways than one. Home building continued at a terrific rate. The average per home value rose from $15.000 in 1961 to $30,519 in 1970. Apartments, townhouses and condominiums began to sprout. "Singles" apartments were vogue. By 1970 the population reached 1,218 people.

Between 1970 and 1975 the pace did not stop. Sioux Trail, Levitz, Diamond Head mall, K-Mart, Homart, and Howard Johnson's dotted the community. Dozens of small businesses began to spread along main thoroughfares. "Cement Block City"blossomed along Cliff Road north of Highway 13. The Industrial Valley began to fill up. The Embassy went Italian and then Chinese. Fast Food Restaurants pocked the landscape. The Burnsville Bowl went "Go-Go".

Burnsville in 1976, is no longer a quiet town. The population is 32,386. School is taught in a dozen buildings, and the School Board is still at wits end. Farmers plant little corn and have few hogs. "Big City" government runs the business at hand. The budget is $2,915,988.

Throughout all this tremendous growth a bridge, inadequate for 30 years, a freeway, inadequate the day it was finished, and a highway, with an unlucky number, carried a burden of traffic no other community would tolerate...

Richard Brooks