Gaylord boxes in Scott County

Scott County is the metro's south-west corner. Shakopee is the centre: Amazon, Emerson and other employers sit among the top on its city report. Savage has Port Cargill, which still takes grain barges on the Minnesota River.

Scott County runs on fulfilment and on grain. Shakopee's warehouses move steady, light, high-count loads, while Savage's port sees seasonal swings that follow the barge calendar. Tell us which side your request is on, because the two want different boxes and different timing.

Scott County at a glance

Scott County's page gives 150,928 people at the 2020 census and 159,017 at the 2025 estimate, a 5.4 percent rise. The Minnesota River forms its northern and western boundary. The page says fur trading, lumbering and farming were the 19th-century industries and that the county now has a growing mix of commercial, industrial and housing development while remaining primarily rural.

It names the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota's gaming operations, including Mystic Lake, as a significant source of revenue reinvested in economic development, plus Canterbury Park, Valleyfair and The Landing as destinations. Roads named are Interstate 35, U.S. 169, Minnesota 13, 19, 21, 25, 41 and 282, and County Roads 42 and 101.

Getting around Scott

US 169 and US 13 run through the county, and the Minnesota River forms its northern edge.

Scott towns

Across Scott's towns the trades that show most often are distribution, parcel and logistics (2), industrial and metal products (2), printing and packaging (1) and electronics and instruments (1). The largest towns are Shakopee, Savage and Prior Lake.

Shakopee

Population 48,401 (Census estimate, July 2024). Top employers in the 2023 city report: Amazon 2,500, Emerson 1,563, CyberPower 1,160, Imagine Print 877, Entrust 800.

Shakopee's top employers in the city's 2023 financial report: Amazon at 2,500, Valleyfair at 1,721, Emerson at 1,563, School District 720 at 1,315, Cyberpower Systems at 1,160, Imagine Print Solutions at 877, Scott County at 865, St. Francis Regional Medical Center at 824, Entrust Datacard at 800 and Northstar Auto Auction at 715. A printer, a power-equipment maker and a fulfilment operator in one list is a fair picture of the mixed freight the town generates.

Savage

Population 32,896 (Census estimate, July 2024). Port Cargill on the Minnesota River still takes grain barges.

Savage is an industrial manufacturing job centre in the southern metro. Its river port, Port Cargill on the Minnesota River, was built by Cargill as the Meadowland Shipyard, which in the Second World War employed about 3,500 at peak and built 18 auxiliary oil and gas carriers and four tugboats. Fourteen miles of the river were dredged to nine feet to launch them, and after the war the port turned to shipping agricultural commodities.

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