WAJC

Coates is a town in the U.S. state of Minnesota located west of the Upper Mississippi River on the exurban fringe in central Dakota County. U.S. Highway 52 connects north to the city of Saint Paul, while County Road 46 draws east–west to nearby suburban cities. The population was 161 at the 2010 census. It is named for Civil War Captain Henry C. Coates who served in the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Major employers are in trucking, moving and recycling services. The city is popular among people from the Twin Cities for the House of Coates, a burger restaurant opened in 1962. St. Agatha's Catholic Church serves as city hall. Originally a rural post office hub in the 1900s, the U.S. Postal Service now designates addresses as part of the larger nearby city of Rosemount. The city of Coates was officially incorporated in 1953 at the northwest corner of Vermillion Township.

Gopher Ordnance Works was a smokeless powder production plant near Coates and Rosemount, Minnesota, United States. It was first opened in 1943. The plant was closed soon after the end of World War II. There are some remains still at the original site which is visible from U.S. Route 52 and County Road 46. After the government decided it needed a place to open up another gunpowder factory, they chose Dakota County in East Central Minnesota as their prime spot to put up such a factory, specifically, the city of Rosemount. They soon evicted farmers on 11,000 acres (45 km2) of farmland so that they could build Gopher Ordnance Works, which consisted of 858 buildings.

The Pine Bend Refinery is the largest oil refinery in Minnesota, located in the Twin Cities suburbs of Rosemount and Inver Grove Heights next to southern split of U.S. Highway 52 and Minnesota State Highway 55. The refinery is notable for being the largest in the United States to be located in a state without any oil wells. Overall, it ranked 14th in the country as of 2012 by production, with a nameplate capacity of 320,000 barrels (51,000 m3) per day. The facility is owned by Flint Hills Resources (FHR), a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) is a public, two-year technical college in Rosemount, Minnesota, United States. It is located in Dakota County inside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. DCTC belongs to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and is one of five stand-alone technical colleges in the state.

Dakota County is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the east central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 439,882. The population of Dakota County was estimated to be 443,341 in 2022. The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named for the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who inhabited the area.The name is recorded as "Dahkotah" in the United States Census records until 1851. Dakota County is included in the Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States with about 3.64 million residents. The largest city in Dakota County is the city of Lakeville, the eleventh-largest city in Minnesota and sixth-largest Twin Cities suburb. The county is bordered by the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers on the north, and the state of Wisconsin on the east.

KCMP (89.3 FM, 89.3 the Current) is a radio station owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) music format including a significant rotation of songs by local artists. Licensed to Northfield, Minnesota, and covering the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, the station's studios are located at the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul, while its transmitter is located atop the Vermillion Highlands near Coates. The Current is also broadcast on stations in Rochester, Duluth-Superior, Pasadena-Los Angeles, translators around Minnesota, and online. The Current, which has been broadcasting its AAA format since 2004, debuted after MPR purchased WCAL-FM, the radio station of St. Olaf College in Northfield, in 2004. St. Olaf had put WCAL-FM on the air in 1968 as an extension of WCAL, a part-time AM station established in 1922 and eventually shut down in 1991.

Vermillion Township is a township in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2000 census. Vermillion Township was organized in 1858, and took its name from the Vermillion River.

Empire is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota. The population was 2,444 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

Spring Lake is a lake in Dakota County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota.Spring Lake was named from the fact there are many springs near it.

Vermillion is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 441 at the 2020 census.

Kegan Lake is a lake in Dakota County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota.Kegan Lake was named for Andrew Keegan, a pioneer farmer.

Grey Cloud Island Township is a township in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 307 at the 2010 census. The township formerly included all of Lower Grey Cloud Island but that area has been annexed by the neighboring city of Cottage Grove. Since then the township has been made up of Upper Grey Cloud Island, an area to the north bounded by Grey Cloud Trail and Geneva Avenue, and a small piece of Lower Grey Cloud Island.