Dakota County, Minnesota

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.

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.

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.

WAJC 88.1 FM is a radio station licensed to Newport, Minnesota, and serving the south central Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The station broadcasts a Contemporary Christian music format and is owned by the Maranatha Assembly of God Church. Its transmitter is located in a park near Coates.

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.

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.

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.

Rosemount is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, on the southern edge of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. The population was 25,650 at the 2020 census.

The Church of the Advent built in 1872 is a historic Carpenter Gothic Episcopal church located at 412 Oak Street, in Farmington, Minnesota, in the United States. On December 31, 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Church of the Advent is still a functioning parish serving Dakota County, Minnesota and surrounding areas. The 1872 church building, which seats only 70 people is used as a wedding chapel, while larger worship services are held in the Michael and Lisbeth Sly Room built in 1976. The rector is the Rev. Elaine Barber.

Farmington is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,632 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

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