Hastings, MN

Hastings is a historic river city southeast of the Twin Cities, where the Mississippi, St. Croix, and Vermillion River landscapes all matter. Its early history includes a military presence from Fort Snelling, and the older downtown still shows through in the East Second Street Commercial Historic District. Hastings has public schools, riverfront views, and a county-seat feel without being swallowed by the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro. It reads as both an old Minnesota town and a practical outer-edge suburb.