Lilydale, MN

Lilydale is a small Dakota County city squeezed between Highway 13 and the Mississippi River, just south of St. Paul. The 2020 census counted 809 residents. The original settlement sat on the river flats, but repeated flooding pushed the community up onto the bluffs. That move still shapes the city’s split personality: upper Lilydale is mostly homes on the high ground, while the river bottom opens into parks, trails, and old industrial ground.

Lilydale Regional Park carries the lower story. Pickerel Lake, floodplain woods, the former Twin City Brick Company site, and paths toward Fort Snelling all sit in the park landscape. The city is inside the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, with I-35E and Highway 13 putting a very metropolitan road network next to the river. Lilydale is a good Twin Cities oddity: a small city with a bluff-top address, a floodplain past, and a park system that keeps the old river town visible below all year round.