Mendota, MN

Mendota is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The 2020 census counted 183 residents. The name is a mispronunciation of the Dakota word for the location, bdóte, which in Dakota tradition is the center of the world. The town was one of the first permanent European-American settlements in the state of Minnesota, being founded around the same time as Fort Snelling. Mendota's local map joins its older history to the places and landscapes that still shape the town today, all within the wider Minnesota setting. The local scoop is how Mendota's history still shows up in the places people visit, work, learn, and meet. Hypolite Dupuis arrived in Mendota sometime between 1840, and 1842 and began clerking for Sibley. Mendota is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. The city is surrounded on three sides by Mendota Heights.