Eden Prairie used to be inhabited by Native Americans, and there was a raging battle between the Dakota and the Ojibwa throughout the 1860s. In the early 1850s, settlers were allowed into parts of what is now Eden Prairie. Several of these early farmhouses have survived and are part of the National Register of Historic Places. Eden Prairie was a small little farmings community for many decades, and it didn't really flourish as a city until the 1960s. It held its first meeting on the same day Minnesota became a state back in 1858. It voted to become a village in 1962 and a statutory city in 1974. An important moment in the city's development was when they built the Flying Cloud Airport in 1946. The 1960s and 1970s saw a focus on the development of parks and recreation, and the city really started to bloom in the mid-70s when Interstate 494 was built to run through the city. The Eden Prairie Center (mall) was developed around the same time as well, and that added life to the city as well. Now, the suburb is thriving and continues to grow. There is a diversity of income that bespeaks of a bustling economy, and there are over 2,200 businesses. It's has roughly 61,000 people, and it's a hidden gem in the Twin Cities.

Eden Prairie is serious about their environmental policies. They have a program called Sustainable Eden Prairie that focuses on the practices and policies that need to be improved/implemented in order to the sustainability of the city. The city launched the 20-40-15 Initiative in December of 2006, and the goal was to increase energy efficiency in city facilities by 20% and increase fuel efficiency of city vehicles by 40% by the year 2015. Not only did they meet their goal, they exceeded it. They reached 21.8% and 44.4% respectively. Since their success, they have become rededicated to beefing up their environmental policies, especially in four areas--water, waste, landscape, and energy.  

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