MPR News – Microbiology is a big leap from St. Cloud’s past, when the local economy was dominated by manufacturing and mining. The granite carved out of huge quarries here for more than a century gave St. Cloud its moniker, the Granite City.
The other major industry was agriculture — specifically, dairy farming.
Along with farming, other industries began to spring up. King Banaian, who heads the school of public affairs at St. Cloud State, said printing was an important one.
“We didn’t just print paper,” Banaian said. “We printed paper that had important bank forms on them. We printed paper that was on glossy paper so we could print the great catalogs, the mail order catalogs that you used to get at the house when I was a kid growing up.”
