St. Olaf was started on Manitou Heights when Old Main was completed in 1874. The hill top campus is perched on a Cannon River Valley bluff above Northfield’s west side. Today there are 1,987,500 gross square feet of all kinds of space. The semi-formal campus area is about 250 acres of a contiguous block of about 650. In addition, there are about 450 acres across North Avenue in Dakota County, and another 100 or so.
The 650 acre block includes the campus and another 400 acres that have been restored. Restored to what? We chose the conditions they might have been in upon the arrival of the first white settlers. Woodland, prairie, and wetland.