Minnetonka (/ˌmɪnɪˈtɒŋkə/ MIN-i-TONG-kə) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Minneapolis. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 53,781.

Minnetonka is the home of Cargill, the country's largest privately owned company, and UnitedHealth Group, the state's largest publicly owned company. Interstate 494 runs through the city while Interstate 394 (U.S. Route 12) and U.S. Route 169 are situated along the suburb's northern and eastern boundaries respectively.

History

Since the mid-19th century, Minnetonka has evolved from heavily wooded wilderness through extensive farming and industrialization to its present primarily residential suburban character. The Minnetonka area was home to the Dakota and Ojibwe Native American tribes before Euro-Americans arrived in the 1800s. They believed Lake Minnetonka (mni meaning water, and tanka meaning big, anglicized to Minnetonka) and the land around it to be sacred. The first recorded exploration of the area by Euro-Americans was in 1822, when a group from newly constructed Fort Snelling made its way up Minnehaha Creek (then known as Brown's Creek or Falls Creek) to the lake. In 1851, the Dakota sold the area including Minnetonka to the United States with the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. The first census, the Territorial Census of 1857, lists 41 households. Twenty-nine of the heads of households are listed as farmers. The occupations of the remaining twelve are associated with the operations of Minnetonka Mill and a nearby hotel.