ALBERT LEA, a city of Minnesota, U.S.A., about 97 m. S. of St. Paul ; the county seat of Freeborn county. It is on the Jefferson highway, Blackhills Trail, is the northern terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad, and is served also by the Rock Island, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the Minneapolis and St. Louis railways. It is pleasantly situated between Lake Albert Lea and Fountain lake. The population was 8,o56 in 1920, of whom 1,271 were foreign-born white; in 1930, 10,169.
The manufactures include road-building machines, sprayers for fruits and vegetables, tools, camp stoves, and barn equipment. Thousands of chickens, hatched in electrically controlled incuba tors, are shipped to all parts of the country. Butter is the leading product of the surrounding country, and the Minnesota State Experimental Creamery was established in Albert Lea in 1911. The two lakes and 16,00o ac. of surrounding territory have been placed in a game refuge, where hunting is forbidden.
The city and the lake owe their names to Lieut. Albert Miller Lea (18o8-91), a West Point graduate (1831), who was the topographer of a U.S. Government exploring party. His report was published in 1836. The first post office was established here in 1855, and the city received its charter in 1878.