Best Web Design in Minnetonka, MN (2026)

Web Design for Minnetonka, Minnesota

Minnetonka is an affluent western suburb of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, taking its name from the Dakota words for 'big water' in honor of adjacent Lake Minnetonka. Once a milling settlement on Minnehaha Creek, it is now a corporate powerhouse, home to Cargill (the largest privately held U.S. company by revenue) and health-insurance giant UnitedHealth Group. Wooded, lake-dotted and prosperous, it blends heavy corporate employment with abundant parkland.

AppWT works with Minnetonka, MN businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Minnetonka

Also known as. Big Water (English translation of the Dakota name 'mni tanka').

History. First European-American claim was staked in 1852 along Minnehaha Creek; the community of Minnetonka Mills grew up around an 1852 sawmill and is cited as the first permanent European-American settlement west of Minneapolis in Hennepin County. Oak timbers milled locally were used to build the first suspension bridge across the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in 1853. The name derives from the Dakota 'mni' (water) and 'tanka' (big); Lake Minnetonka was considered sacred by the Dakota people. Minnetonka incorporated as a city in 1956; its 2020 census population was 53,781.

Local economy. Home to the world headquarters of Cargill, described as the largest privately held corporation in the United States by revenue (founded 1865). Corporate headquarters of UnitedHealth Group, Minnesota's largest publicly owned company, with thousands of employees based locally. Other major corporate presences have included Carlson (parent of Radisson Hotel Group), Digital River, and AmeriPride Services. Identity is that of a wooded, upscale corporate-suburban city combining Fortune 500 headquarters with extensive lakes and parks.

Culture and community. The Minnetonka Dynamo bandy club (bandy is a Scandinavian ice sport resembling hockey played with a ball) won U.S. national championships in 1994, 1998, and 2000. The Minnetonka Millers amateur (Class A) baseball team won state championships in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Recreation centers heavily on Lake Minnetonka, a major boating and lakeside destination for the Twin Cities.

What makes Minnetonka distinct. Tonka toy trucks are named after Lake Minnetonka: the maker Mound Metalcraft, founded 1946 in nearby Mound, adopted the Dakota word 'tanka' (great/big) and renamed itself Tonka Toys in 1948, producing 37,000 metal trucks in its first year. Bandy, the sport of the championship Minnetonka Dynamo, is played on a soccer-sized ice sheet with a ball and remains rare in the United States. The city's timber literally helped build early Minneapolis, supplying oak for the first Mississippi River suspension bridge at St. Anthony Falls.

Minnetonka Landmarks and Local Life

• Lake Minnetonka - the large recreational lake that gives the city its name
• Minnehaha Creek - which runs through the city and powered its first sawmill
• Charles H. Burwell House - listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Minnetonka Town Hall - built in 1906