Albert Lea

The city is named after Albert Miller Lea, a topographer with the United States Dragoons, who surveyed southern Minnesota and northern Iowa in 1835, including the current site of Albert Lea.

Albert Lea has a warm-summer subtype of the humid continental climate with cold winters to hot summers, with significant contrasts between seasons. Its climate type is typical for inland northern United States locations, but due to its southern position in the state, its summers and winters have higher temperatures than other, more northerly regions of the state. An exception to this rule is the urban core of Minneapolis - St. Paul, which sees higher temperatures typical of an urban heat island, but Albert Lea is significantly warmer than locations such as Duluth.

Albert Lea is located at the junction of Interstate 35 and Interstate 90.

• Marion Ross Performing Arts Center, 147 N Broadway Ave, toll-free: +1-877-730-3144. The 255-seat theater is used for the arts, business meetings, and seminars. (updated Jan 2018)

• 🌍 Myre-Big Island State Park, 19499 780th Ave (3 miles (5 km) southeast of Albert Lea on County Highway 38). Trails take visitors around wet lowlands, oak savanna, and grasslands. Albert Lea Lake and park marshes draw hundreds of waterfowl during migration. Oak savanna and prairie landscape, including wetlands, dominate most of the park. The 116-acre Big Island is covered with a maple and basswood forest. There is a glacial esker in the northeast section of the park. Blazing Star Trail bike trail runs from Albert Lea to the state park. The park also offers bird watching, hiking, canoeing, and camping. (updated Jan 2018)
• Fishing, boating, fishing, canoeing, and boat tours. Known as "The Land Between the Lakes," there are three main lakes in Albert Lea: Fountain Lake, Albert Lea Lake, and Pickerel Lake. Fish typically found in these lakes include bullhead, carp, northern pike, bass, walleye, catfish, yellow perch and various panfish. (updated Jan 2018)
• Freeborn County Fair: , 1031 Bridge Ave, ☏ +1 507-373-6965, freeborncountyfair@gmail.com. The annual fair in early August offers live entertainment, an antique tractor show, a draft horse show, a small and baby animal show, and a Sunday church service. It also has a beer garden, a cattle department, commercial exhibits, a conservation building, a creative arts and crafts building, fair food, a floral hall, a Freeborn County 4-H building, a heritage barn, a course arena, a kiddie farm yard, a kid's zone, and machinery hill. (date needs fixing)

• Country Inn, 2214 E Main St, ☏ +1 507-373-5513. Double from $100. (updated Jan 2018)