Oakdale is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. It is a suburb of Saint Paul and is on the eastern side of the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. The population was 27,378 at the 2010 census.[6] Oakdale is the 32nd largest city in Minnesota by population.
Oakdale lies entirely within the North St. Paul–Maplewood–Oakdale school district, and the city's students are split into two high schools within the district. Tartan Senior High School is within the city's boundaries, and serves the southern half of Oakdale. The city's northern residents are served by North High School in North St. Paul.
Imation (now known as Glassbridge) World Headquarters was in Oakdale. Nearby 3M headquarters employs many residents of the city.
Oakdale was named for a grove of oak trees near the original town site.[7] Oakdale Township was organized in 1858.[8] The city of Oakdale is the result of a consolidation of Oakdale and Northdale Townships in the 1970s, and continued to annex land well into the 1990s.
Arthur Stephen suggested the name "Oakdale" at the first town meeting on November 1, 1858. Stephen was born on March 30, 1830, in Scotland. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Grant) Stephen. In 1839, when Arthur was 9 years old, the Stephen family came to America and settled in Knox County, Illinois. His father was a schoolteacher and young Arthur learned the trade of bricklayer.