Population Density

One of my favorite places is Tofte, Minnesota. Tofte is a small town that acts as a gateway to some serious national forest and wilderness area. I could adequately describe Tofte due my years of experience but this eloquent description does it justice:

“I recall driving into Tofte one day to ask directions at a gas station. For all I could tell, the gas station was town, and its entire population a grease-covered kid who laconically pointed me up the Sawbill Trail as flies buzzed around the station. A comparison with Appalachia was not out of line. What is Tofte like today? Holiday Stationstore, Holiday Inn Express (for people in a hurry), banks, shops, restaurants, Bluefin Bay resort, townhouses, condos. And Tofte is not the only community spawning this kind of development. It is happening from Duluth to Hovland. Meanwhile, up to 70 percent of the septic systems along the shore are failing”.

Failing? They’re frozen.

As of the census of 2000, there are 226 people, 102 households, and 65 families residing in the township. The populationdensity is 0.6/km².

I find these demographics interesting when compared to other places I’ve lived and visited:

• Hong Kong, China 53,076/km²
• 11th Arrondissement of Paris 40,672/km²
• Manhatten, NY 25,849/km²
• Taipei, Taiwan 23,012/km²
• Chongquing, China 22,618/km²
• Macau, China 16,521/km²
• Seoul, South Korea 14,773/km²
• San Francisco, USA 6,423/km²
• Tokyo Japan 5,934/km²
• London, England 4,725/km²
• Bangkok, Thailand 3,605/ km²
• Ottertail, Minnesota 39.7/km²

So septic system failures or not, if you ever want to "get away from it all", Tofte is your place.