Sauk Centre, city in central Minnesota, located in Stearns County, about 162 km (about 100 mi) northwest of Minneapolis and about 64 km (about 40 mi) west of Saint Cloud. The community functions primarily as an agricultural service center for the northwestern part of the county. Novelist Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre in 1885 and spent his early years here. Lewis used Sauk Centre as the model for the fictional town of Gopher Prairie in his celebrated novel Main Street (1920). The Sinclair Lewis Museum and Interpretive Center is located here. The business district of the downtown area is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as an icon of small-town America. Sauk Centre was settled in 1856. It was incorporated as a village in 1876 and as a city in 1889. Sauk Centre is named for its location on the Sauk River, which was named after the Sac (Sauk) people. Population 3,709 (1980); 3,581 (1990); 3,930 (2000).
