Biohazard Cleanup Near West Proctor Proctor, MN

Proctor is a small city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, just west of Duluth on the hill above St. Louis Bay, and it is part of the Duluth metropolitan area.

Proctor was created in 1892 when the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railroad was extended into Duluth and needed a large flat site for its engine shops and storage and classification yards — yards that were the largest of their kind in the world at the time.

The village was incorporated in 1894 as "Proctorknott," named for former Kentucky governor J. Proctor Knott, who was famous for his satirical speech to Congress called "The Untold Delights of Duluth"; the name was shortened to Proctor in 1904.

The iron ore boom nearly tripled Proctor's population in a single decade, from 784 people in 1900 to 2,243 in 1910.

The 2020 census counted 3,120 people in Proctor, living in roughly 1,270 households according to Census Bureau survey estimates.

Proctor celebrates its railroad roots every August with the Hoghead Festival — "hoghead" being railroad slang for a locomotive engineer — a tradition that began in 1976.

Proctor High School's teams are called the Rails, in honor of the town's railroad heritage.

A historic steam locomotive, Engine No. 225, is displayed at C. E. Carlson Park, near the Proctor Area Museum run by the Proctor Area Historical Society.

Proctor hosts the South St. Louis County Fair at its fairgrounds each summer.

Proctor is also home to the Proctor Speedway, a local auto racing track.