A: The College was founded on October 12, 1866, by the General Conference of the Congregational Churches of Minnesota, which—after considering locations in Zumbrota, Mantorville, Cottage Grove, and Lake City—chose Northfield for the home of its new college.
Carleton has the fifth oldest school founding date among Minnesota colleges or universities, after Hamline University, the University of Minnesota, St. Johns University, and Gustavus Adolphus College, but ranks historically as the state's fourth college, as Gustavus's origins were as a secondary school academy, which began offering college-level degrees several years after Carleton.
Carleton’s founder was Northfield businessman and Congregationalist Charles M. Goodsell, for whom the College’s observatory is named. It was he who encouraged the church to open a Minnesota college and who donated part of its original 20 acres. (Note: Carleton is now a non-denominational college with no formal religious affiliation.)