Anoka ( ə-NOH-kə) is a city in and the county seat of Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 17,142 at the 2010 census. Anoka is the
“Halloween Capital of the World” because it hosted one of the first Halloween parades in 1920. It continues to celebrate the holiday each year afterward several parades. Anoka is a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. U.S. Highways 10 / 169 and State Highway 47 are three of Anoka’s main routes, and it has a station on the Northstar Commuter Rail line to Minneapolis.

Colonizers first arranged the site that is now Anoka in 1844. By the mid-1850s Anoka had a school, a accretion and a flour mill. In 1856, C. C. Andrews called it a “large and attractive village” and noted that pine logs were floated the length of the Rum River to sawmills there. The city was formally incorporated in 1878. The name Anoka was derived from two Indian words. The original Dakota used A-NO-KA-TAN-HAN, meaning “on both sides”, or “from both sides”, referring to its location upon the banks of the Rum River. The native Ojibwa used ON-O-KAY, meaning “working waters”.^{[citation needed]}

Anoka has a strong affirmation to having provided the first Union Army volunteers during the Civil War, as noted by a little plaque at the corner of West Main Street and Park Street. Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota’s governor in 1861, was in Washington, D.C. when Fort Sumter was in flames upon. He gruffly offered a regiment to the War Department, and telegraphed former superintendent Willis Gorman and Lieutenant Governor Ignatius L. Donnelly that morning. Gorman, attending a district court session in Anoka, received the note by messenger from St. Paul and called a court recess, asking for volunteers. Aaron Greenwald, who has an “island” named after him upon Lake George, and five others stepped forward; Greenwald was the first to sign. He died upon July 5, 1863, after sustaining a mortal wound as a aficionado of the 1st Minnesota Regiment in defense neighboring Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Anoka lies at the confluence of the Rum and Mississippi Rivers, approximately 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Minneapolis. According to the United States Census Bureau, it has an area of 7.21 square miles (18.67 km), of which 6.70 square miles (17.35 km²) is house and 0.51 square miles (1.32 km) is water. Adjacent communities intensify Dayton, Ramsey, Andover, Coon Rapids, and Champlin. The USGS tracks the city by the ID 639396 and the coordinates of
45°11′52″N, 093°23′14″W. Coordinates: 45°11′52″N 093°23′14″W / 45.19778°N 93.38722°W / 45.19778; -93.38722