Buffalo is located 45 minutes NW of Minneapolis in Wright County, Minnesota. The population was 15,453 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Wright County.

Minnesota State Highways 25 and 55 are two of the main arterial routes in the city. The school district is called Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose Schools. It is composed of schools within the city of Buffalo and local towns of Hanover and Montrose. There are six elementary schools: Discovery Center, Northwinds Elementary, Parkside Elementary, Tatanka Elementary, Hanover Elementary, and Montrose Elementary. There is one middle school: Buffalo Community Middle School, and one high school Buffalo High School. There is also one private, catholic school; St. Francis Xavier school (K-8th grade).

Wright County was open up for settlement by white pioneers in 1855. The village of Buffalo was platted in 1856 to 1858. The town of Buffalo is actually named after the carp-like fish that were once abundant in this region. Buffalo remained a small town until the mid-19th century when it became a popular resort town for wealthy day-trippers from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. There were several resorts located around Lake Pulaski, which along with Buffalo Lake is one of the two largest lakes in Buffalo. Visitors would take a train from the Twin Cities and arrive in Buffalo only an hour later. Buffalo remained a popular resort destination from the 1890s until the 1920s. During the summer months Buffalo's population would nearly double in size with all the visiting tourists. Today, many visitors still come to Buffalo for the fishing on Lake Pulaski and Buffalo Lake, as well as for shopping in the many boutiques and antique shops. Their monthly sales attract many non-residents.

Minnesota (ⁱ/mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Minnesota is the 12th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the U.S. states. Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry and education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.