The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-1995

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Department

Geography and Planning

College

School of Public Affairs

First Advisor

Lewis Wixon

Second Advisor

James Thomas Addicott

Third Advisor

Don Hofsommer

Keywords and Subject Headings

Railroad, Minnesota, Townsite Location, Stearns County

Abstract

As the United States began expanding its boundaries and increasing its population in the 19th century, the railroad took the forefront as the main factor that facilitated this growth. The railroad shipped goods and people. The railroad, also, carried the technology that was necessary for agricultural growth. The railroad, in turn, transported those agricultural products to market.

Settlement patterns advanced from trading posts and forts, to inland towns and, finally, to railroad towns. The railroad located the towns at six mile intervals and the majority of them were formed for the sole purpose of serving the surrounding agricultural population. The railroad towns, eventually, became the only places that businesses could operate profitably.

Minnesota quickly took up the banner of railroad building. The first railroad was chartered by the territorial legislature in 1853. The State granted 4,481,280 acres of land to the railroads for track construction. The Minnesota Constitution was amended to allow the State to loan its credit to the railroad. The selling of Minnesota took place through promotion of the state in Europe and in the port cities along the Atlantic Seaboard. Pamphlets extolling the virtues of Minnesota were distributed and inquiries were followed up by offers of aid from the railroads. The railroad also educated settlers in ways to acquire land through credit and free homestead land.

Steams County mirrored the general pattern of growth in Minnesota. The Great Northern Railroad Company, the Soo Line Railroad Company, and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company laid tracks across the county. Railroad construction in the county began in 1872 and ended in 1907. This activity helped promote Steams County to one of the top six milling counties in Minnesota. The county's population increased by over 43,000 in the years from 1860 to 1910.

This railroad activity brought twelve new towns into being. Roscoe, Melrose and Eden Valley were platted to entice the railroad to build near them The construction of stations every six miles precipitated the establishment and growth of Albany, Freeport, Kimball, Belgrade, Brooten, Greenwald, Elrosa, Waite Park and Paynesville. Two towns, Lake George and Georgeville, moved their locations to be nearer the railroads tracks. One town, Logering, disappeared due to limited access to the railroad, and four townsites, Padua, Unity, Fairhaven and Maine Prairie survived but failed to thrive.

This study provides examples of the impact the railroad had upon rural townsites in Stearns County between the years 1850 and 1912.

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