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History · Bigfork Township

14% of Bigfork Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 16 old photos and papers, maps from 1971 on, and the census since 1910.

0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
16old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Bigfork Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Bigfork Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A town in old photos16 old photos, postcards and papers.
★ What stands out · By decade

Bigfork Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1990s16 items
Edge of the Wilderness - Bicycling the Byway in1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bicycling the Byway inEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Kiosk1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive KioskEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive Site1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bigfork Interpretive SiteEdge of the Wilderness - Bridge in1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bridge inEdge of the Wilderness - Bridge in1995Edge of the Wilderness - Bridge inEdge of the Wilderness - Covered Interpretive Panel at1995Edge of the Wilderness - Covered Interpretive Panel atEdge of the Wilderness - Covered Interpretive Panel at1995Edge of the Wilderness - Covered Interpretive Panel atEdge of the Wilderness - Crossing the Bridge in1995Edge of the Wilderness - Crossing the Bridge inEdge of the Wilderness - North Entrance to1995Edge of the Wilderness - North Entrance toEdge of the Wilderness - Welcome to1995Edge of the Wilderness - Welcome to
Today7 recent
MNMap-doton-Bigfork2005MNMap-doton-BigforkEdge of the Wilderness - Veterans Memorial in Big Fork2003Edge of the Wilderness - Veterans Memorial in Big ForkEdge of the Wilderness - The Entrance to2003Edge of the Wilderness - The Entrance toEdge of the Wilderness - Lovely Park in2003Edge of the Wilderness - Lovely Park inEdge of the Wilderness - Gateway to the Edge of the Wilderness2003Edge of the Wilderness - Gateway to the Edge of the W…Edge of the Wilderness - Gateway to the Byway2003Edge of the Wilderness - Gateway to the BywayEdge of the Wilderness - Byway Gateway at2003Edge of the Wilderness - Byway Gateway at
The story

How Bigfork Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bigfork Township.

Read it all →

Bigfork originally began as a settlement when Damase "Uncle Tom" Neveaux built a log cabin on the Big Fork River, claiming the stand of pine there, and began logging activities. Though Neveaux reached the area in 1887, and the settlement began in 1892, officially, he was a squatter until the land was opened for settlement in 1900.

By 1902, a post office was established, and in 1906, a station was added to the Minneapolis and Rainy River Railway.

On January 17, 1907, less than a year after the railway stop was completed, Bigfork was incorporated as a village. Bigfork Village Hall, built in 1936 with WPA funds, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bigfork Township, 1908 to 1995

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1908Post officeThe Evergreen post office opens
  3. 1917Post officeThe Evergreen post office closes
  4. 1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1995In the archiveEdge of the Wilderness - Bicycling the Byway in
On the map

Bigfork Township on the map in 1971

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bigfork Township.

Bigfork Township on the 1971 USGS map1971Effie sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bigfork Township.

People over time

Bigfork Township, census by census

0100200300400500192019401960198020002020Peak: 469

Between 160 and 469 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bigfork Township’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Another post office, Evergreen, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
EvergreenlocaleEvergreen Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Bigfork Township’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewEdge of the Wilderness - Bicycling the …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Stokes TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bigfork Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (23), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.