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History · Birch Cooley Township

40% of Birch Cooley Township’s homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Birch Coulee. Below: maps from 1952 on.

1on the National Register
40%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Birch Cooley Township’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Birch Cooley Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Birch Cooley Township’s homes were built before 1958.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Birch Cooley Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Birch Cooley Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Birch Cooley Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Birch Cooley Township.

Read it all →

Birch Cooley Township was the site of some of the heaviest fighting of the 1862 Dakota War due to its location directly across the Minnesota River from the Lower Sioux Agency. The Battle of Redwood Ferry and Battle of Birch Coulee both took place within the township. The Birch Coulee Battlefield historic site is located in the township.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Birch Cooley Township on the map, 1952 to 1992

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Birch Cooley Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Birch Cooley Township on the 1952 USGS mapBirch Cooley Township on the 1983 USGS mapBirch Cooley Township on the 1992 USGS map1952Morton sheet · 1:62,500

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

On the National Register

1 historic place in Birch Cooley Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Birch Coulee
Birch Coulee
Sites
Birch CouleeSite

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Old burying grounds

4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Birch Cooley Township
Marguth Grave SitePatten PioneerPeavery Grave SiteSaint Patrick - Birch Cooley

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Sherman TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMortonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCamp TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBeaver Falls TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBandon TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNorfolk TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Birch Cooley Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Birch Cooley Township?

One place: the Birch Coulee (listed 1973).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.