Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1856.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Blue Earth’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Blue Earth is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #29 of 273 in Minnesota. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Blue Earth’s overall grade.
Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Blue Earth’s 12.6 sits above most of its state (79% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikipedia alone; no second source gives 1856.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.6 points).
Founding year: Wikipedia (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Blue Earth’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Blue Earth was platted in 1856. The city took its name from the Blue Earth River which surrounds the town. The river was given the Dakota language name makȟátȟo (meaning "blue earth") for the blue-green clay found in the river banks, from the phrase makato osa watapa: "the river where blue earth is gathered".
A post office has been in operation at Blue Earth since 1856.
The city celebrated its sesquicentennial in the summer of 2006 with community events, including a concert headlined by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits.
Passages that mention Blue Earth, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Blue Earth County and biographies of its leading citizens1901 · page 108Read the page →
Read the text
The middle of April 1863 saw in every river a tremendous flood, and the bridges all over the county were swept away. The government bridge over the Blue Earth at Mankato was among the rest, and no bridge was left on this river in the county. The bridges on the Watonwan suffered nearly as bad. The bridge over the Le Sueur on the Agency road, which Mr. Mc-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Blue Earth County and biographies of its leading citizens1901 · page 49Read the page →
Read the text
completed, owned by George Van Brunt. There are carpenters, masons, plasterers, etc., here. A new town called South Bend has been laid out across the Blue Earth, and eight miles further is Eureka, where there is a good saw mill." The Eureka referred to was a paper townsite which Hiram Caywood had laid out just across the river from the present townsit« of Judson,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Blue Earth, 1856 to 1967
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1856, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Blue Earth’s post office opened in 1856, and the census of 1880 counted 1,066 people here.
How does Blue Earth rank for history?
Blue Earth is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns, #29 of 273 in Minnesota. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Blue Earth?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Faribault County Courthouse (listed 1977, the first).
How old are the homes in Blue Earth?
33% of Blue Earth’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.6 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1954.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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