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History · Brooten

Brooten’s post office opened in 1886, and 31% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1900.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
31%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Skvader · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Brooten began

When was Brooten founded?

1886

The Brooten post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 259 in 19002020 census: 626140 years
Founding year: the first Brooten post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Brooten’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 Brooten are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Brooten’s homes were built before 1960.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Brooten’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Brooten’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 Brooten came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Brooten.

Read it all →

Brooten was laid out in 1886, when the Soo Railroad was extended to that point. The city was named after the LiaBraaten family of settlers. A post office has been in operation at Brooten since 1886.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Brooten in 1915

Passages that mention Brooten, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Brooten village, with a population of 562 persons, is located on the "Soo" line, in the southwest corner of the town, and was started with the building of that line through this locality in 1886. It was organized as a village several years later.
History of Stearns County, Minnesota1915 · page 1295Read the page →
Read the text

Brooten village, with a population of 562 persons, is located on the "Soo" line, in the southwest corner of the town, and was started with the building of that line through this locality in 1886. It was organized as a village several years later.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
to his brothers, Joseph and Anthony Kraker. Outside of his immediate interest in the store he had many other activities. In 1903 he was cashier of the Bank of North America, at Melrose. For a time he was stockholder in the Scandinavian State Bank, of Brooten. He was secretary of the Commercial Club…
History of Stearns County, Minnesota1915 · page 921Read the page →
Read the text

to his brothers, Joseph and Anthony Kraker. Outside of his immediate interest in the store he had many other activities. In 1903 he was cashier of the Bank of North America, at Melrose. For a time he was stockholder in the Scandinavian State Bank, of Brooten. He was secretary of the Commercial Club of Melrose, from the time it was organized until 1908. In 1897, when he was but twenty-two years of age, he was elected city treasurer. This

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.

By decade

Brooten, decade by decade

Today8 recent
Brooten Minnesota businesses2022Brooten Minnesota businessesDeer Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Sampling Station - Minnesota2021Deer Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Sampling Station -…CP 41B-15, Brooten, Minn2019CP 41B-15, Brooten, Minn2013-0408-BrootenWaterTower20132013-0408-BrootenWaterTower2013-0408-BrootenMN20132013-0408-BrootenMNMaxbat offices2006Maxbat officesBrooten sign2006Brooten signMNMap-doton-Brooten2005MNMap-doton-Brooten
On the map

Brooten on the map in 1953

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brooten.

Brooten on the 1953 USGS map1953Saint Cloud sheet · 1:250,000

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

People over time

Brooten, census by census

02004006008001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 743

Between 259 and 743 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Crow Lake TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNorth Fork TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBangor TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Brooten’s history

What year was Brooten founded?

The Brooten post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 Wikimedia Commons (8), Wikipedia, 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 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.