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B+History
History · Cloquet

Cloquet’s post office opened in 1880, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 75% of U.S. towns · #37 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it

7 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 5 buildings. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1880.

1880first post office
7on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
7old photos & papers
14famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Cloquet’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Cloquet began

When was Cloquet founded?

1880

The Cloquet post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1884.

First census: 93 in 18802020 census: 12,568146 years

How historic is Cloquet?

B+

More historic than 75% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Cloquet post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1884.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Cloquet’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cloquet is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #37 of 273 in Minnesota. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cloquet’s overall grade.
Founding era1880, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194027.3% of homes (±4.4) · typical MN town 8.1% · U.S. 8.4%A−National Register7 listings, 11 historic buildings, 8.8 per 10,000 residents · typical MN town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 75%
NewerOlder
Minnesota towns of 2,500+ (273)Ahead of 87%

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 Cloquet’s 8.8 sits above most of its state (74% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.

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 (±4.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1884 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.

Founding year: the first post office (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 Cloquet’s past

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

Mapped building by building9 fire insurance maps, 1885 to 1922, drew every building in Cloquet.Landmarks on the Register7 places on the National Register.Famous sons and daughtersJessica Lange, Barbara Payton and 12 more were born here.Old housesHalf of Cloquet’s homes were built before 1964.
★ What stands out · Every building

Cloquet, building by building, 1885–1922

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.

Cloquet fire insurance map, 1885, sheet 11885Sheet 1 of 6
Edition
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

On the National Register

7 historic places in Cloquet

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

places listed
7
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
11
each building in a district counts
first listed
1984
Northeastern Hotel
Northeastern HotelCloquet-Northern Office BuildingShaw Memorial LibraryCloquet City Hall, built 1920Park Place Historic DistrictLindholm Oil Company Service StationCloquet High School
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Renaissance Revival2
Georgian Revival1
Coy, Mr.1
Shefchik, Thomas J.1
McNair, C.J.1
Northeastern HotelBuilding
Cloquet-Northern Office BuildingBuilding
Shaw Memorial LibraryRenaissance Revival
Cloquet City HallRenaissance Revival · Built 1920
All 7 listings
Park Place Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1985Lindholm Oil Company Service StationBuilding · listed 1985Cloquet High SchoolBuilding · listed 2021

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

Famous people

14 famous people were born in Cloquet

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Jessica LangeAmerican actress · b. 1949
Barbara PaytonAmerican actress · b. 1927
D
Derek PlanteAmerican ice hockey player · b. 1971
C
Corey MillenAmerican ice hockey player · b. 1964
Clarence LarsonScientist · b. 1909
Katharine LuomalaAmerican anthropologist · b. 1907
The story

How Cloquet came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cloquet.

Read it all →

Cloquet began as a group of small settlements around three sawmills: Shaw Town, Nelson Town, and Johnson Town. These became known as Knife Falls, after a local waterfall over sharp slate rocks, and later as Cloquet. The Ojibwe in the area called the area Mookomaan-Onigamiing, meaning 'At the Knife Portage', as the portage to avoid Knife Falls connected the three communities. The area was platted in 1883 and the village of Cloquet was incorporated from the three settlements in 1884. It became a city with a mayor and city council in 1904. The word Cloquet first appeared on an 1843 map of the area by Joseph N. Nicollet, which named the Cloquet River, a tributary of the Saint Louis River, and the Cloquet Rapids to the north. Cloquet is a French surname, but historians have found no source for it. Some speculate that the river was named for the 19th-century French scientists Hippolyte and Ju…

ChaptersArchitecture

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cloquet, 1880 to 1990

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Cloquet post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910In the archiveCloquet city schools and teachers
  5. 1920BuiltCloquet City Hall is built
  6. 1927Born hereBarbara Payton is born here
  7. 1930In the archiveRPPC 1930-07-02 Garfield School A
  8. 1949Born hereJessica Lange is born here
  9. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  10. 1964Born hereCorey Millen is born here
  11. 1971Born hereDerek Plante is born here
  12. 1973In the archiveNORTHWEST PAPER COMPANY AT CLOQUET, MINNESOTA, ON THE ST LOUIS RIVER. DISCHARGE FROM THE …
  13. 1990In the archiveSt. Joseph and Mary Church, Mission Road
By decade

Cloquet, decade by decade

4 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s–1930s5 items
Cloquet city schools and teachers1910Cloquet city schools and teachersCloquet, Minnesota after the 1918 fire1918Cloquet, Minnesota after the 1918 fire1918 Cloquet fire map19191918 Cloquet fire mapMapRPPC 1930-07-02 Garfield School Ac. 1930RPPC 1930-07-02 Garfield School ARPPC 1930-07-02 Garfield School Bc. 1930RPPC 1930-07-02 Garfield School B
1940s–1960snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1970s–1990s2 items
NORTHWEST PAPER COMPANY AT CLOQUET, MINNESOTA, ON THE ST LOUIS RIVER. DISCHARGE FROM THE SMOKE STACK RISES 800 TO... - …1973NORTHWEST PAPER COMPANY AT CLOQUET, MINNESOTA, ON THE…St. Joseph and Mary Church, Mission Road1990St. Joseph and Mary Church, Mission Road
Today25 recent
Royal Building, 1111 Cloquet Avenue2025Royal Building, 1111 Cloquet AvenueMoose Lodge 1274, 702 Cloquet Avenue2025Moose Lodge 1274, 702 Cloquet AvenueIndependent Order of Odd Fellows Hall2025Independent Order of Odd Fellows HallCloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth Street2025Cloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth StreetCloquet National Guard Armory, 801 MN-332025Cloquet National Guard Armory, 801 MN-33Cloquet Fire Station No. 1, Cloquet, Minnesota-022025Cloquet Fire Station No. 1, Cloquet, Minnesota-02Cloquet Fire Station No. 1, Cloquet, Minnesota-012025Cloquet Fire Station No. 1, Cloquet, Minnesota-01Cloquet Bar & Lounge, 914 Cloquet Avenue2025Cloquet Bar & Lounge, 914 Cloquet AvenueCarlton County Community Services Center2025Carlton County Community Services CenterZionLutheranCloquetMN2022ZionLutheranCloquetMNUnited States Gypsum Corporation2021United States Gypsum CorporationCloquet, Minnesota2021Cloquet, MinnesotaSappi Pulp and Paper Mill in2018Sappi Pulp and Paper Mill inShaw Memorial Library2017Shaw Memorial LibraryD&NE Shops2013D&NE ShopsCloquet Terminal Railroad in2013Cloquet Terminal Railroad inCloquet32010Cloquet3Cloquet22010Cloquet2Cloquet12010Cloquet1Cloquet2010CloquetPark Place 12008Park Place 1Dala horse-Grand Rapids, Minnesota2007Dala horse-Grand Rapids, MinnesotaCloquet riparian forest clipped2007Cloquet riparian forest clippedCloquet Riparian Forest2007Cloquet Riparian ForestMNMap-doton-Cloquet2005MNMap-doton-Cloquet
On the map

Cloquet on the map, 1954 to 1993

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

Cloquet on the 1954 USGS mapCloquet on the 1969 USGS mapCloquet on the 1975 USGS mapCloquet on the 1993 USGS map1954Cloquet 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 Cloquet.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Cloquet city schools and teachers
Retake this viewCloquet city schools and teachers, 1910

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cloquet’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Cloquet, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,0001880190019201940196019802000202012,568

Grew from 93 people in 1880 to 12,568 in 2020, more than tenfold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Old corners and burying grounds

Cloquet’s post office has been open since 1880.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Bergstrom's Mobile Home ParkSunnyside Estates Mobile Home Park
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Cloquet
CalvaryHillcrestHoly Family CemeteriesMaple GroveNew Calvary

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

Help out

Finish Cloquet’s story

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
4 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewCloquet city schools and teachers: 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.

Thomson Township4 historic placesBTwin Lakes TownshipIts storyC−Perch Lake Township1 historic placeBBrevator TownshipIts storyC−ScanlonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Cloquet’s history

What year was Cloquet founded?

The Cloquet post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1884.

How does Cloquet rank for history?

Cloquet is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #37 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 Cloquet?

7 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Northeastern Hotel (listed 1984, the first), and 1 historic district, the Park Place Historic District, with 5 contributing buildings. 11 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Cloquet?

27% of Cloquet’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1964.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (31), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.