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–Not graded
History · Floodwood

Floodwood’s post office opened in 1890, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1963 on and the census since 1900.

1890first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: MNTRT2009 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Floodwood began

When was Floodwood founded?

1890

The Floodwood post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 224 in 19002020 census: 517136 years
Founding year: the first Floodwood post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Floodwood’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 Floodwood are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Floodwood’s homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Floodwood’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Floodwood’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Floodwood came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Floodwood.

Read it all →

Long before the city of Floodwood existed, the intersection of the East Savanna River with the Saint Louis River made what later became Floodwood a strategic economic location. The Savanna Portage was a major route for transportation in the southern Arrowhead, but its importance was magnified greatly with the arrival of European fur traders, who used the route to access rich resources of beaver and other fur animals in the upper Mississippi valley. As early as 1679, Europeans were passing by the modern location of Floodwood as they turned from the Saint Louis River to the East Savanna River on their way to the portage.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Floodwood, 1890 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1890Post officeThe Floodwood post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1916Born hereJohn Raymond Ylitalo is born here
  5. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Floodwood, decade by decade

Today6 recent
City Hall and Police station2025City Hall and Police stationBusinesses along the southside of W Seventh Avenue2025Businesses along the southside of W Seventh AvenueRice Camp sign in2021Rice Camp sign inMain Street-Floodwood2012Main Street-FloodwoodFloodwood water tower2012Floodwood water towerMNMap-doton-Floodwood2005MNMap-doton-Floodwood
On the map

Floodwood on the map, 1963 to 1983

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

Floodwood on the 1963 USGS mapFloodwood on the 1983 USGS map1963Floodwood 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 Floodwood.

People over time

Floodwood, census by census

01002003004005006007001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 677

Between 224 and 677 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

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

Questions about Floodwood’s history

What year was Floodwood founded?

The Floodwood post office opened in 1890, 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 →
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 (6), 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) 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.