Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Fort Ripley

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Fort Ripley

Fort Ripley’s post office opened in 1851, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1930.

1851first post office
0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Fort Ripley began

When was Fort Ripley founded?

1851

The Fort Ripley post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Fort Gaines (1849), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 105 in 19302020 census: 84175 years
Founding year: the first Fort Ripley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fort Ripley’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 Fort Ripley are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 126 in 1940; 84 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fort Ripley’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fort Ripley’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
People over time

Fort Ripley, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 126

Peaked at 126 in 1940; 84 people lived here in 2020.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

The story

How Fort Ripley came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fort Ripley.

Read it all →

Fort Ripley was a United States military installation beginning in 1849 and lasting until 1877. The fort, now a small part of Camp Ripley, was on the opposite side of the Mississippi River from Morrison County as the current city in Crow Wing County.

The city of Fort Ripley was incorporated in 1927. It took its name from the fort, which was named for Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, an American soldier and politician.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Fort Ripley, 1849 to 1948

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1849Post officeThe Fort Gaines post office opens
  3. 1851Post officeThe Fort Gaines post office closes
  4. 1851Post officeThe Fort Ripley post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1940CensusPopulation peaks at 126
  7. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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.
Add from your album
On the map

Fort Ripley on the map, 1948 to 1956

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

Fort Ripley on the 1948 USGS mapFort Ripley on the 1956 USGS map1948Belle Prairie 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 Fort Ripley.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Fort Ripley’s post office has been open since 1851. Another post office, Fort Gaines, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Fort Gaines
1849–1851
Fort Ripley
1851–today
18401930today
Gone or out of use
Fort RipleylocaleFort Ripley Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Fort Ripley
Fort Ripley

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). 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.

Cushing TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townFort Ripley TownshipIts storyDRipley TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Fort Ripley’s history

What year was Fort Ripley founded?

The Fort Ripley post office opened in 1851, 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 Wikipedia, 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.