Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Garrison Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Its Register listings are the Kenney Lake Overlook and the St. Alban's Bay Culvert at Mille Lacs Lake. Below: maps from 1912 on and the census since 1940.
Garrison Township dates its founding to 1880 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1940.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Garrison Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Garrison Township.
Garrison was platted and settled in 1880 as Midland. Garrison was incorporated in May 1937. The surrounding Garrison Township was named in honor of Oscar E. Garrison, a land surveyor and civil engineer. Oscar E. Garrison had also platted Wayzata in Hennepin County in 1854. The post office at Garrison was established in 1884.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltKenney Lake Overlook is built
2024Welcome to
2023Garrison, Minnesota-06-Businesses
2023Garrison, Minnesota-05-Garrison Bay and memorial
2023Garrison, Minnesota-04-Garrison Bay and memorial
2023Garrison, Minnesota-03-City Hall
2023Garrison, Minnesota-02-Post Office
2023Garrison, Minnesota-01-Fire Station
2011Newly Refurbished Garrison Walleye
2006Garrison Big FishEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Garrison Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Garrison Township.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 118 and 213 people in every census since 1940.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Garrison Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Garrison Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1880, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Garrison Township’s post office opened in 1899, and the census of 1940 counted 211 people here.
Two places: the Kenney Lake Overlook (listed 2015) and the St. Alban's Bay Culvert at Mille Lacs Lake (2015).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (9), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
