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Granite Falls MinnesotaPhoto: Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) · CC BY-SA 2.5
–Not graded
History · Granite Falls Township

46% of Granite Falls Township’s homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 2 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1920 on.

1on the National Register
46%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Granite Falls Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Granite Falls Township’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Granite Falls Township’s homes were built before 1946.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Granite Falls Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Granite Falls Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewWaite Mill and Timber Company's two-tru…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Granite Falls Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Granite Falls Township.

Read it all →

In 1870 a post office began operating at Granite Falls. The town was platted in 1872 and named for deposits of granite rock in the area. In 1874 the county seat was moved to Granite Falls and a small one courtroom courthouse was erected. In 1876 the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation was formed and a church was built. Granite Falls was incorporated as a city in 1879 with East Granite Falls joining in 1889. The existing county courthouse was erected in 1880. In 1888 the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad built the town train station that still stands. The rail line remains active as a short line operated by the Twin Cities and Western Railroad (TC&W).

Chapters2000 tornado

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Granite Falls Township, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s1 item
Waite Mill and Timber Company's two-truck Climax locomotive no. 2, Granite Falls, ca. 1920c. 1920Waite Mill and Timber Company's two-truck Climax loco…
1930s–1980snothing 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
1990s1 item
FEMA - 1096 - Photograph by Ken Gardner taken on 04-08-1997 in Minnesota1997FEMA - 1096 - Photograph by Ken Gardner taken on 04-0…
Today3 recent
Yellow Medicine County Courthouse2007Yellow Medicine County CourthouseGranite Falls Minnesota2007Granite Falls MinnesotaMNMap-doton-Granite Falls2005MNMap-doton-Granite Falls
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.

Waite Mill and Timber Company's two-truck Climax locomotive no. 2, Granite Falls, ca. 1920
Retake this viewWaite Mill and Timber Company's two-truck Climax locomotive no. 2, Granite Falls, ca. 1920, c. 1920

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Granite Falls Township

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1974
Olof Swensson Farmstead
Olof Swensson Farmstead
Districts
All 1 listings
Olof Swensson FarmsteadDistrict · listed 1974

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

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Asbury
Gone or out of use
Asburylocale
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Granite Falls Township
DuelandGranite Falls CitySwensson

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.

Minnesota Falls TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGranite Falls2 historic placesBStony Run TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWang TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSparta TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHawk Creek TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLeenthrop TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Granite Falls Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Granite Falls Township?

One place: the Olof Swensson Farmstead (listed 1974).

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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia 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.