Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area that is now the city of Hokah was a Native American settlement of the Dakota people. The city's name, which is said to be a Native American word meaning gar fish or the Dakota name for the nearby Root River, derives from the chief of the settlement, Chief Wecheschatope Hokah. There were, at one time, more than thirty Indian mounds throughout the area including several effigy mounds, though most have been lost.
Passages that mention Hokah Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Houston County, Minnesota1919 · page 124Read the page →
Read the text
District No. 13, Hokah Township. In 1857 or 1858 a small log schoolhouse was put up on what is called "The Ridge," in section 10, by the German Catholics who had settled in that vicinity. It was on the farm of V. Bierden and was a subscription school and was taught one season by a Catholic priest. Afterwards a log house was put up near by, as a public school building, the school being opened by Jacob Schonhard. This was on the land of John Ahrens, and was used up to the year 1876, when a frame building was erected on the same section, at a cost of about $400.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Houston County, Minnesota1919 · page 136Read the page →
Read the text
Brownsville is the central township of the five that border on the Mississippi River, which forms its eastern boundary. On the north lies Hokah Township, on the west Union and May ville, and on the south Crooked Creek. Though Brownsville embraces a part of two government townships, it is several sections smaller than a full town. Between the river and the village there are no intervening sloughs, there being, consequently, a good natural landing, a condition quickly noted by Job Brown, the pioneer, when in quest of a town site.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hokah Township, 1851 to 1956
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hokah Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1956La Crescent 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 Hokah Township.
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.
Retake this viewLake Como in Hokah MN from 1909 postcard, 1909
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hokah Township’s page.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2015
2015
2006
2006
2006
