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History · Kandiyohi

14% of Kandiyohi’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1956 on and the census since 1880.

0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Myotus · CC BY 4.0

What stands out about Kandiyohi’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 Kandiyohi are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kandiyohi’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Kandiyohi came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Kandiyohi.

Read it all →

Kandiyohi was laid out in 1869, when the railroad was extended to that point. In 1869 the Minnesota legislature voted Kandiyohi to be the new state capital due to its central location. The bill was vetoed by governor William Rainey Marshall on the grounds that "[t]he western treeless districts" further out from Kandiyohi would place the capital away from the likely population center.

Kandiyohi was derived from a Sioux name meaning "where the buffalo fish come from".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Kandiyohi, 1871 to 1956

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1871Post officeThe Lake Elizabeth post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1906Post officeThe Lake Elizabeth post office closes
  5. 1941Born hereMary Lou Freeman is born here
  6. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Kandiyohi, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Kandiyohi Fire Station2025Kandiyohi Fire StationHistoric Kandiyohi Bank building2025Historic Kandiyohi Bank buildingCity Offices2025City OfficesBell structure in park2025Bell structure in park2012-0828-Kandiyohi20122012-0828-KandiyohiMNMap-doton-Kandiyohi2005MNMap-doton-Kandiyohi
On the map

Kandiyohi on the map, 1956 to 1982

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

Kandiyohi on the 1956 USGS mapKandiyohi on the 1982 USGS map1956Atwater 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 Kandiyohi.

People over time

Kandiyohi, census by census

010020030040050060018801900192019401960198020002020569

Grew from 75 people in 1880 to 569 in 2020, 7 times over.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Another post office, Lake Elizabeth, 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).

Questions about Kandiyohi’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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.