Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Anderson, O. G., & Co. Store, the J. S. Anderson House and the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church & Parsonage. Its Register listings are the Anderson, O. G., & Co. Store, the J. S. Anderson House and the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church & Parsonage. Below: old-book passages.
The Minneota post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Norland (1873), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Minneota is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Minneota’s 25.1 sits above most of its state (87% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
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 Minneota’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Minneota.
Minneota was platted in 1881 when the railroad was extended to its location. The name Minneota is derived from the Dakota language meaning "much water".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Minneota, cut from the printed page as they were published.
establishment of train service on the Winona & St. Peter railroad between Marshall and the state line, giving the newly founded village of Minneota and the people of northwestern Lyon county benefits theretofore denied.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The colony in Lyon county was founded, as described in the text, in 1877. There were two hundred arrivals from Iceland to the settlement about Minneota in 1879, and others came later. The Icelandic settlement now comprises about one thousand people.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Minneota’s post office has been open since 1878. Another post office, Norland, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Minneota post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Minneota is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Three places: the Anderson, O. G., & Co. Store (listed 1982), the J. S. Anderson House (1982) and the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church & Parsonage (1982).
19% of Minneota’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1969.
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).
From Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), 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.
