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History · Remer

Remer’s post office opened in 1904, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Soo Line Depot and the United States Forest Service, Remer District Ranger Station. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1971 on, and the census since 1920.

1904first post office
2on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Remer’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Remer began

When was Remer founded?

1904

The Remer post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 290 in 19202020 census: 391122 years
Founding year: the first Remer post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Remer’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.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Remer’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewThunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-0…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Remer came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Remer.

Read it all →

A post office called Remer has been in operation since 1904. The city was named for its first postmaster, William P. Remer.

Remer is also the location of the Thunder Lake Lodge, where Al Capone stayed on his vacations to Minnesota. The room he stayed in was named McCleary Cabin, which was originally built in 1912. In 2009, a motion-activated camera captured a picture of what some consider Bigfoot in an area near Remer.

Late in World War II, a logging camp manned by prisoners of war was at the site of an old CCC camp near Remer.

Up until 1959, the Soo Line provided passenger rail service at Remer station.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Remer, 1904 to 1971

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1904Post officeThe Remer post office opens
  3. 1955In the archiveThunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-01-1955
  4. 1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Remer, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1950s2 items
Thunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-01-19551955Thunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-01-1955Thunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-19551955Thunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-1955
1960s–1990snothing 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
Today4 recent
Beginning of the MN 6 and MN 200 concurrency2016Beginning of the MN 6 and MN 200 concurrency"Remer Welcomes You" Sign2016"Remer Welcomes You" SignRemer Depot-22011Remer Depot-2MNMap-doton-Remer2005MNMap-doton-Remer
On the map

Remer on the map, 1971 to 1996

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

Remer on the 1971 USGS mapRemer on the 1996 USGS map1971Remer sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Remer.

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.

Thunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-01-1955
Retake this viewThunder Lake resort, Remer, Minnesota-01-1955, 1955

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Remer

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

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
1980
Soo Line Depot
Soo Line DepotUnited States Forest Service, Remer District Ranger Station
Buildings
Soo Line DepotBuilding
All 2 listings
United States Forest Service, Remer District Ranger StationBuilding · listed 2023

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

People over time

Remer, census by census

0100200300400500192019401960198020002020Peak: 492

Between 263 and 492 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Remer’s post office has been open since 1904.

Gone or out of use
Remerlocale
1cemetery inside Remer
Fairview

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). 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.

Slater TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRemer TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Remer’s history

What year was Remer founded?

The Remer post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Remer?

Two places: the Soo Line Depot (listed 1980) and the United States Forest Service, Remer District Ranger Station (2023).

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 (6), 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.