The Medicine Lake post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Flandrem (1906), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 292 in 19202020 census: 244119 years
Founding year: the first Medicine Lake post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Medicine Lake’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Edward Stubban named this place Flandrem for his home town in Norway and established a post office and store in 1906. The town moved about 2 miles with the construction of the Great Northern Railway in 1910. They changed the name to Medicine Lake after the nearby lake the Assiniboine referred to as Bda wauka, “Medicine water.”
On November 14, 2020, the high school football team, which co-ops with Froid, known as the RedHawks, won the 6-man State Championship. They defeated White Sulphur Springs 44–19 to finish the season 10–0. It was the first football state title for the school, which had finished 2nd in 1952, 1985 and 2000, when they were known as the Honkers.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Medicine Lake. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1948Alkali Coulee 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 Medicine Lake.
Every building
Medicine Lake, building by building, 1910–1920
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1910Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Famous people
Famous people close to Medicine Lake
Nobody well known was born in Medicine Lake itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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 (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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