Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Marengo

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Marengo

23% of Marengo’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1910.

0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Billertl · CC BY-SA 4.0

What stands out about Marengo’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 Marengo are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 786 in 1920; 460 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Marengo’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Marengo, census by census

0200400600800192019401960198020002020Peak: 786

Peaked at 786 in 1920; 460 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Marengo came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Marengo.

Read it all →

In 1849, Charles Whittlesey named the adjacent river as the Maringouin Fork of the Bad River:

“The second branch [of the Bad River] from the west having, as I could learn, no name, I have called it the ‘Maringouin Fork‘ in my map in commemoration of the myriads of mosquitoes that inhabit its banks, that being the name the half-breed French give to those pests of the Bad River region. The Maringouin has its sources near Long Lake, on the west, and on the south interlocks with the upper branches of the Chippewa River, among some lakes, enclosed by drift ridges, which are, by barometrical measurement, eight hundred and seventy-one feet above Lake Superior.”

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Marengo on the map, 1967 to 2005

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

Marengo on the 1967 USGS mapMarengo on the 1984 USGS mapMarengo on the 2005 USGS map1967Marengo SW 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 Marengo.

Famous people

Famous people close to Marengo

Nobody well known was born in Marengo itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
J
John SzarkowskiAmerican curator · b. 1925
Jennifer OuelletteAmerican science writer · b. 1964
Robin GreenfieldAmerican activist and adventurer · b. 1986
J
John GordonAmerican curler · b. 1958
J
Jack HallAmerican labor organizer and trade unionist · b. 1915
K
Ken OberbrunerAmerican basketball player and baseball manager · b. 1918
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

AshlandIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGrand ViewIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLincolnIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMorse1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townWhite RiverIts storyCGordonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Marengo’s history

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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.