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Lake Crystal, Minnesota
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Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Lake Crystal is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States, established in 1869. The population was 2,539 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In 1853, two families from small towns near Ithaca, New York, left their homes and traveled west. One was 32-year-old William Riley Robinson. In June 1854 Robinson and his companion Lucius O. Hunt traveled from Wisconsin to Blue Earth County. Robinson and Hunt arrived and came upon the three nearby lakes, Loon, Crystal, and Lily, and marveled at their beauty. They returned for their families and headed back to settle in the Lake Crystal area. The families were joined by two other men and their families, Calvin Webb and Samuel Thorne.
Robinson and his family settled in a log cabin on the south shore of Crystal Lake, a few feet south of where the Robinson House is today. Hunt and his family settled in a log cabin on the south shore of Lily Lake, where Holy Family Catholic Church is now. Each man took plots of land one mile long and half a mile wide (the dividing line being modern-day Main Street), the deeds to which were signed by President James Buchanan. Webb settled in the Judson Township, while Thorne took a claim on Crystal Lake.
During the Dakota War of 1862 the settlers escaped to the fort at Mankato. Eventually the Dakota uprising was subdued and the settlers returned and rebuilt their homes. Hunt built a brick house in 1869 that was torn down in the mid-1900s, where Holy Family Catholic Church is today. Robinson built his brick house in 1870, which still stands as a historical building on Robinson Street.
In June 1857, a town named Crystal Lake City was planned out on the southwest shore of Crystal Lake, but it failed to become reality. In October 1868, The Valley Railroad, later the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Omaha Railroad, was completed in the area. The railroad, after looking for potential locations, choose Lake Crystal for a new station. And so Lake Crystal began along the railroad, and was platted by Robinson and Hunt in 1869.
The railroads' engineer, General Judson W. Bishop of Saint Paul, named the town after nearby Crystal Lake. A post office began operation in Lake Crystal in 1869. By December 1, 1869, the town had a grain elevator, hotel, schoolhouse, grocery, drugstore, hardware store, two general stores, harness shop, cooper shop, and a doctor's office. Lake Crystal was incorporated as a city on February 24, 1870. Its first newspaper, The People's Journal, started in March 1870.
The period between 1870 and 1895 is generally known as the "Wheat Era" because most local farmers used nearly all their cropland for wheat. Lake Crystal's economy was adversely affected by the grasshopper invasion of 1873, when millions of grasshoppers devoured all the crops. The plague lasted until June 1877, when the grasshoppers fled. It took years to recover; only in 1882 were good quantities of wheat again marketed at the local grain elevator.
In 1879, the Elmore railroad line was completed, with Lake Crystal as a junction between this line and the old main line. This rail line connected Lake Crystal to Garden City, Vernon Center, Amboy, Winnebago, Blue Earth, and Elmore. No fewer than 23 trains passed through town each day. In 1882, land was purchased from the railway for $100 and a new, two-story brick schoolhouse was built. This building was added onto in 1895 and 1905 and demolished in 1972.
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Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Lake Crystal is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States, established in 1869. The population was 2,539 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In 1853, two families from small towns near Ithaca, New York, left their homes and traveled west. One was 32-year-old William Riley Robinson. In June 1854 Robinson and his companion Lucius O. Hunt traveled from Wisconsin to Blue Earth County. Robinson and Hunt arrived and came upon the three nearby lakes, Loon, Crystal, and Lily, and marveled at their beauty. They returned for their families and headed back to settle in the Lake Crystal area. The families were joined by two other men and their families, Calvin Webb and Samuel Thorne.
Robinson and his family settled in a log cabin on the south shore of Crystal Lake, a few feet south of where the Robinson House is today. Hunt and his family settled in a log cabin on the south shore of Lily Lake, where Holy Family Catholic Church is now. Each man took plots of land one mile long and half a mile wide (the dividing line being modern-day Main Street), the deeds to which were signed by President James Buchanan. Webb settled in the Judson Township, while Thorne took a claim on Crystal Lake.
During the Dakota War of 1862 the settlers escaped to the fort at Mankato. Eventually the Dakota uprising was subdued and the settlers returned and rebuilt their homes. Hunt built a brick house in 1869 that was torn down in the mid-1900s, where Holy Family Catholic Church is today. Robinson built his brick house in 1870, which still stands as a historical building on Robinson Street.
In June 1857, a town named Crystal Lake City was planned out on the southwest shore of Crystal Lake, but it failed to become reality. In October 1868, The Valley Railroad, later the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Omaha Railroad, was completed in the area. The railroad, after looking for potential locations, choose Lake Crystal for a new station. And so Lake Crystal began along the railroad, and was platted by Robinson and Hunt in 1869.
The railroads' engineer, General Judson W. Bishop of Saint Paul, named the town after nearby Crystal Lake. A post office began operation in Lake Crystal in 1869. By December 1, 1869, the town had a grain elevator, hotel, schoolhouse, grocery, drugstore, hardware store, two general stores, harness shop, cooper shop, and a doctor's office. Lake Crystal was incorporated as a city on February 24, 1870. Its first newspaper, The People's Journal, started in March 1870.
The period between 1870 and 1895 is generally known as the "Wheat Era" because most local farmers used nearly all their cropland for wheat. Lake Crystal's economy was adversely affected by the grasshopper invasion of 1873, when millions of grasshoppers devoured all the crops. The plague lasted until June 1877, when the grasshoppers fled. It took years to recover; only in 1882 were good quantities of wheat again marketed at the local grain elevator.
In 1879, the Elmore railroad line was completed, with Lake Crystal as a junction between this line and the old main line. This rail line connected Lake Crystal to Garden City, Vernon Center, Amboy, Winnebago, Blue Earth, and Elmore. No fewer than 23 trains passed through town each day. In 1882, land was purchased from the railway for $100 and a new, two-story brick schoolhouse was built. This building was added onto in 1895 and 1905 and demolished in 1972.
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