Buena Vista, Minnesota - Ghost Towns on Waymarking.com

It was on a beautiful site, right on the Laurentian Divide. But after ten years, the country was logged off and the railroads had gone through other towns. The wagon trails were no longer connections with the outside world; they only led to the next settlement. A decline set in, and there was nothing left to attract new people or even keep the old.

The first resident of what was to become Buena Vista was Joachim or James or Jimmy Cyr, an Acadian originally from Maine. Before he came to Turtle Lake, as the area was called, with his son George Cyr, he had lived in Crookston and Red Lake Falls. He arrived, according to his own account, in the spring of 1894 and filed on the tract of land at the head of Little Turtle Lake, where signs of an old Hudson Bay trading post were still visible.

On May 16, 1896, tracts of land formerly a part of the Red Lake Indian Reservation were opened for homesteading. The land between Cyr's homestead and Lake Julia was included. On the morning of May 16, J.W.Speelman moved his prefabricated homestead shack onto the land bordered by Lake Julia on the north and Cyr's homestead on the south. The future site of Buena Vista was secured, half owned by Cyr and half by Speelman.

Both Cyr and Speelman were interested in establishing a town between Turtle Lake and Lake Julia and in making it grow. On September 18, 1896, an article (probably Speelman's) in the Beltrami Eagle entitled "A Visit to Buena Vista" stated that "Mr. Cyr has been very liberal, leaving sites for a school house, church, town hall and saw mill which he will give away free of charge."

The first schoolhouse was built on Cyr's claim; then in 1897, William Worth moved his sawmill from Blackduck Lake to Little Turtle. (Worth built a large house for his family and opened a grocery store in it.) The second schoolhouse and the church were built on Speelman's land, a fact that suggests coordination between the two owners. For his part, Speelman built the Summit Hotel, opened in April, 1896, (and rebuilt it after it burned), and secured the post office, which was first placed in the Summit Hotel. Speelman's account gives Cyr credit for founding the town.

By the time of the first World War, Buena Vista as an active town had expired. The buildings of Buena Vista that were left burned or were torn down or rotted or were remodeled. Mrs. Crandall lived in the Turtle Lake Hotel until it burned. Mrs. Speelman lived in the Summit Hotel until her death; later it was taken down. Blanche Maltrud lived alone in the Scandia Hotel as long as she could. After she left, it was taken down. Saddler's house was occupied until 1994 when vandals burned it. R.H.Dickinson's house has been so remodeled and reworked that it is not recognizable as the same house. The homestead cabin of Theodore Dickinson is still on the Leech Lake Trail along the divide, though it also has been improved.

Only the schoolhouse, now the Turtle Lake Township Hall, retains its original form. Talking to old residents, one feels their sense of sadness at the passing of the town. Mettie Jensen writes:

Buena Vista was a very peaceful place to live. I always liked living up there. We had a lot of friends; there were a lot of Scandinavians up in that area. There were always friends stopping by. It was quiet. It is much better to live in the country than in the town. We would never have given up the place if we could have managed the farm work.

Reason for Abandonment: Economic Date Abandoned: 01/01/1914 Related Web Page: [Web Link]

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