The slogan on the sign reads: "Home of the Jolly Workers".
Hazel Run was settled in 1871 by Norwegian immigrants and organized in 1877. Hazel Run bears the name of a nearby creek, a watercourse that is a tributary of the Minnesota River. The city was platted in 1884 and was incorporated in 1902 and is currently the home to 63 persons.
When the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad arrived in 1884, local farmers could haul grain and livestock to the country’s largest milling centers in Minneapolis. Before a gas engine furnished power to the town’s elevator, an old blind horse, ‘Sam’, coaxed by Clara Thorpe, did the work. Now a privately owned elevator used for storage, the Hazel Run Produce Center was the second longest running coop elevator in Minnesota, behind only Underwood.
This series of waymarks is tuned to getting people to visit these wonderful small communities before they disappear completely. To validate your ‘find’, please post a photo of you with your GPS at the coordinates and please relate a little tidbit about what you learned about the town and its people that is not in this narrative or the book. You can learn more about ‘LITTLE MINNESOTA’ by logging on to (
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