Dorothy, Minnesota

Dorothy was a small town in Section 5, Louisville Township, Red Lake County, Minnesota, now a virtual ghost town. Dorothy initially was established as a railroad station in 1916-17 after the Northern Pacific Railway extended its line from Tilden Junction to Winnipeg and built a spur through Red Lake Falls. The new town sucked away what was left of the historic river crossing town, Huot, and for a time sputtered toward prosperity, boasting a grain elevator, a Catholic church, a school and several houses.

What's Left of Dorothy in 2007

The Federal Writer's Project reported in 1938 that the town had a population of 25, and "a beautiful church with stained-glass windows". Sometime in the early 1970s, the railroad was abandoned and the grain elevator closed, and with it, the town's reason for existence was gone. By 2007, the church had been abandoned and appeared to be in use as a residence.^{[citation needed]}

St.Dorothy's Church in 2007

Sources

• Red Lake County Bicentennial Committee, A History of Red Lake County, Minnesota (Taylor Publishing Co., 1976), at pp. 91–95.
• Federal Writers' Project, Minnesota: A State Guide (Works Progress Administration, 1938), at p. 338.