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Clay County, Minnesota

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

22historic places

—earliest paper

1858formed

65,318pop. 2020

48cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 22 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1974. Most listings are in or near Moorhead, Barnesville, Comstock.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Minnesota is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Clay titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

21 of 22 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

22 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Barnesville City Hall and Jail	Barnesville	Building	1980
Bergquist, John, House	Moorhead	Building	1980
Bernhardson, Bernard, House	Comstock	Building	1980
Buffalo River State Park WPA/Rustic Style Historic Resources	Glyndon	District	1989
Burnham Building	Moorhead	Building	1980
Comstock Public School	Comstock	Building	1980
Comstock, Solomon Gilman, House	Moorhead	Building	1974
District No. 3 School	Parke Township	Building	2023
Fairmont Creamery Company	Moorhead	Building	1983
Federal Courthouse and Post Office	Moorhead	Building	1980
Frederick Martin Hotel	Moorhead	Building	2025
Grong Lutheran Church	Rollag, Parke Township	Building	2026
Huntoon, Lew A., House	Moorhead	Building	1980
Krabbenhoft, Wulf C., Farmstead	Sabin	Building	1980
Main Building, Concordia College	Moorhead	Building	1980
Moorhead Storage and Transfer Company Warehouse	Moorhead	Building	2020
Olness, John, House	Georgetown	Building	1980
Park Elementary School	Moorhead	Building	1988
Patterson-Hernandez House	Barnesville	Building	1980
Probstfield, Randolph M., House	Moorhead	Building	1980
St. John the Divine Episcopal Church	Moorhead	Building	1980
Thompson, Hannah C. and Peter E., House	Barnesville	Building	1996

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Clay was formed in 1858 (1858-03-18) from Pembina.

BRECKENRIDGE (now CLAY) created from PEMBINA (now KITTSON).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Clay County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
79	5,887	17,942	21,780	25,337	30,363	39,080	49,327	51,229	65,318

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

48 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 48 of 48 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Aspelund Cemetery	46.67514	-96.23691
Bethany Cemetery	46.73888	-96.19582
Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery	47.07822	-96.28036
Bethlehem Memorial Cemetery	47.09134	-96.25922
Calvary Lutheran Cemetery	47.09075	-96.25911
Clara Cemetery	46.67427	-96.77848
Comstock Lutheran Cemetery	46.65893	-96.73779
Concordia Cemetery	46.9627	-96.65957
Dale Cemetery	46.91717	-96.21727
Dale Covenant Cemetery	46.89164	-96.2489
East Salem Cemetery	46.97454	-96.25762
Elkton Cemetery	46.73407	-96.45248
Elmwood Cemetery	46.78663	-96.60952
Evergreen Cemetery	46.84101	-96.77016
Felton Cemetery	47.0644	-96.50034
Fridhem Cemetery	46.97655	-96.79887
Gran Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.71805	-96.32082
Grong Lutheran Cemetery	46.74353	-96.23763
Hawley Cemetery	46.88191	-96.33395
Hegland Cemetery	46.83471	-96.2716
Highland Grove Cemetery	46.95202	-96.21116
Hoff Cemetery	46.68857	-96.75786
Keene Cemetery	47.0355	-96.36473
Lysne Cemetery	46.96384	-96.37561
Moorhead Memorial Gardens Cemetery	46.78324	-96.76962
North Buffalo Lutheran Cemetery	47.02107	-96.7424
Norwegian Cemetery	46.67467	-96.39034
Oak Mound Cemetery	46.99027	-96.79444
Old Jevnaker Cemetery	47.14413	-96.35155
Old Methodist Cemetery	47.12182	-96.72766
Old Yankee Cemetery	46.75277	-96.21527
Park Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.77626	-96.18748
Prairie Home Cemetery	46.8656	-96.76705
Riverside Cemetery	46.89774	-96.58452
Riverside Cemetery	46.90746	-96.76147
Rollag Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.74025	-96.23885
Rosemound Cemetery	46.65335	-96.44244
Sabin Trinity Cemetery	46.77528	-96.62306
Saint Joseph Cemetery	46.90589	-96.75981
Saint Marys Cemetery	46.6547	-96.44028
Scandia Cemetery	47.00663	-96.54313
Silver Lake Pioneer Cemetery	46.83384	-96.35061
Sleeper Cemetery	47.09301	-96.26588
Solem Cemetery	46.83471	-96.21832
Spring Prairie Cemetery	46.93204	-96.43149
West Salem Cemetery	46.97572	-96.26002
Wild Rose Cemetery	47.07942	-96.80475
Zion Cemetery	46.772	-96.36619

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Clay County, Minnesota

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.