Home › Minnesota › Otter Tail County

Otter Tail County, Minnesota

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

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

31historic places

—earliest paper

1858formed

60,081pop. 2020

171cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 31 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973. Most listings are in or near Fergus Falls, Underwood, Battle Lake.

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 Otter Tail titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

23 of 31 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

31 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Barnard Mortuary	Fergus Falls	Building	1986
Blyberg, O. A. E., House	Pelican Rapids	Building	1984
Clement, C. C., House	Fergus Falls	Building	1986
Craigie Flour Mill Historical Marker	Otter Tail Township	Site	2003
District No. 182 School	Underwood	Building	1991
Elizabeth Village Hall and Jail	Elizabeth	Building	1984
Fergus Falls City Hall	Fergus Falls	Building	1984
Fergus Falls State Hospital (Boundary Increase)	Fergus Falls	District	2016
Fergus Falls State Hospital Complex	Fergus Falls	Building	1986
First Baptist Church	Battle Lake	Building	2025
Fort Juleson	Tordenskjold	Site	2013
Foss, Ole and Anne, House	Underwood	Building	2025
Hotel Kaddatz	Fergus Falls	Building	1983
Lewis House and Medical Office	Henning	Building	2021
Maplewood Site	Pelican Rapids	Site	1978
Mason, John W., House	Fergus Falls	Building	1986
Morrison Mounds	Battle Lake	Site	1973
Northern Pacific Depot	Fergus Falls	Building	2022
Orwell Site	Fergus Falls	Site	1974
Otter Tail County Courthouse	Fergus Falls	Building	1984
Park Region Luther College	Fergus Falls	Building	1984
People's Union Church	Scambler Township	Building	2004
Perham Village Hall and Fire Station	Perham	Building	1986
Phelps Mill	Underwood	Building	1975
Phelps Mill Historic District	Underwood	District	1984
Prospect House	Battle Lake	Building	2013
Red River Milling Company	Fergus Falls	Building	2021
River Inn	Fergus Falls	Building	1988
Trinity Lutheran Church	Henning	Building	2018
United States Post Office and Courthouse	Fergus Falls	Building	2012
Wright, C. J., House	Fergus Falls	Building	1978

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Otter Tail was formed in 1858 (1858-03-18) from Cass, Pembina.

OTTER TAIL created from CASS and PEMBINA (now KITTSON).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
240	18,675	45,375	50,818	53,192	51,320	48,960	51,937	57,159	60,081

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

171 cemeteries and 3 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 80 of 171 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Aastad Cemetery	46.13777	-96.08332
Aurdal Cemetery	46.30015	-95.91512
Bagstevold Cemetery	46.50008	-96.09886
Bauck Cemetery	46.6288	-95.6055
Bethania Lutheran Cemetery	46.63749	-95.18499
Bethel Cemetery	46.60553	-96.09335
Bethel Cemetery	46.1661	-95.77471
Bethlehem Cemetery	46.26912	-96.07116
Bethlehem Cemetery	46.64194	-95.4361
Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery	46.21113	-96.05227
Central Swede Grove Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.53497	-96.05964
Compton Cemetery	46.42023	-95.20863
Eagle Lake Cemetery	46.19416	-95.68277
East Lake Lida Cemetery	46.57675	-95.92794
Emmanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.15241	-96.18462
Esther Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.12188	-95.18925
Evander Cemetery	46.17634	-95.70226
Evangelical Lutheran Kirchof Cemetery	46.37748	-96.12978
Evangelical Lutheran Rolling Prairie Congregational Cemetery	46.22916	-95.87082
Fairview Cemetery	46.40427	-95.32117
Fairy Lake Cemetery	46.69444	-95.75277
Fergus Falls State Hospital Cemetery	46.3104	-96.07687
First Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.28471	-95.71805
First Lutheran Cemetery	46.26027	-96.01869
First Lutheran North Cemetery	46.31473	-96.09315
First United Church of Christ Cemetery	46.31416	-96.09319
Flatau Cemetery	46.63162	-95.68976
Folden Cemetery	46.23373	-95.44938
Free Church Cemetery	46.13654	-95.66143
Free Lutheran Cemetery	46.24721	-95.87471
Free Thought Cemetery	46.62912	-95.84421
Friborg Lutheran Church Cemetery (historical)	46.43333	-96.175
Gausdale Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.20194	-95.3336
German Evangelical Cemetery (historical)	46.38333	-96.14389
Girard Cemetery	46.33138	-95.55244
Gorman Township Cemetery	46.69333	-95.60611
Grace Cemetery	46.64483	-95.18494
Grace Lutheran Cemetery	46.34718	-95.4692
Greenwood Cemetery	46.51801	-95.38522
Grove Lake Cemetery	46.6446	-96.13013
Grue Cemetery	46.15721	-95.72638
Gustafva Cemetery	46.43424	-95.21807
Hamar Cemetery	46.45793	-96.27949
Hay Creek Cemetery	46.61502	-95.1915
Hedemarken Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.39748	-96.21287
Henning Cemetery	46.32555	-95.44916
Henning Township Cemetery	46.34718	-95.44961
Historic Pine Lake Cemetery	46.57175	-95.44818
Holy Cross Cemetery	46.68764	-95.35975
Immanuel Cemetery	46.55717	-95.7143
Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.36989	-96.02782
Inman Cemetery	46.32551	-95.3628
Inspiration Peak Cemetery	46.13665	-95.58414
Knollwood Cemetery	46.24032	-96.04297
Kongsberg Cemetery	46.3261	-96.02958
Kvam Cemetery	46.14527	-95.8436
Lake Lida Baptist Cemetery	46.51482	-95.99014
Lake View Cemetery	46.58524	-96.08311
Lakeside Cemetery	46.14968	-95.80171
Lakewood Cemetery	46.2794	-95.70004
Leaf Lake Cemetery	46.38384	-95.5167
Leaf Lake Cemetery	46.38421	-95.47553
Leaf Lake Cemetery	46.38829	-95.4392
Leaf Mountain Lutheran Cemetery	46.16635	-95.58702
Little Bethany Cemetery	46.61998	-96.28018
Maplewood Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.50282	-95.95735
Memorial Cemetery	46.62082	-95.63721
Mission Covenant Cemetery	46.19472	-95.54628
Mount Pleasant Cemetery	46.26892	-95.65615
Nazareth Cemetery	46.5278	-95.30034
Nazareth Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.60138	-95.30277
Nidaros Lutheran Church Cemetery	46.23691	-95.58907
North Immanuel Cemetery	46.6095	-96.21409
Norwegian Grove Cemetery	46.56894	-96.18259
Norwegian Methodist Church Cemetery	46.35155	-95.43189
Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery	46.25555	-95.8411
Oak Grove Cemetery	46.28828	-96.04889
Oak Grove Cemetery	46.1727	-95.18735
Oak Hill Cemetery	46.40258	-95.34319
Oak Hill Farm Cemetery	46.16134	-95.64732

Historical populated places — 3 of 3

Name	Lat	Lon
Leaf City	46.40778	-95.46667
Roberts	46.18083	-96.17278
Topelius	46.47917	-95.28611

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 Otter Tail County, Minnesota

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