County Past
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Swift County, Minnesota

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
8historic places
—earliest paper
1870formed
9,838pop. 2020
38cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 8 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1977. Most listings are in or near Benson, Appleton, DeGraff.

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 Swift titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

7 of 8 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

8 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Appleton City HallAppletonBuilding1977
Christ Church-EpiscopalBensonBuilding1985
Church of St. Bridget-CatholicDeGraffBuilding1985
Church of St. Francis Xavier-CatholicBensonBuilding1985
Gethsemane Episcopal ChurchAppletonBuilding2011
Monson Lake State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style Historic ResourcesSunburgDistrict1989
Swift County CourthouseBensonBuilding1977
Uytendale, Christian F., FarmsteadBensonDistrict1985

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Swift was formed in 1870 (1870-11-08) from Chippewa.

SWIFT created from CHIPPEWA.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Swift County population from 1880 to 2020 (Census historical series).

16k12k7,473188019201950196020002020
188019001920194019501960198020002020
7,47313,50315,09315,46915,83714,93612,92011,9569,838

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

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

Cemeteries — 38 of 38 listed
NameLatLon
Appleton Cemetery45.1861-96.02295
Benson City Cemetery45.32027-95.60138
Bethesda Lutheran Memorial Cemetery45.28178-95.38277
Big Bend Cemetery45.17353-95.685
Big Bend Lutheran Cemetery45.15885-95.7552
Calvary Cemetery45.21755-95.37942
Erickson Cemetery45.37777-95.61666
Evangelical Cemetery45.32607-95.95421
Frank Lake Cemetery45.32274-95.35986
Good Shepherd Cemetery45.38528-96.07861
Hillcrest Cemetery45.28912-95.28557
Hillside Cemetery45.18608-95.30935
Immanuel Cemetery45.26107-95.91199
Immanuel Cemetery45.30417-96.01556
Lake Hazel Lutheran Cemetery45.39074-95.55315
Long Lake Cemetery45.34917-96.07583
Molin Cemetery (historical)45.21056-95.59444
Monson Lake Lutheran Church Cemetery45.3186-95.27721
Nichols Farm Cemetery45.37763-95.28134
Our Redeemer Cemetery45.3101-95.59304
Sacred Heart Cemetery45.22721-95.3986
Saint Agnes Cemetery45.38333-96.00194
Saint Bridget Cemetery45.25404-95.47427
Saint Francis Cemetery45.32134-95.58364
Saint John's Cemetery45.30583-95.89083
Saint Johns Cemetery45.35385-95.97449
Saint Josephs Cemetery45.18413-95.89811
Saint Malachy Cemetery45.37773-95.6867
Saint Pauli Cemetery45.36513-95.43471
Six Mile Grove Cemetery45.25245-95.66614
Smith-Kepner Cemetery45.31191-95.94171
Spring Creek Cemetery45.36864-95.33662
Swift Falls Cemetery45.40121-95.42016
Trinity Cemetery45.34139-95.94028
Trinity Cemetery45.22388-95.6686
Waldum Cemetery45.37024-96.10339
West Bank Cemetery45.20053-95.75657
West Salem Cemetery45.19655-95.25772

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 Swift County, Minnesota

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