Dorothy was a town in Section 5,
Louisville Township,
Red Lake County,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, United States. It is now a virtual
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
.
Dorothy was initially established as a railroad station in 1916–17, after the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
extended its line from
Tilden Junction to
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
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.
The post office in Dorothy was first established February 11, 1898, with Joseph H. Mathews as postmaster. It was finally discontinued in 1945.
The
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...
reported in 1938 that the town had a population of 25, and "a beautiful church with stained-glass windows". In 1973, 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.
On October 24, 2014, the old church caught fire and burned to the ground in a conflagration that apparently started after embers from a pile of leaves a property owner was burning nearby blew towards the building, igniting the structure, which was a total loss.
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.
*''The Post Offices of Minnesota'', Alan H. Patera and John S. Gallagher; (The Depot, Burtonsville, Maryland, 1978), at pp. 153, 268
*''The Erskine Echo'', Erskine, Minn., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, at p. 4
Former populated places in Red Lake County, Minnesota
Ghost towns in Minnesota
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