Duquette is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Pine County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States; located along the Willow River. State Highway 23 ( MN 23) serves as a main route in the community. The Nemadji State Forest is nearby. Duquette is located along the boundary line between Kerrick Township and Nickerson Township. The communities of

Nickerson Nickerson may refer to: People * Nickerson (surname) Fictional characters *Coach Burt Nickerson, a character in the movie '' All the Right Moves'' played by Craig T. Nelson *Marty Nickerson, the main character, a fictional attorney, in the four ...

, Kerrick, and

Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...

are all near Duquette. The small town of Duquette was named after Frank Duquette. Frank Duquette was head post master at the Moose Lake post office, then went on to start up his own post office in Duquette.

Community

Duquette is an unincorporated community in northern Pine County. Nearby is the Duquette Airport, a private, 1/4 mile grass airstrip. Duquette is the home of Jackie Berger Park; which includes campsites, ballfield, pavilion, tennis court, and fishing in the Willow River. The park was named after a local young man who died on

Omaha Beach Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors of the amphibious assault component of Operation Overlord during the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, the Allies of World War II, Allies invaded German military administration in occupied Fra ...

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, 1944. A parking field for snowmobiles, offroad motorcycles or ATV's abuts the park.

History

Duquette is located along the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

on what was at one time the Great Northern Railway. It was built on an early native American village site located at the southern terminus of the Willow–Nemadji Portage; the first European settlers were French Canadians, among them was the entrepreneur Frank Duquette, who built a sawmill and store. Originally the village was named ''Kerrick'' until the Great Northern Railway depot was moved three miles south, keeping that name, and for a period Duquette was called ''Old Kerrick'', the new site being called New Kerrick; the names were corrected when the Duquette post office was established in 1905.

References

* Rand McNally Road Atlas – 2007 edition – Minnesota entry * Official State of Minnesota Highway Map – 2011/2012 edition {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Minnesota Unincorporated communities in Pine County, Minnesota