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Worthington, MN Area Guide
Welcome to the rolling hills of southwestern Minnesota! The city of Worthington is located atop a geological feature known as Buffalo Ridge, which includes roughly seven-hundred square miles of rolling prairie land harkening back to the colonial days of old. Worthington boasts a proud history and tightly knit community of gentile and familial citizens as well as a thriving agricultural sector and finely tuned municipal infrastructure.
History
The sprawling grassland of southwestern Minnesota was first settled by French explorer Joseph Nicollet, who charted the area between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the early 19th century. Nicollet originally called this region “Sisseton County” in honor of Sisseton Indians residing in the area. This rolling sea of open prairies seemed limitless and featured one prominent lake given the name “Lake Okabena,” a Dakota Indian word meaning “nesting place of herons.” In 1871, the St. Paul and Sioux City Railway Company connected two area cities, which made it necessary to fortify and develop the township of Luverne. Also in that same year, Professor Ransom Humiston arrived with a company of colonial settlers from Cleveland Ohio in pursuit of a place to worship freely and establish evangelical villages. These early residents plotted a town and changed the name to Worthington, in honor of one of the founder’s mother-in-law’s maiden names. By the following year, regular train service along the railroad had begun and settlers began to arrive from across the Nation. Fueled by the Homestead Act, which provided one-hundred and sixty acres of government land for free to new settlers, people began to pour into the area. As a requirement of this ingenious governmental provision, citizens began to take up ownership in their communities and improve the land in cooperative, optimistic fashion. Many of the original settlers to the area were children of immigrants from the countries of Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Others were war veterans or familial homesteaders seeking to create a better life for their families. The town grew quickly resulting in the construction of eighty-five buildings after just twelve months atop what was once barren grassland. Worthington became known for its bountiful harvests, and despite occasional tough years, its fertile prairie lands yielded many successful grain seasons.
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Parks and Recreation
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