Manganese

Overview

Manganese for the war, then nothing

Manganese sat between Coles Lake and Flynn Lake on the North Range of the Cuyuna, the iron range that surveyor Cuyler Adams traced with his compass. Its ore carried unusual amounts of manganese, a metal steelmakers needed. The Duluth Land and Timber Company platted the town in February 1911, sold every lot within seven weeks, and promoters called it the Hibbing of the Cuyuna Range. By 1914 the clay streets had concrete sidewalks and curbs, a Soo Line branch reached a new depot, and the Fitger Brewing Company had built a two-storey hotel with a bar and restaurant.

The First World War was its boom. The mines around it, the Algoma, Gloria, Merritt, Milford and Preston, ran flat out, and Wikipedia credits them with about 90 percent of the manganese the country used in the war. In 1919 nearly 600 people lived there, many of them immigrants from Finland, Croatia, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, England, Norway, Slovenia and Serbia. Then the war ended. By the 1920 census only 183 were left. In February 1924 the Milford Mine, where many of them worked, flooded and killed 41 men. The Depression closed most of the mines, and the Soo Line pulled up its track in 1930.

Spring rains turned the unpaved clay streets to mud, and the people kept leaving. There were 41 in 1950, most of the rest moved out around 1955, and the village was formally dissolved in 1961. Its water tower went for scrap. By the last account we have, photos from October 2016, what remains is a grid of cracked sidewalks, curbs and foundations under birch and aspen.

Then and now

Manganese from the air, 1939 and 2021

Manganese was platted in 1911 and held nearly 600 people in 1919. By 1932 most of the mines around it had closed, and the 1940 census would count 62 people. On September 20, 1939, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed the town: open streets between Coles Lake and Flynn Lake, with buildings along them and a road running east. The second photograph comes from the federal farm survey of July 18, 2021.

Most of the people still there left around 1955, and the village was dissolved in 1961. Coles Lake and the road east are where they were, and Flynn Lake, a small pond in the 1939 photograph, is much larger today. Forest has closed over the street grid, with a few lanes along the old streets; the sidewalks and foundations are under the trees.

Coles LakeForest over the street gridOld Manganese RoadFlynn Lake2021

Coles LakeStreets and buildingsRoad east toward WolfordFlynn Lake, then a small pond1939

Coles LakeStreets and buildingsRoad east toward WolfordFlynn Lake, then a small pond1939

Coles LakeForest over the street gridOld Manganese RoadFlynn Lake2021

1939: U.S. Department of Agriculture; scan via Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online, University of Minnesota, source, Public domain. 2021: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain. Both photographs cover the same 1.6 by 1.2 km and were lined up on 35 ground features, mostly roads, field edges and lake rims, to within about 1.5 m. Labels: the lakes and Old Manganese Road from today's USGS topo, the road toward Wolford from the 1959 USGS sheet, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

Platted, booming, dissolved

1. 1895Wikipedia says surveyor Cuyler Adams notices his compass needle swinging in the woods of Crow Wing County this year and suspects iron underground. MNopedia says federal surveys noted magnetic anomalies there in the early 1880s and Adams mapped them over the next twenty years.
2. May 1903Adams's test drilling near Deerwood finds manganese-bearing ore. The new range is named Cuyuna, from Cuyler and his dog, Una.
3. Feb 5, 1911The Duluth Land and Timber Company plats Manganese in Wolford Township. Every lot sells within seven weeks, at $100 to $350.
4. 1912The town is established on March 13 and gets a post office, which lasts until 1924.
5. Nov 10, 1913Manganese incorporates, with 960 acres inside its limits.
6. 1914Crews lay concrete sidewalks and curbs along the clay streets, which are never paved. The Fitger Brewing Company builds a $10,000 two-storey hotel, and the Soo Line runs a branch line to a new depot.
7. 1919Manganese peaks at nearly 600 people, with two hotels, a bank, two grocery stores, a bakery, a show hall and a two-room school. The village floats a $30,000 waterworks bond and puts up a 100-foot water tower.
8. 1920After the war, demand for manganese ore falls. The census counts 183.
9. Feb 5, 1924Mud and water from Foley Lake flood the nearby Milford Mine, where many Manganese men work. Forty-one miners die and seven climb out, in Minnesota's worst mining disaster.
10. 1930–1932The Soo Line tears up its track to town in 1930. The Gloria mine ships its last ore in 1931 and the Milford closes in 1932.
11. 1930–1950The census counts 96 people in 1930, 62 in 1940 and 41 in 1950.
12. c. 1955Most of the remaining residents move out, taking their houses or leaving them to be torn down. The streetlights stay on into the early 1970s.
13. Jul 17, 1961After Ironton, one of its creditors, petitions for dissolution in 1959, Manganese is dissolved and absorbed by Wolford Township. The water tower sells for a net $200.
14. 2003Most of the townsite is bought, and a gate and a no-trespassing sign go up at the southeast entrance.
15. 2017After another sale in 2006, the old lots start to be cleared for primitive campsites called Manganese Base Camp.
16. Jul 2024The camp holds its eighth annual Manganese Days picnic and camping weekend, according to its website as archived in December 2024. By 2025 the site was redirecting, and in October 2026 its address led to an unrelated page.

What's left

Sidewalks under the aspens

The town had three north-south streets, First Street East, Main Street and First Street West, crossed by five avenues. The south one, First Avenue South, is now Old Manganese Road. Wikipedia, citing a 2002 local history and a 2014 Brainerd Dispatch article, describes what was left after everyone went: sidewalk remnants, rubble, building foundations and basements covered in graffiti, with willow and aspen growing through them. The October 2016 photos on this page show the same: grassy lanes where the avenues ran, concrete walls and a sidewalk heaved by roots. They are the newest record of the remains we found.

The 1959 USGS sheet in the historic maps below labels Manganese with its street grid between Coles and Flynn lakes, the road east toward Wolford and a point labeled Water in town, the year the dissolution petition was filed. The 1953 sheet, at 1:250,000, prints Manganese beside the words "strip mining". On the 1976 sheet the name still sits by the lakes, with the Musser and Maroco mines near Trommald to the south.

• Concrete sidewalks and curbs
• Building foundations and basements
• Street grid, now grassy lanes
• Old Manganese Road (the former First Avenue South)

Historic maps

Manganese on USGS maps, 1953–1976

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19531:250,00019591:24,00019761:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Crosby is the closest town, about a quarter of an hour south. Both routes come in from the east on Old Manganese Road, and their last 0.15 mile runs on tracks over private land. We don't know whether Old Manganese Road itself is public all the way. Wikipedia reports a gate and a no-trespassing sign at the southeast entrance since 2003; stop at the gate.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Manganese in photos

A broken concrete wall among birch and aspen, October 2016A foundation wall and rubble in the woods, October 2016An old building foundation under the brush, October 2016A sidewalk going under the leaves, October 2016Manganese Avenue west of Main Street, October 2016Manganese Avenue east of Main Street, October 2016Visitors and their cars at a muddy corner on First Avenue South, October 2016Aerial photo, 1939Aerial photo, 1955, as the last residents left"First residence at Manganese," photo postcard, about 1917

Visitor reports

Been to Manganese?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Manganese

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Minnesota index.

• Old Crow Wing23.3 mi SW · Crow Wing
• Old Wadena Historic District39.7 mi W · Wadena
• Leaf River51.0 mi W · Wadena
• Banning60.8 mi SE · Pine
• Topelius60.8 mi W · Otter Tail
• Bodum79.5 mi SE · Isanti
• Harlis81.1 mi E · Pine
• Fermoy81.5 mi NE · St. Louis

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Manganese, Minnesota", retrieved October 2026: the Cuyuna discovery, the 1911 plat, the 1912 founding and post office, the 1913 incorporation, the 1914 sidewalks, hotel and railroad, the 1919 town and its water tower, the wartime manganese, census counts, the 1930 track removal, the 1955 exodus, the 1961 dissolution, the street names, the remains, the 2003 gate and the 2017 campsites, elevation, climate and coordinates.
2. MNopedia, "Milford Mine Disaster, 1924", Minnesota Historical Society, last modified July 16, 2026: the February 5, 1924 flood, 41 dead and 7 survivors, the 1932 closing and the memorial park opened in 2010.
3. MNopedia, "Cuyuna Iron Range", Minnesota Historical Society, last modified April 21, 2025: magnetic anomalies noted in the early 1880s and Adams's mapping, manganese-rich ores for wartime steel, and the last ore shipment in 1982.
4. Manganese Base Camp, the landowners' website, archived December 3, 2024 (the live address now leads to an unrelated site): the 2017 resettlement, Manganese Days on July 13, 2024 and camper lots for lease.
5. Crow Wing County, "Milford Mine Memorial Park", read October 2026: the park's address and its construction in phases from 2010.
6. Commons file pages for the photos, read October 2026: dates, places and the postcard's caption and photographer.
7. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• A broken concrete wall among birch and aspen, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A foundation wall and rubble in the woods, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• An old building foundation under the brush, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A sidewalk going under the leaves, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Manganese Avenue west of Main Street, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Manganese Avenue east of Main Street, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Visitors and their cars at a muddy corner on First Avenue South, October 2016: DrGregMN, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Aerial photo, 1939: United States Forest Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Aerial photo, 1955, as the last residents left: United States Forest Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• "First residence at Manganese," photo postcard, about 1917: J. C. Amundson (postcard photographer), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• 1939 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture; scan via Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online, University of Minnesota, source, Public domain
• 2021 aerial photograph: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Brainerd 1953, 1:250,000; Trommald 1959, 1:24,000; Pine River 1976, 1:100,000.