Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Nininger townsite: houses among trees along a grid of rural roads on a bluff above the Mississippi River, with crop fields to the south

River and lake town

Nininger

A paper city on the Mississippi that Ignatius Donnelly sold to the world in 1856. It held nearly 1,000 people within two years, the Panic of 1857 broke it, and by 1869 it was gone. Houses and farm fields cover the townsite today.

44°46′09″N 92°54′08″W · ≈790 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain). See the photographs in the gallery below.

Little left · private land

Nothing of the 1850s city is known to stand on the site. The newest dated report, the Minnesota Historian of June 2022, found little physical evidence of the town and described farm fields. Wikipedia reports two plaques, for the Good Templars Hall and for Ignatius Donnelly's house; we found no dated report that they are still in place. Today's aerial view shows private homes along 124th Street East and Jason Avenue. Stay on the public roads and don't walk onto private land.

Overview

The city that advertising built

The plan of the City of Nininger, 1856
The plan of the City of Nininger, 1856 · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Nininger was going to be the great city of the Northwest, or so its promoters said. In 1856 John Nininger, a businessman with land in Minnesota Territory and Governor Alexander Ramsey's brother-in-law, laid out a town on the south bank of the Mississippi about four miles northwest of Hastings. His partner was Ignatius Donnelly, a Philadelphian born in 1831, who moved there and sold it. Donnelly ran a newspaper, the Emigrant Aid Journal, to promote the place, and the Minnesota Historian says he had it put in steamship reading rooms and on trains, and handed out promotional cards in New York's immigrant neighborhoods.

It worked for a while. Lots sold fast and prices rose month by month. By 1858 the town had incorporated and nearly 1,000 people lived there, with general stores, blacksmiths, a gristmill and sawmills, saloons and a temperance hall. But the ferry landing and the railroad that buyers had been promised never came. Then the Panic of 1857 struck, eastern lenders called in their money, and Nininger's settlers lost their lots to foreclosure or forfeiture. By 1860 there were 469 people, and by 1869 MNopedia counts the town as gone.

Donnelly stayed. He went on to be lieutenant governor, a congressman and an author, and he was called the Sage of Nininger. His house came down in 1949. The temperance hall was moved away in 2005. What is left at Nininger is the grid of country roads on the bluff, homes and fields, and the plaques Wikipedia describes.

Timeline

Boom, panic, farmland

The 1950 USGS sheet: Nininger's road grid and farmsteads on the bluff above the Mississippi
The 1950 USGS sheet: Nininger's road grid and farmsteads on the bluff above the Mississippi · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. John Nininger, a St. Paul and Philadelphia businessman and brother-in-law of territorial governor Alexander Ramsey, lays out a city on the Mississippi above Hastings. Ignatius Donnelly joins him that fall.
  2. Lots go on sale. The Minnesota Historian says the plat had 3,800 lots and that prices climbed from $100 in October to $300 by January 1857.
  3. Donnelly's Emigrant Aid Journal, printed in Philadelphia, sells Nininger to Easterners and immigrants as a city destined for greatness. Donnelly moves to the town late that year.
  4. MNopedia says 100 houses were up by summer; the Minnesota Historian says about 200 homes went up in the first year. The town has general stores, blacksmiths, mills, saloons and two boarding houses, but no ferry and no railroad.
  5. Tremont Hall, a saloon, hosts what the Minnesota Historian calls the first baseball club meeting in Minnesota.
  6. The failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company sets off the Panic of 1857. Banks call in their loans and Nininger's lot owners begin losing their land.
  7. Nininger incorporates, in February 1858 by MNopedia's account or in the winter of 1857–58 by Wikipedia's. Its population is near 1,000. The Good Templars, a temperance lodge, build their hall.
  8. The population has fallen to 469.
  9. MNopedia says Nininger is no more, with only a handful of buildings standing, among them the post office and Donnelly's house.
  10. The post office closes after 33 years.
  11. Donnelly, by then a former congressman and lieutenant governor and an author, dies.
  12. Donnelly's house is torn down for scrap after the Dakota County Historical Society fails to save it.
  13. The Good Templars Hall, long used as a community center, is moved to the Little Log House Pioneer Village near Hastings. A plaque marks where it stood.
  14. The Good Templars Hall is removed from the National Register of Historic Places.

What's left

Country roads and two plaques

The Good Templars Hall of 1858, now at the Little Log House Pioneer Village near Hastings, July 2013
The Good Templars Hall of 1858, now at the Little Log House Pioneer Village near Hastings, July 2013 · Photo: McGhiever, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Nininger left almost nothing behind. Donnelly's house, which the Minnesota Historian says cost about $8,000 in 1856, outlasted the town by 80 years and was torn down for scrap in 1949. The Good Templars Hall of 1858 lost its first floor to decay in the late 1870s, served the school district and then a historical group, and was moved in 2005 to the Little Log House Pioneer Village near Hastings, where the photo on this page was taken. Wikipedia says plaques mark the hall's original site and Donnelly's home.

The townsite is now a quiet rural neighborhood. Today's map and aerial view show houses among the trees along 124th Street East, Jason Avenue and the roads around them, with crop fields to the south. The 1950 and 1967 USGS sheets in the historic maps below label Nininger on the same bluff, with a scatter of buildings along a small road grid and the river curving past to the north. The 1985 sheet, at a smaller scale, takes in more ground, with Lock and Dam No. 2 downstream between Nininger and Hastings.

  • Plaque at the Good Templars Hall site (reported)
  • Plaque for Donnelly's house (reported)
  • Road grid on the bluff
  • Good Templars Hall, moved to Little Log House Pioneer Village in 2005
USGS topographic map of Nininger: the label at 124th Street East and Jason Avenue on the bluff above the Mississippi, with 123rd and 125th streets nearby
USGS The National Map, topo. Nininger is labeled at 124th Street East and Jason Avenue, on the bluff above the Mississippi.
Aerial view of Nininger: houses among trees along rural roads on the bluff, the brown Mississippi at top right and crop fields along the bottom
Aerial imagery, same area. Houses line the roads on the wooded bluff, with the Mississippi at top right and fields to the south.

Historic maps

Nininger on USGS maps, 1950–1985

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.

USGS topographic map around Nininger, 1950
St Paul Park sheet, 1950, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Hastings is the closest city, about eight minutes away by County 42. From Minneapolis the drive takes about three-quarters of an hour by MN 55. Both routes end on 124th Street East near Jason Avenue, at the mapped townsite. The roads run past private homes; there is no visitor site.

USGS topographic map between Hastings and Nininger with the route drawn on it

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

From downtown Hastings3.3 miabout 8 min
  1. From downtown Hastings, follow County 42 out of town: East 2nd Street, Nininger Road and Lock Boulevard.2.0 mi
  2. Bear right to stay on Lock Boulevard, which becomes 125th Street East.1.1 mi
  3. Turn right on Jason Avenue and left on 124th Street East.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The townsite is private homes and farmland. Look from the public roads and don't park in driveways.
  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us. We have no dated source on road surfaces.

Photos

Nininger in pictures

Visitor reports

Been to Nininger?

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.

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Nearby

Other sites near Nininger

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Nininger, Minnesota", retrieved October 2026: John Nininger and Ramsey, incorporation in the winter of 1857 or 1858, nearly 1,000 people by spring 1858, the post office closing in 1889 after 33 years, the two plaques, Donnelly, coordinates.
  2. MNopedia, "Nininger" by Matt Reicher, Minnesota Historical Society, last modified November 12, 2025: the October 1, 1856 lot sales, the Emigrant Aid Journal, 100 houses by summer 1857, February 1858 incorporation, the missing ferry and railroad, the Panic of 1857, 469 people in 1860, and the town gone by 1869.
  3. The Minnesota Historian, "The Ghost Town of Nininger, Minnesota" by Josh Biber, June 23, 2022: the location four miles northwest of Hastings, 3,800 lots and their prices, about 200 homes, the businesses, Tremont Hall, the advertising campaign, Donnelly's $8,000 house and its 1949 demolition, and little physical evidence of the town at the site today, among farm fields.
  4. Wikipedia, "Good Templars Hall", retrieved October 2026: built 1858, the lowered upper floor, the 2005 move to the Little Log House Pioneer Village, the plaque at its old site and the January 29, 2025 removal from the National Register.
  5. Commons file pages for the two images, read October 2026: the 1856 plan from the Minnesota Historical Society and the July 2013 photo of the hall at its new site.
  6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • Founding and boom, 1856–1858
  • Population, 1858 and 1860
  • Historic maps, 1950–1985
  • 1856 town plan
  • Plaques, current condition
  • Post office opening date
  • Photos of the townsite
  • Exact plat on today's roads
  • Field report
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.