Smith Lake, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Middleville Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55321. The Survey maps it on the Howard Lake quadrangle.

Smith Lake within Wright County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Cokato quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
1982 USGS Howard Lake quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Litchfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

1,676 words on this township

History of Wright County, Minnesota Volume II, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Middleville Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In the spring of 1858 there were a number of new settlers, Jacob Sheppard came in the spring and located on section 28. John L. Barth, A. E. Cochran, Joseph Borell and Andrew Doerfler setiled here about the same time. W, P. [lolbrook settled on the site where the village of Smith Lake was afterward located. In

Passage source: History of Wright County, Minnesota Volume II, published 1915.

A gristmill was built in 1879 by Herman Albrecht on Crow river in section 8. M .V. Cochran & Co. built a steam sawmill at Smith Lake in 1873. It was burned in 1875, rebuilt in 1876, and burned in 1879. It was sold in 1880 to Ilindman & Workman, who rebuilt it in 1881. In 1877 a small steam sawmill was erected at Boam's place, and was operated for two or three years.

Passage source: History of Wright County, Minnesota Volume II, published 1915.

Smith Lake village is located in section 30, The claim was originally taken by Eugene Smith, who located and surveyed a railroad right-of-way in 1858 and gave his name to the lake. Mr. Smith did not perfect his title, and in 1865 the land was taken as a pre-emption elaim by W. P. Holbrook. In July, 1869, about

Passage source: History of Wright County, Minnesota Volume II, published 1915.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Middleville Township.

Fires near this place

1 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Smith Lake in 2011, burning about 3 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 November 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Wright County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Smith Lake: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Karinen Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Wright County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Howard Lake	2.7 miles	10
Albright	3.2 miles	10
Cokato	4.0 miles	10
Rice Lake	5.0 miles	10
Highland	5.2 miles	10
Stockholm	6.5 miles	10
Albion Center	6.8 miles	10
Knapp	7.6 miles	10

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 654947. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.