Photograph of Forestville — Photograph by McGhiever, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Forestville Townsite-Meighan Store

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“Forestville is a ghost town in section 13 of Forestville Township in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States. The nearest communities are Wykoff, to the northwest, and Preston, to the northeast.”
Wikipedia article Forestville, Minnesota, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 36 National Register listings published here for Fillmore County · listed in 1973 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

Listed as. Forestville Townsite--Meighan Store - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. Co. Hwy. 12, Preston, 55965
When was it listed? April 1973
Category. district
Township. Forestville township
National Register reference number. 73000976 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

7 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Forestville Townsite-Meighan Store between 1993 and 2012, burning about 11 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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
Smoking	2
Debris and open burning	2
Arson/incendiarism	2
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
6 August 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 April 2010	Smoking	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
15 April 2004	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
24 March 2003	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
23 March 1994	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
18 November 1999	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
24 October 1993	Smoking	5.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Fillmore County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Forestville Townsite-Meighan Store: 12 past producers, 4 producers, 1 prospect. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Apenhorst Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Grabau Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Rifle Hill Quarry & Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Evers No 1 Mine	Iron	Past Producer
Hewitt Mine	Iron	Past Producer
Holsapple Mine	Iron	Past Producer
O Jones Mine	Iron	Past Producer
O Stockdale Mine	Iron	Past Producer
Osterud & Duncanson Mine	Iron	Past Producer
Otto Meyer Jr	Iron	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Fillmore County

Storms near this property

29 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Preston, the town this property stands in, in 29 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 12 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 heavy rain, 2 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
December 2021	Tornado (EF0)	Preston	$275,000	This was the second tornado of the night in Fillmore County. This narrow EF0 tornado moved across the eastern and northern parts of Preston. Houses, sheds, cars and trees were damaged along the path. The roofs of the fire department and city hall were both damaged.
December 2021	Tornado (EF1)	Preston	$230,000	This was the third tornado of the night in Fillmore County. This EF1 tornado developed northeast of Preston and moved northeast for about 2 miles before dissipating. Farm outbuildings and trees were damaged along the path.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$20,000	Dozens of trees were blown down in Preston and a few buildings sustained minor damage. A large building under construction on the north side of town collapsed.
June 1999	Hail	Preston	$20,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$18,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$15,000	no account filed
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$10,000	Trees were blown down in Preston that also took down power lines.
May 2006	Flash Flood	Preston	$1,500	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Preston	$1,000	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$1,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$750	no account filed
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	$250	no account filed
March 2025	Hail	Preston	-	Local media reported ping pong ball sized hail in Preston, Minnesota.
March 2025	Hail	Preston	-	The public reported half dollar sized hail in Preston, Minnesota. The report was relayed by local media.
August 2014	Hail	Preston	-	Nickel sized hail fell in Preston. The power was also knocked out, but the cause was not known.
May 2013	Flood	Preston	-	Runoff from heavy rains pushed the South Branch of the Root River out of its banks in Preston. The river crested just over a foot above the flood stage at 938.07 feet.
June 2013	Flood	Preston	-	Runoff from heavy rain pushed the South Branch of the Root River out of its banks in Preston. The river crested around a half foot over flood stage at 937.61 feet.
April 2013	Heavy Rain	Preston	-	The COOP observer near Preston reported 2.3 inches of rain.
October 2013	Heavy Rain	Preston	-	In almost a six hour period, 5.85 inches of rain fell in Preston.
September 2010	Heavy Rain	Preston	-	The storm total rainfall was 4.56 inches.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	-	Several large trees were blown down by strong thunderstorm wind.
April 2017	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
July 2014	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
April 2013	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
March 2005	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Preston	-	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Preston	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fillmore County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
William Strong House	2.9 miles	1982
Francis H. Bartlett House	4.9 miles	1984
Wykoff Commercial Historic District	5.0 miles	1994
Bernard H. Pietenpol Workshop and Garage	5.5 miles	1982
Fillmore County Jail and Carriage House	6.7 miles	1982
Milwaukee Elevator	6.9 miles	2006

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000976 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Fillmore County	All 36 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.