Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
From the record
“Birch Coulee Battlefield in Renville County, Minnesota, United States, was the site of the Battle of Birch Coulee, the costliest military engagement for U.S. forces during the Dakota War of 1862. It is now a historic site with self-guided trails and markers interpreting the battle from both sides.”
Wikipedia article Birch Coulee Battlefield, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 9 National Register listings published here for Renville County · listed in 1973 · category: Site.
National Register reference number.73000995- 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.
When the M. fr St. L. Railroad was projected the tow-nship of Birch Cooley voted bonds of $5,000. Upon reaching Morton, a rocky formation near the river and the tracks ended some 400 feet from the river bank. They were not extended westward until some two years later. Taking advantage of the technicality of the 400 feet unfinished, the township refused to pay the bonds. In the litigation which followed the township won. For some years the bonds were alleged to be lost, though the money was ready for their payment. Of this money, the townshop lost some $3,300 when the Farmers Bank of i leaver Falls failed.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Birch Coulee
in 2014, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Arson/incendiarism
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
5 workings within 5 miles of Birch Coulee: 5 producers.
All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kaolin, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Morton, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 heavy rain, 2 hail, 2 flash 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.
Very heavy rainfall, and associated flooding, led to temporarily closures of Anderson Lake County Park in Franklin, along with Beaver Falls and Birth Coulee County Parks in Morton. Mack Lake County Park in Fairfax, Skalbekken County Park in Sacred Heart and Vicksburg Park in Renville were also closed due to the flooding. Several county roads in southwest Renville County were closed, and some became impassable.
There was an unconfirmed report of 7 inches of rainfall around the Morton area. There were also measured rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches around the area. Due to the extreme rainfall amounts, and the impact of the area, approximately 30 homes were flooded from local small streams and runoff. Three homes had 6-8 feet of water in their basements, and Minnesota Highway 19 was closed east of Morton due to a mudslide.
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.
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.
Block