Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
“Paul and Pacific Railroad Depot and Lunchroom are two buildings located in Wells, Minnesota, and built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.”
Wikipedia article Wells station (Minnesota), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 11 National Register listings published here for Faribault County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
An account from the chapter on Clark township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
"Three soldiers were frozen to death in a blizzard which swept over this part of the country during the winter of 1864, and their bodies were not found until spring. When found one was identified as the body of Mr. Daramas, of Minnesota Lake, and the others as the remains of two comrades named Price, who accompanied him to his home In this county on a furlough.
The chapter on Clark Township in The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896 names Wells. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The soil is black, deep, rich and productive, growing the most nutritious grasses, and is better adapted, perhaps, to grazing, than grain raising, though the amount of grain raised here averages about the same as that in many other towns, according to the acreage cultivated. Should the improbable event ever occur, that the lands in other parts of this county should become arid or worn out. it may reasonably be expected that most of the lands in Clark township will still be productive. Good water is easily obtained by digging or boring, and there are in this town many artesian, or flowing wells, especially in the village of Wells. These flowing wells, or fountains, are obtained in any part of the town, and are very valuable. The water is verj* good. These wells are usually' two inches in diameter, and from 100 to 160 feet in depth. There are some indications from these flowing wells and some of their discharges and other considerations, that the locality embracing a part of this town and perhaps Dunbar, and other adjoining territory, has a subter-
Passage source: The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896.
This town was named Cobb by the special commissioners in 1858, they supposing that the Cobb river ran through the town. This was a mistake however. On September 7th, 1869, the name of the town was changed by the county commissioners to Thompson, but it appearing that there was another town in the state of this name, the commissioners on the twenty-fourth day of March, 1870, gave it the name of Clark. It was named Clark, and previously Thompson, in honor of Clark W. Thompson, the original proprietor of the village site of Wells, and the largest land owner of the town and county.
Passage source: The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896.
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 Clark Township - 3,827 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wells, the town this property stands in, in 31 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 12 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 5 flash flood, 3 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | $1,500,000 | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Wells | $100,000 | Baseball size hail caused damage to area roofs in Wells, Minnesota. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Wells | $25,000 | There was damage to roof shingles and siding of houses, with the hail depth of a few inches. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | $25,000 | A trained spotter, along with video coverage of the storm, had sustained severe winds lasting for 10 minutes or more. In addition to numerous trees blown down or uprooted, a barn north of Wells was destroyed. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | $20,000 | Barn shifted off foundation. Several trees felled. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Wells | $15,000 | There was damage to trees and broken windshields north of Wells, Minnesota. |
| August 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Wells | - | The tornado mostly moved across fields, but it did hit one house. A storm chaser took video of the tornado. Satellite imagery showed a path through the crops, enabling a determination of the beginning and end points. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Several trees and very large branches were taken down in the southeast side of Wells due to a downburst not far from a tornado. |
| August 2024 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | Flooded roadways in the southwest part of Wells due to heavy rain. |
| June 2024 | Heavy Rain | Wells | - | A total of 3 to 5 inches of rain fell from multiple rounds of thunderstorms. CoCoRaHS observers measured 4.62 inches near Minnesota Lake. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | In the city of Wells, several large branches, and a tree were blown down in the city park. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Wells | - | A local trained weather observer measured 5.15 inches of rainfall near Wells between Wednesday afternoon, September 21st, to the early morning of Thursday, September 22nd. |
| September 2015 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | Several streets were flooded in the town of Wells. |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Wells | - | A measured 12 hour rainfall total of 2.57 inches near Wells. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Several large tree branches and trees were blown down in Wells. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | Several resources including trained spotters, emergency managers and the local media indicated that significant flooding occurred in northeast Faribault County. County Road 109 between Alden (Freeborn County) and Wells (Faribault County) had several areas at which one lane was closed due to water over the roadway. In addition, several farms, fields and flood prone areas had standing water for several hours after 2 to 3 inches of rain fell in a short period of time. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Scattered trees were blown down near Wells. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | A few trees were blown down in Wells, Minnesota. Power outages also occurred. |
| June 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Wells | - | Numerous trees were broken, mostly in a cemetery on the west edge of Wells. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | A strong rear flank downdraft accompanied the Wells tornado. The winds knocked down numerous trees, mostly in the south side of the city of Wells. |
| June 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Wells | - | Caught on video by storm chaser. Fire department members stated it reached 3/4 of the way to the ground. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Numerous corn fields flattened throughout town. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | A few streets under two feet of water. Half Moon Park was flooded. The cooperative observer in Wells measured 6.20 inches rain as of 0830 CST August 19. |
| September 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Wells | - | Multiple reports. |
| August 2004 | Hail | Wells | - | A cornfield was laid over along Highway 22 at 140th St. The time was estimated. |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | Roads and low lying areas in and outside of Wells were under water. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Tree down on house. |
| June 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Wells | - | Funnel clouds also sighted south of Easton. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wells | - | Large tree limbs blown down. Estimated windspeed. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Wells | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Wells | - | no account filed |
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.
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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Muret N. Leland House | 0.3 miles | 1980 |
 | District No. 40 School | 5.1 miles | 1980 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 80004263 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Faribault County | All 11 listed properties in this county. |
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