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Photograph of Big Stone County Courthouse
Photograph by McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Big Stone County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“The Big Stone County Courthouse in Ortonville, Minnesota is the center of government for Big Stone County, Minnesota. The county was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 1862, but the government was not organized until 1873, when Governor Horace Austin appointed three county commissioners.”

Wikipedia article Big Stone County Courthouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 9 National Register listings published here for Big Stone County · listed in 1985 · category: Building.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 20 2nd St., SE, Ortonville, 56278
  • When was it listed? August 1985
  • Category. building
  • City. Ortonville city
  • National Register reference number. 85001764 - 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

12 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Big Stone County Courthouse between 1993 and 2020, burning about 632 acres in total. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Debris and open burning4
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
30 September 1993Debris and open burning19 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeDIMBERG-WF
2 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeBALER
29 July 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined9.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionI90-346
11 May 2004Natural354 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeSELLIN
10 May 2013Debris and open burning117 acresMorris National Wildlife Refuge285G
28 April 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeCR65
12 April 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionTIRE FIRE
1 April 2015Debris and open burning10 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeGRAHAM

Every fire recorded in Big Stone County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Big Stone County Courthouse: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Granite, 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Agate QuarryGranite, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Big Stone Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Big Stone County

Storms near this property

42 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ortonville, the town this property stands in, in 42 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 5 flood, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2025Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A trained spotter surveying for damage reported multiple trees topped, uprooted or damaged at a farmstead northeast of Ortonville. Minor structural damage to a small grain bin and outbuilding included shingles torn from the roof.
April 2023FloodOrtonville-The Minnesota River at Big Stone Lake reached a level of 972.7 or 1.2 feet above flood. An unknown number of cabins and businesses along the lake experienced some degree of flooding or water damage.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Sixty-five mph winds damaged a shed along with downing some large branches.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Eighty mph winds ripped the patio off of a house which also caused roof damage.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Eighty mph winds uprooted many trees at the Ortonville golf course.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Many large trees were downed by eighty mph winds.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds over 100 mph caused quite a bit of tree damage in Ortonville. Some trees were downed along with many tree branches. Some businesses sustained some facade damage. There were a few structures that suffered roof damage ranging from loss of shingles to a section of the roof being blown off. A storage building on the east side of town near the intersections of Highway 75 and 12 was blown down with a grain bin destroyed half mile east. Another grain bin suffered damage when it was hit by debris from the first grain bin.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Sixty mph winds were estimated in Ortonville.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Several large tree limbs were downed in Ortonville.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds gusting to 80 mph destroyed a barn and four grain bins near Ortonville.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds to 80 mph blew the roof off of the carpet store in Ortonville. The high winds also downed many large tree branches.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A garage was completely destroyed by damaging thunderstorm winds and doors on a nearby pole barn were blown off.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A line of thunderstorms producing straight line winds gusting to around 75 mph blew down several trees onto a home, a shed, and a motel in Ortonville damaging the structures. An uninhabited trailer home was rolled up hill by the strong winds.
May 1994Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Strong thunderstorm winds and large damaged cars and buildings in and around the Ortonville and Odessa areas.
July 1994HailOrtonville-Hail fell for several minutes and piled up about one-half foot deep on roads.
June 2025FloodOrtonville-no account filed
June 2025Flash FloodOrtonville-no account filed
April 2023FloodOrtonville-no account filed
May 2022Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
July 2020HailOrtonville-no account filed
March 2019FloodOrtonville-no account filed
April 2019FloodOrtonville-no account filed
August 2019HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 2016Funnel CloudOrtonville-no account filed
May 2014HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 2012HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2005HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 2004HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
June 2003HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2003HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2002HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2001HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 1998HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 1997HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
May 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
September 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Big Stone 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

4 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Ortonville Commercial Historic District0.1 miles1985
Columbian Hotel0.3 miles1985
Ortonville Free Library0.3 miles1985
Odessa Jail6.4 miles1986

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 85001764 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Big Stone CountyAll 9 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.