Nice towns in Northern Minnesota? (Duluth, Grand Rapids: violent crime, house, to live in)

[demtion35]

I am very surprised no one has mentioned small towns like Crookston, Thief River, Lancaster, Red Lake Falls, Breckenridge, Fergus Falls, and the list goes on and on.
East Grand Forks, and many others.
However, just be aware, as I am sure you are, that all the towns listed and in general for most of the Northern Minnesota you will have to deal with hot summers, muggy and glorious days, also, very cold in winter, many many times lows in the -20 -40F and colder, also in season skeeters, and wood ticks, all of witch are part of the package.

[CCbaxter]

Originally Posted by demtion35

I am very surprised no one has mentioned small towns like Crookston, Thief River, Lancaster, Red Lake Falls, Breckenridge, Fergus Falls, and the list goes on and on.
East Grand Forks, and many others.
However, just be aware, as I am sure you are, that all the towns listed and in general for most of the Northern Minnesota you will have to deal with hot summers, muggy and glorious days, also, very cold in winter, many many times lows in the -20 -40F and colder, also in season skeeters, and wood ticks, all of witch are part of the package.

Do you mean Lancaster MN? Is that town even there anymore? If it is its got what...300 people? It was headed towards the grave when I lived there in the 70s.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

Do you mean Lancaster MN? Is that town even there anymore? If it is its got what...300 people? It was headed towards the grave when I lived there in the 70s.

Lancaster has lost some population, but they have a grocery store, about 450 people or 350 people live there, Sanners Grocery Store, still is there, machine shop welding and mechanical repair is about 20 miles down gravel roads, folks still ride 4 wheelers and park right down the middle of the street. It is still a wide middle type road parking downtown.

Karlstad, is still the moose capital, just south of Lancaster. Hallock, is the county seat. All pretty wild country.
Lake Bronson is between Lancaster and Karlstad, the river has been damned up and made into a lake, Lake Bronson, lots of farms around there, state park and a campground.

Strandquist is farther to the east, and New Orleans, no longer is there, no post office, no store, not very many people live there.

[CCbaxter]

Is Sanners in a new location? That store was falling down 40 years ago, I can't imagine it's still standing. I remember there used to be a breakfast for deer opener, otherwise knows as the High Holy Days, and we used to cross the border to go to a small store in Tolstoi where my mom used to buy rolls and other baked goods for the meal from the Mennonites. I don't think there's any 'there', there anymore. My dad was superintendent of schools there and the breakfast was in the gym.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

Is Sanners in a new location? That store was falling down 40 years ago, I can't imagine it's still standing. I remember there used to be a breakfast for deer opener, otherwise knows as the High Holy Days, and we used to cross the border to go to a small store in Tolstoi where my mom used to buy rolls and other baked goods for the meal from the Mennonites. I don't think there's any 'there', there anymore. My dad was superintendent of schools there and the breakfast was in the gym.

Yes, Sanners was as you say many years ago. Meant to say was there, ...

[CCbaxter]

Now you made me curious...i looked at google maps and there is a much smaller store there now, Sanners is long gone.
The brothers retired over 30 years ago and that building would be over 100 years old if it still stood.
I looked up and down the streets. Not much going on there. But, there never really has been since probably 1940.

[mn shutterbug]

Originally Posted by slamont61

Maybe not as far north as you'd like but North Central MN has plenty of these towns that check all the boxes.

Park Rapids and the surrounding area would fit the bill and there are dozens of small towns all around, each with it's own personality. Crime I'd consider to be on the low side for all of these.

I love the Park Rapids area and give the area a high mark. I've tented in the Paul Bunyan State Forest and other than the occasional gun shots, I rarely came across another human. It is a hunting area and people are also allowed to target shoot in the forest, which I used to do, so that explains the gun shots. I also woke up once to the sound of a wolf howling. However, if you prefer lots of people around, head north a few miles to Itasca State Park where you can visit the head of the Mississippi River. People are pretty friendly in that area too and there is plenty to do during tourist season.

[opossum1]

Originally Posted by CCbaxter

Never been bothered by train horns. While the mill is still the largest employer, I know they closed one of the paper machines a few years ago, so there may not even be that much going out anymore, but even when the mill was in full production I never recall train horns being an issue.

My family had lived in I Falls since it was basically a lumber camp. There is still an island on the lake with my family name on it and a large expanse of land west of town that used to be our farm.

So I know a little about it and I will say this....you have to enjoy the outdoors, or you will be miserable. Fishing, hunting, boating, ice fishing, snowmobiling and the like. Because there is nothing else to do. Lovely people, gorgeous scenery, but nothing to do. And, it’s over 2 hours to Duluth where you can find some stuff to do.

Be sure it’s for you.

There's always something "to do", I think...as soon as there's some land, there's gardening, then there're animals, home improvements... hiking, boating, getting eadible things from the forest. I'm not into winter sports or snowmobiling though. Definitely don't find anything to do in cities other than drop in for grocery shopping. The reason I would not want to be 2 hours away from bigger town is I live alone and should something happen to my health, I need to be able to take care of things, myself, and take care of animals - with 2 hour drives to, say, doctors, and snowstorms, things can get very old very fast. I can imagine the considerations would be very different for a relocating family or someone who has local connections, whom they could get help from if they got problems. It can be difficult for a woman alone, especially, moving to isolated town and not knowing anyone, to recommend repair folks, etc. Within an hour from bigger town I can at least have services come to me, if I need to.

I think there's something up above that doesn't want me to be in Minnesota. I've been back, for a second visit to check it out in the late fall and crazy stuff had been happening again, just like the 1st time, starting right away upon arrival (this time I met local meth folk and their driving while passed out, uninsured and with fake documents).
This stuff just have not been happening to me in other states so far, and I mean over long years and traveling all over the country. Never seen anything like that, especially crazy it's happening during my 1st day in the state, just like before.... starting to have superstitions.
Or may be I made the same mistake of assuming MN is generally very safe throughout (except big cities) and taking off the road in the wrong kind of town.
I can't think that the entire state has high concentration of criminals and druggies, statistics says otherwise...but incredible coincidences had been happening and may be something above is telling me it's not meant to be.

[opossum1]

Originally Posted by demtion35

I am very surprised no one has mentioned small towns like Crookston, Thief River, Lancaster, Red Lake Falls, Breckenridge, Fergus Falls, and the list goes on and on.
East Grand Forks, and many others.
However, just be aware, as I am sure you are, that all the towns listed and in general for most of the Northern Minnesota you will have to deal with hot summers, muggy and glorious days, also, very cold in winter, many many times lows in the -20 -40F and colder, also in season skeeters, and wood ticks, all of witch are part of the package.

Yes, I had experienced Minnesota mosquitoes already, clouds of them and had been eaten alive in my campsite. May be I'm wrong but mosquito issue seems to be way worse than tick issue in MN. I'd say the weather I experienced in July seemed very nice, I've been to the Southern states right after that... for some real "hot and humid", even central Iowa felt drastically hotter, with humidity, almost unbearable, compared to Northern MN. There're mugginess charts for every location out there, and Northern Minnesota places score very well with pretty tiny percent of days in the "muggy" or "uncomfortable" categories, especially compared to all other states East of Dakotas.

I had picked Northern Minnesota earlier mainly because of a lot of public land, pine trees and cleaner environment (much less agriculture).
I don't know if Northeastern Minnesota is very different from Northwestern, mosquito-wise and people-wise.
I'd expect them to be different.
For example, I thought there should be less mosquitoes in the NE, because it's drier and sunnier than the NW part. I also wonder if the culture is more rural and laid back in the NE compared to NW.
I recently found I really like South Dakota people and the way of most things, would like to live in similar environment (certain things prevent me from moving to SD).

[opossum1]

Regarding some locations...say, Park Rapids, just an example. If one googles something like "Park Rapids MN crime rate and map" the info comes up showing property crime being 3X national average (while violent crime is about the same as national average). This can't be good... From my experience, if property crime is even only twice higher than national level - it shows. I'd say a nice safe town has about the same as national average or lower crime (both, violent and property).