Brooten, MN

Brooten is a city spread mostly through Stearns County with a small piece in Pope County, in Minnesota's Bonanza Valley. The Soo Railroad reached the site in 1886, and the city was named for the LiaBraaten family of settlers. The 2020 census counted 626 residents. Minnesota 55 is the main road through town, and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Elementary School keeps the school district's name connected to the community.

Bonanza Valley Days gives Brooten its signature summer weekend, with a Friday dance, a fire department chicken barbecue, a parade, and a Sunday ice cream social at the pavilion. The event sits alongside the ordinary work of a small city divided by a county line but joined by schools, farms, businesses, and nearby lakes. Brooten's railroad origin is still visible in the way the community faces its road and town center, while the July celebration turns that old settlement into a recurring gathering for the surrounding valley for the whole valley and its neighbors.