Clara City, MN

Clara City is a Chippewa County city where Minnesota Highways 7 and 23 meet. The 2020 census counted 1,423 residents. The junction puts Clara City in the road network between Montevideo, Willmar, and Granite Falls, while the city itself supplies the places a small farm town needs: MACCRAY’s K–12 campus, churches, senior housing and care, parks, a pool, and a rink. Fields begin close to the residential streets, so school traffic and farm roads share the same daily map.

The town began as a railroad bargain. In 1887 Theodore Koch and Martin Prins gave the Willmar & Sioux Falls Railway a right-of-way across their land in exchange for the chance to establish a townsite. They platted 313 acres in 1888 and named the place for Koch’s wife, Clara. Clara City incorporated in 1891. The tracks made the original address; Highway 7 and Highway 23 now do much of the connecting. The city’s present shape still follows that first mix of rail, school, and prairie roads.