Mountain Lake, MN

Mountain Lake is a Cottonwood County city built around a shallow lake, a Highway 60 corridor, and a large Russian Mennonite migration. William Mason arrived in 1865, the railroad followed in 1871, and nearly 1,800 Mennonite immigrants from Russia settled in the area between 1873 and 1880. The town was formally platted in 1872 and incorporated in 1886. Heritage Village, established in 1972, preserves over twenty buildings tied to the area's Mennonite and German-Lutheran settlers; it also houses the Minnesota Hall of Fame Telephone Museum. Mountain Lake has public and private schools, a library, medical center, parks, and a downtown serving the surrounding farm country. Newer Lao, Hmong, and Hispanic communities add to the city's long immigration story. Mountain Lake is a southwestern Minnesota town where lake, rail, farm, and migration histories meet.