Spicer, MN

Spicer is a Kandiyohi County city on the western shore of Green Lake, in Minnesota's Little Crow Lakes region. The 2020 census counted 1,112 residents. The town was platted in 1886 and named for John M. Spicer, the original owner of the town site. Green Lake is the main fact on the ground: at 5,561 acres and about 110 feet at its deepest, it turns Spicer into a place organized around water, boats, trails, and seasonal traffic. U.S. 71 is nearby and Minnesota 23 runs through town, but the shoreline is what gives Spicer its local rhythm.

Green Lake County Park is five miles north, Sibley State Park is nearby, and the city maintains parks, trails, and the Dethlef Community Center. The Fourth of July tradition brings boats onto the lake for fireworks, a spectacle that makes sense only in a lakeshore town. Spicer's local scoop is a Minnesota city where an 1886 plat, a 5,561-acre lake, and a summer boat procession all point to the same place.