Welcome, MN

Welcome is a Martin County city between Fairmont and Sherburn in southern Minnesota, eight miles west of Fairmont and six miles east of Sherburn. The 2020 census counted 710 residents. A post office opened under the name Welcome in 1881, but the settlement began as Lily Creek, named for the creek that still runs north of town. The city incorporated as a village on May 7, 1890, and took Welcome as a tribute to homesteader Alfred M. Welcome, an English immigrant who settled in the area after the Civil War.

Welcome sits just south of Interstate 90 at Exit 93, with former US 16—now 120th Street—along its southern edge. Fairmont serves as Martin County's seat, while Welcome retains its own city hall, local streets, and small-town civic life. The creek, post office, and highway all show up in the city's name and layout: Lily Creek points to the older landscape, Welcome points to the settler, and the highway keeps the place connected to the rest of the county. Welcome is a small city with a name that doubles as a local history lesson.