Benton County Historical Society

Sauk Rapids is marking the 136th anniversary of the deadly tornado that devastated the town. The storm happened at about 4:00 p.m. on April 14th, 1886.

Way back in the early days of Benton County, before there was a county fair, there were Market Days pretty much in every community and they were wildly popular.

Your local historical society is a great place to preserve old artifacts and facts from our past, but sometimes they are called on to do a little detective work too.

If you look at a map of Duelm today and compare it to the Platt map of the town from 1909 they look pretty much the same.

Most of us know where Ronneby is in Benton County, but did you know it actually started out called St. Francis? Or, at least part of it did.

Municipal Park along the Mississippi River on the north end of Sauk Rapids is a very popular park. However, at one point that was a completely different townsite.

You can't call Benton City a ghost town, because hundreds of people still live there, but it is definitely a forgotten city for most of us.

The very first townsite ever settled in Benton County is likely one you've never heard of. The town of Langola was established in 1853, earlier than the town of Watab or Sauk Rapids.

Downtown Sauk Rapids has gone through many changes over the years with a lot of development and redevelopment. What's left today are just seven buildings in downtown that date back more than 100 years.

Brennyville is an unincorporated town in northern Benton County that was once the home to a large cheese factory.