The Story of Milaca Including Its Former Name

Milaca is a small town located in central Minnesota in Mille Lacs County along Highways 169 and 23.  Milaca has a population of 3,021 and is also along the Rum River.  Milaca is the county seat in Mille Lacs County.  To help tell the story of Milaca I was joined by Tom Sauer of the Milaca Museum and Milaca Mayor Dave Dillan.  Settlers came to Milaca because of logging and the railroad.  The railroad came through Milaca in 1882 and due to the logging industry settlers stayed to form the community.  Sauer says James J. Hill owned the railroad at that time and quite a bit of property in the area.  He says when the trees were cut down the logging industry went away but immigrants found the land good for farming.

Sauer says Milaca was known as Oak City, Minnesota prior to be renamed Milaca.  He explains Oak trees in the area were likely the reason for the name. Sauer indicates when a post office was opened 6 months after the town was named Oak City, the name changed to Milaca.  Sauer says its unclear why Milaca was picked as the name of the town but it is assumed it is some kind of a play on nearby Lake Mille Lacs.  He says since November of 1882 the town has been known as Milaca.

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Logging was the first industry in Milaca but it lasted only 20 years according to Sauer.  He says James J. Hill built a bunch of houses for the people who worked at the mill in the late 1800s.  Sauer explained many people chose to farm part of the year and work at the mill the other part of the year.  He says a grocery store, numerous hotels and a couple of bars existed in the early years in Milaca.  Sauer indicates at one time Milaca had 5 hotels.  He says once the mill closed the town supplied goods and services to the area farmers.  In the 1920s and 1930s Milaca added a school and hospital which added jobs for residents.  Sauer says the first attempt at a school was in 1892 with the first High School in 1901.  Milaca also had a barrel factory and a pickle factory at one time.

Sauer indicates the Milaca Museum was really started by the Milaca women's civic organization that existed in the city from the 1920s until 1997.  They collected historic items from the community and had a room in what is now the museum.  Today the Milaca Museum has about 12,000 items.

Mayor Dave Dillan grew up in Duluth, went to St. Cloud State, took at job at the Milaca Public School as a special education teacher and has now lived in the community for more than 40 years.  He is retired but still works as an assistant girls basketball coach at the school.  Dillan says Milaca is a very welcoming community, has great proximity to Lake Mille Lacs, is 30 minutes from St. Cloud and about 40 minutes from Maple Grove.  He says there is a lot of pride in Milaca whether it be in successes in their schools or in the community.

Dillan says current industry in the community includes Heggies Pizza LLC, Central Minnesota Manufacturing, and Nortek, just to name a few.  He says they are very diversified with the industry in town.  Dillan indicates they have plenty of traffic coming through the area with Highways 23 and 169.  A city celebration in Milaca includes music in the park.  The city has 4 parks that include bike trails, disc golf a band shell, pickleball courts, and softball fields.  Since Mille Lacs County doesn't have county parks the city's parks are more important according to Sauer.

If you'd like to listen to my conversations with Tom Sauer and Dave Dillan, it is available below.