Discover some of Minnesota’s weirdest and wildest town names (and the stories behind them).
Picture this: You take a leisurely drive out of town, and the sky is as blue as can be. As you snake along country roads, you glance at the highway marker. “Kiester: 30” it reads, and you can’t help but chuckle to yourself (or maybe scratch your head).
Ever wonder how Minnesota’s blush-worthy towns got their names? Let your inner immature humorist live a little and learn about the state’s most eyebrow-raising town names, from the innuendos to the downright strange.
1. Climax
Climax is a delightfully euphemistic town name, but it also gets even stranger. The city references the Climax chewing tobacco brand.
The product was made by the Lorillard Tobacco Company in the late 1800s. Nobody knows who named the company, but they must have loved chewing the stuff!
To arrive at Climax, you’ll have to venture northwest, south of Grand Forks. Around 240 people live in this town on the North Dakota border.
2. Kiester
Although this town sounds like a Minnesota Nice term for one’s rear end, it’s not. The name is a notable improvement over its previous one, simply: “Lake.”
Because that name was already taken, the township was instead named in honor of Jacob Armel Kiester, a prominent civic leader and state senator.
Lucky for us all, Kiester isn’t just the butt of the joke—they are in on it. In 2016, the town served as the setting for a Preparation H commercial.
Kiester is a very small town of just about 490, near the Iowa border, about 30 minutes from Albert Lea.
3. Nimrod
As it turns out, Nimrod is a biblical name—not just slang for a dim-witted person or the title of Green Day’s 1997 album. So it was much more noble-sounding when the area settlers called this tiny town Nimrod.
It is believed that, because Nimrod was a hunter in the Bible, Bugs Bunny used the term derisively against his pursuer, Elmer Fudd, gaining its pejorative connotation in common parlance.
Although only about 80 people currently live in Nimrod, this teeny town in Wadena County is small but mighty. We’re not saying you need a reason to visit, but if you do: Each Labor Day, it hosts the Nimrod Jubilee Days with live music, bull riding, a pageant and more.
4. Great Scott
Imagine being so sailor-mouthed that your fellow county commissioners name the town after your favorite swear word. This was the case for Great Scott Township.
This expletive township is home to about 560 people, not far from Hibbing in St. Louis County.
5. Edgerton
This town of 1,200 in Pipestone County is named after Alonzo J. Edgerton, a politician and U.S. senator in the late 1800s.
Edgerton is more than a suggestive name. This thriving small town hosts a Dutch Festival each July to celebrate the area’s roots. The city park even has a neat replica Dutch windmill.
Edgerton’s other claim to fame is as the birthplace of Minnie Moo the Cow—a cow with three large spots on her side that looked just like the Mickey Mouse logo. She was brought from the Minnesota farm to Walt Disney World and lived out her days at the amusement park’s petting zoo, where she was a beloved attraction.
6. Fertile
Not far from Climax, southeast of Crookston, is the town of Fertile, population: 777. The town owes its name to a city in Iowa, where its earliest settlers came from. So how did Fertile, Iowa, get its name? The town actually has an intriguing backstory.
Before the Iowa town was known as Fertile, it was the land where Fontanelle sat—not a real place, but a paper town conceived of by a land speculator, as if to bookmark the spot. Soon a store, postmaster, and blacksmith began operating in the area (which the locals called Putsey), and when the town was eventually incorporated, it was called Fertile.
7. Nowthen
Before it was Nowthen, it was known as Burns Township. In 2008, it was incorporated and dubbed Nowthen after the town’s postmaster, who had a habit of saying “Now, then,” in conversation and in letters.
Nowthen sits just north of Anoka, with a population of 4,536—nearly five thousand Nowthenians in our great state.
8. Black Hammer
We all know that Vikings are totally metal. So it’s fitting that a Norwegian settler named the town in 1882. When Knud Olson Bergo looked upon the prairie’s fire-scorched bluffs, he exclaimed: “Sort Hammer!” (“Black Bluff” in Norwegian). Like I said, metal.
A hill that shares the name of this Houston County township of around 270 people is marked by a cairn, believed to have been constructed in the late 1800s, and known by locals as The Stone Lady. Its origin story is the subject of disputed lore, and she still stands on the hilltop today.
9. Ham Lake
Don’t look too closely at the name. While you might assume, like so many towns, it was named for a man named “Ham.” Or maybe you would think it shares some affiliation with Theodore Hamm, who St. Paul has to thank for the iconic brewery.
Actually, it’s because the eponymous lake in Anoka County looks like a cut of pork.
Ham Lake is the largest of the funny towns on our list, with a population of around 17,000. It’s less than a half-hour drive from Minneapolis.
10. Tenstrike
This Beltrami County town’s name is exactly as absurd as it sounds. It was indeed named for the term used in the fine sport of bowling. According to the Beltrami County Historical Society, the name came from a phrase a local politician used to describe the good fortune he found selling timber in the area. Tenstrike is now home to around 170 people.
11. Embarrass
This St. Louis County town was named after the Embarrass River that runs through it, which earned the moniker because of the driftwood and detritus it accumulated, making it hard to navigate.
As luck would have it, this small township on the Mesabi Iron Range is also considered by many to be the coldest place in Minnesota, reaching some of the coldest temperatures in the state in January and February. The Embarrass slogan is “The Cold Spot.”
For a town of around 600 people, Embarrass has a lot of town pride. The local museum hosts historic homestead tours, a regional fair, and winter activities—should you ever choose to visit this chilly place.
12. Money Creek
Someone’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is immortalized in this town’s name. As the story goes, a man lost the contents of his wallet in a tributary of the Root River, then laid his bills out to dry, only to have them blown back into the river and lost for good, which is how Money Creek and its township got their names. Guard your wallet in this town of just over 600 in Houston County.
13. Mantrap
Talk about bad luck—this township is named for a lake that’s notorious for the many travelers who got lost trying to navigate its bays and peninsulas. As it turns out, Mantrap is home to other lakes, named for their Bermuda Triangle-like topography: Crooked Lake and Spider Lake. Yeesh. Don’t get lost if you find yourself in this Hubbard County town of just over 500.
14. Kilkenny
No, it’s got nothing to do with the boys of South Park or their antics. Kilkenny got its name from its medieval Irish sister city.
Kilkenny is in Le Sueur County, west of Faribault, and only about 150 people live there, a fraction of its sister city. For every person in the Minnesota town, about 180 people live in its Irish namesake, a city of around 27,000.
