Dear Cecil, as a descendant of the town of Lake Lillian, I have to say that admittedly, Lake Lillian is a tiny town of about 360 people at any given time. While many (or even most) of its citizens are descendants of the original “East Lake Lillian” Sami, Kvaen and Norsk founders and the Svensk settlers who followed a decade or more later, and a handful of hardy Germans, Slovakian and even Italian folks, they do welcome visitors to enjoy the beauty of the Kandiyohi lakes (Big and Little Kandi!) and the Kandiyohi county parks.
Lake Lillian is located 20 miles or so, SE of Willmar, Minnesota (a significantly larger metropolis noted for it’s production of the turkeys you enjoy at Thanksgiving, and for one of the few baking firms that produce good, homemade lefse!
You can get to Lake Lillian heading west via Highway 12 until you reach Atwater, and then turn south on the “Lake Lillian/Atwater Road” (depending on which way you are going) and by the preferred route, heading west on Highway 7 out of Minneapolis, about 110 miles as the crow flies, and turning right at the sign (across from the Lake Lillian Community cemetery (not to be mistakes with the Tromso Memorial Graveyard or the Pioneer Graveyard!) . I recommend Highway 7 – far less stoplights, and you do not have to go directly through every teeny tiny town west of Minneapolis along the way! But do be aware during all seasons except the dead of winter, that you are likely to encounter a tractor pulling a plow or threshing machine … they do have to pull their equipment from one end of the ten acres (times 10) to the other at any given time, and when they head home for a dinner of Scandinavian food such as lutefisk, lefse and pickled herring! Do stop by sometime and visit the KM Mortuary (they are very kind, helpful folks, I know from first hand experience), the Horseshoe Bar (it used to be a bowling alley at one time), and the Grain Elevator (which can be seen for several miles as you approach from the east on Hwy. 7) Just so you know… and for the uninformed on Lake Lillian history, the founding families of Lake Lillian formed the state of Minnesota’s first Cooperative Dairy organization!
We also have our own Mason Dixon line… you’ll have to talk to the descendants of the founding families for an explanation of the history of County Road 8!
And finally Cecil, Lillian Whitefield never set food in Lake Lillian. Her husband passed by on horseback, but never settled there!
The original founder (my 3x-greatgrandfather), “Rev.” Johannes Andreas Johannessen Bomstad arrived in June 1864, riding on a grey mule from Nicollet County in southern Minnesota (where the founding colony from northern Troms, Norway was waiting for him to return from staking the first homestead claim and bring them to Lake Lillian a few weeks later.) That founding colony of mindekirken from Troms left Norway in May 1862, aboard the first transAtlantic voyage from Europe to an inland port in the US. There is still a plaque on a bridge in Chicago (near the old port in Lake Michigan) commemorating the arrival of the Sleipner (small ship called a “bark,” loaded with salted herring!) in June 1862!
(If you are not familiar with the term “mindekirken,” it means “Free churchers” and describes the dissenters who broke with the State Church of Norway during the 1800’s, to found their own free religious groups, able to worship and pray without the presence of the State Church Clergy. Plus they did not like having to pay extra taxes to support the elite State Church clergy.)
LINK TO COLUMN: Why are rebate checks drawn on obscure banks in the middle of nowhere? - The Straight Dope
