Historic Towns
How to get there: Downtown New Ulm, along Minnesota Street, from 4th North Street to 3rd S Street
What you will find: Historic buildings, shopping, dining. Stop at the Visitor Center at 1 N Minnesota for maps and guides.
Services at this site: Yes
Beginning in 1854, New Ulm was founded by two groups of German immigrants, both looking to create a “utopian German community on the American wilderness.” Using the advice of a French fur trader, they sited their town on the natural terraces that occurred near the confluence of the Minnesota and Cottonwood Rivers in south-central Minnesota. It is named after Ulm, a city on the Danube River in south-central Germany, and the city reflects its German heritage still today.
The biggest historical event in New Ulm’s history happened a few years after its founding, in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, when the city was attacked twice that August. Barely surviving the fighting by the disgruntled and ill-treated Dakota Indians, the town was nearly destroyed and was even briefly abandoned after the attacks. Soon after the settlers returned and went about their business of town-building but experienced two more catastrophes: locust infestations in the early 1870s and a damaging tornado in 1881.
Things to Do: Historic Town, Outdoor Activities, U.S. - Dakota War of 1862
