Eagle City, Minnesota

Eagle City, Minnesota. 1851 – 1881. This is the approximate site of Eagle City which was settled in 1858 at the halfway point on the Henderson to Fort Ridgely Trail. This was the same year Minnesota became a state. A. (Michael) Cummings built a tavern/hotel which also became a United States Post Office. This post office is on display in the Sibley County Historical Museum in Henderson. Eagle City became a rest stop with food and drink for both stagecoach passengers and horses. The Cummings Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1862 during the Indian Wars. After the Civil War, Mr. Cummings rebuilt the tavern/hotel and again served as postmaster from his home located a short distance west of the hotel. From the 1870's to 1881, Ole Olson was the postmaster at his home located 2 miles north of Eagle City. It was in 1880 that the news came that a railroad would be built leading westerly through Sibley County. Settlers in the area immediately moved to assure that the railroad pass through the Eagle City vicinity. Erick and Brita Olson, who had homesteaded the land on which the city was platted, deeded 45 acres for the town site. The railroad bed was completed in the late fall of 1881, and the first train arrived on Christmas Eve in 1881. A railroad man, E.A. Campbell, named the rail station, Winthrop. , This sign placed by the Winthrop Community Historical Society in year 2006..