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History · Big Falls

A history of Big Falls,
then and now

Postcards, papers and photographs of Big Falls from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.

6old images & papers
0recent photos
From Big Falls’s archive · credits on each photo

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

The city was named for a nearby waterfall on the Big Fork River. A post office named Big Falls has been in operation since 1906.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

built from the dates on the items below
1930s6 items · House. Big Falls, MinnesotaLOC
1940–1999Nothing yet. Family albums go here.
Help out

Finish Big Falls’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHouse. Big Falls, Minnesota, 1937: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from Big FallsWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Big Falls.Meet them →
By decade

Big Falls, decade by decade

1930s6 items
House. Big Falls, MinnesotaLOCHouse. Big Falls, Minnesota1937Barber poleLOCBarber pole1937Restaurant window. Big Falls, MinnesotaLOCRestaurant window. Big Falls, Minnesota1937Old resident of Big Falls, MinnesotaLOCOld resident of Big Falls, Minnesota1937Entrance to barn. Big Falls, MinnesotaLOCEntrance to barn. Big Falls, Minnesota1937Museum of Indian arrowheads and relics. Big Falls, MinnesotaLOCMuseum of Indian arrowheads and relics. Big Falls, Minnesota1937
1940s–
1990s
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album
National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Big Falls is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Big Falls has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Francis White Homestead in Littlefork, 20.3 miles away.

Big Falls and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Big Falls. Tap a dot.
Francis White Homestead

Closest to Big Falls

Francis White HomesteadLittlefork · Building20.3mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Francis White Homestead’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Big Falls?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Big Falls’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as House. Big Falls, Minnesota (1937) and it appears here side by side.

🔁 Retake this view · +15

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Littlefork📜 Effie📜 Pomroy📜 Mizpah

From the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

We left the porch light on

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01
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