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History · Crooks

Crooks’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Crooks. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old images & papers
0recent photos

The story so far

from Wikipedia & the U.S. Census

Crooks Township is a township in Renville County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 191 at the 2010 census. Crooks Township was organized in 1884, and named for H. S. Crooks, a pioneer settler.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 191 to 175 (-8%). Half of its homes were built before 1950.

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Crooks yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.

Be one of the first

Start Crooks’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Crooks’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from CrooksWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Crooks.Meet them →
By decade

Crooks, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings 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 Crooks is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Crooks has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Hotel Sacred Heart in Sacred Heart, 9.5 miles away.

Crooks and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Crooks. Tap a dot.
Hotel Sacred HeartSacred Heart Public SchoolJoseph Brown House RuinsHeins BlockDistrict No. 55 SchoolLars Rudi House

Closest to Crooks

Hotel Sacred HeartSacred Heart · Building9.5miSacred Heart Public SchoolSacred Heart · Building9.6miJoseph Brown House RuinsSacred Heart · Site9.8miHeins BlockOlivia · Building10.5miDistrict No. 55 SchoolWhitefield · Building12.9mi

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. Hotel Sacred Heart’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Crooks?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Crooks’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

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Renville📜 Danube📜 Ericson📜 Winfield
We left the porch light on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Crooks, MNRenville CountyView boundary

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01
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