Fosston’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Fosston. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1876, the first white settlers came to the Fosston area, arriving in covered wagons, bringing with them a few cattle, oxen, horses and mules. Charles Adair was the first to file a claim on the land, with nine others soon following. Fosston is in sections 3 and 4 of Rosebud Township, and was named after Louis Foss, an immigrant from the Nyttingnes, a village in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The townsite was organized by W. J. Hilligoss, who selected and purchased it in 1884, had it surveyed, platted a four-block area, and built a hotel. Hilligoss died in 1941. The town was named Fosston when Foss moved his store and opened a post office there. The village was incorporated on August 22, 1895. The incorporation papers of Fosston were recorded on June 8, 1889, by the Register of Deeds in Crookston. Fosston was a busy depot on the Great Northern Railway line.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Fosston’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fosston’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewFosston1902, 1902: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Fosston
See all 4 →
Fosston, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Fosston is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Fosston has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Gran Evangelical Lutheran Church in Popple, 12.8 miles away.
Fosston and the nearest listed places
Closest to Fosston
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Fosston1902 (1902) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (1) and the Library of Congress (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.