The story
Forestville was a rural trade village in the Root River hill country of southeastern Minnesota, the kind of small crossroads settlement that once anchored farm life every few miles across the state. Settled in the early 1850s, it centered on the general store that brothers-in-law Felix and William Meighen opened in 1853, which grew into the hub of a village of some fifty to a hundred people with a mill, a brickyard, and two hotels.
The town's fate turned on a single decision. In 1868 the Southern Minnesota Railroad ran its line north through Spring Valley and Wykoff, bypassing Forestville, and the village began to empty toward the tracks. Thomas Meighen, the founder's son, gradually bought up the whole town; by the 1890s Forestville was essentially his private village, its remaining residents working his land and store for wages and credit. The store closed in 1910.
Minnesota made the site a state park in 1949, and the Minnesota Historical Society now runs Historic Forestville as a living-history site — the Meighen store, house, and outbuildings staffed by costumed interpreters portraying the year 1899, stock still on the shelves as the Meighens left it.
What remains today
The Meighen general store, family home, barn, and outbuildings, preserved and furnished; adjacent Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park and the Zumbro Hill cemetery.
Questions from the field
- Is Forestville, Minnesota a real ghost town?
- Yes — it emptied after the railroad bypassed it in 1868 and the last store closed in 1910. It survives as Historic Forestville, a state historic site interpreted as the year 1899.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Forestville — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
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Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Forestville's permanent record.
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Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 654708
- — Minnesota Historical Society — Historic Forestville
- — Minnesota DNR — Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park