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Back in the mid-1850s, Forestville was a great place to be! Then slowly it went downhill and Forestville eventually became a ghost town. It has now been named the creepiest and also the coolest ghost town in Minnesota by Thrillist.

According to the Minnesota Historical Society, the summer of 1853 is when the Forestville area was purchased by Robert Foster. He purchased it from Levi Waterman and the area was named Watertown at first, after Levi.

Watertown eventually became Forestville in April of 1854. It because a bustling town and eventually turned into a "company town" according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

Sadly, beginning in 1868, "many merchants and farm families" began leaving Forestville. The reason they left Foresville was to find "more prosperous towns and agricultural centers." Then in 1870, the Southern Minnesota Railroad was built and it completely bypassed Forestville. This caused even more people to leave town.

Let's take a look at how much of an effect all this had on the population size. In 1860 the population of Forestville was 100. Then in 1870 when the railroad bypassed the town, the population dropped to 68. Then it dropped again and the population was at 55 in 1880.

In 1880 the hotels in Forestville had closed. The only businesses left in town were the main convenience store, a cabinet shop, a blacksmith shop, and the saw and feed mill. The cabinet shop eventually closed by 1890 and was turned into storage.

By 1910 all of the business had closed and Forestville became the ghost town it is today.

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