Dorothy was a small town in Section 5, Louisville Township

Louisville Township, Red Lake County, Minnesota

Louisville Township is a township in Red Lake County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 192 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 36.1 square miles , of which, 36.0 square miles of it is land and...

, Red Lake County, Minnesota, now a virtual ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

. Dorothy initially was established as a railroad station in 1916-17 after the Northern Pacific Railway

Northern Pacific Railway

The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

 extended its line from Tilden Junction to Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

 and built a spur through Red Lake Falls

Red Lake Falls, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,590 people, 608 households, and 380 families residing in the city. The population density was 749.7 people per square mile . There were 652 housing units at an average density of 307.4 per square mile...

. The new town sucked away what was left of the historic river crossing town, Huot

Huot, Minnesota

Huot is an unincorporated community in Louisville Township, Red Lake County, Minnesota, United States. The name of the village evokes the French-Canadian and Métis history of the Red River Trails and the Pembina settlements of Assiniboia.-History:...

, and for a time sputtered toward prosperity, boasting a grain elevator, a Catholic church, a school and several houses. The Federal Writer's Project reported in 1938 that the town had a population of 25, and "a beautiful church with stained-glass windows". Sometime in the early 1970s, the railroad was abandoned and the grain elevator closed, and with it, the town's reason for existence was gone. By 2007, the church had been abandoned and appeared to be in use as a residence.

Sources

• Red Lake County Bicentennial Committee, A History of Red Lake County, Minnesota (Taylor Publishing Co., 1976), at pp. 91–95.
• Federal Writers' Project, Minnesota: A State Guide (Works Progress Administration, 1938), at p. 338.