Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota/GNIS cleanup

The simple truth is that Minnesota does not have "unincorporated communities".

Per the {{plainlink|1=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2013/econ/g12-cg-isd.pdf#page=170|2=Census of Governments}} and {{harvnb|Brill|Kaplan|2011|p=55}}, figures being rough because they have gone up and down over the past 40 or so years:

• It has approximately 900 cities, which we have in :Category:Cities in Minnesota.
• It has approximately 1800 townships, which we have in :Category:Townships in Minnesota.

The overwhelming majority of the state is either a home-rule city, a statutory city, or a town/township under a board of supervisors; the rest ({{plainlink|1=https://mnatlas.org/gis-tool/?id=k_0040|2=most of which is in the north of the state}}) being "unorganized territories", which we have :Category:Unorganized territories in Minnesota for.

:Category:Unincorporated communities in Minnesota should actually have zero members.

Anything there is either a mislabelled city (sic!), faulty GNIS data, or faulty articles.

;But I have a source that confirms that something is a village!: The Project:Notability (geographic features) criteria talk about legal recognition. If you have a source that says something is a village, especially in the present tense after 1973, it is not legal recognition. Minnesota legally abolished villages and boroughs on 1974-01-01.^{({{harvnb|Hellmann|2006|p=562}} and {{harvnb|LM|1973}})} Legally, there is no such thing as a village and hasn't been for 50 years.

;Cities? That's ludicrous!: It's not the only United States state where even a mere hundred people could legally be a city. There were 85 cities with populations of under 100 people in Minnesota in 2010.^{{{harv|Nobles|2012|p=4}}} The definition of "city" around the world is fairly arbitrary. Minnesota has home-rule cities that have adopted a charter, and statutory cities that are unchartered. The city of Solway, Minnesota has 96 people and is surrounded by the town/township of Lammers Township, Minnesota.

;So Cloverton, Minnesota is a statutory city?: Yes. {{plainlink|https://cms7files.revize.com/pinecountymn/Plats/CLOVERTON.pdf|It was platted and donated in 1911 by the Tri-State Land Company.}} And now you know that the statement about it being named by a second company 5 years later is false.

;Cities within towns?: Yes. There's even legal provision for townspeople to vote a statutory city out of the town.

The United States Bureau of the Census has consistently said from at least as far back as 1936 to the 21st century that "[t]he terms 'town' and 'township' are used interchangeably in Minnesota with reference to township governments"^{{{harv|USBS|1936|p=46}}}.

When what was now the state of Minnesota was one of several Territories of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase, it was surveyed into rectangular areas named "townships".

Old 19th century sources (e.g. {{harvnb|Kiester|1896}}) and the 19th century Laws of the State of Minnesota (e.g {{harvnb|GLSM|1860|p=113}}) consistently call these survey townships congressional townships because it was of course the United States federal government that invented them.

After statehood, provision was made so that congressional townships could be incorporated as units of local government below the county level, an optional so-called Township Government system.

Strictly speaking, Minnesota local government townships (a.k.a. civil townships) are towns.^{{{harv|Adams|2003|p=vi}}}

The legislation from 1860 to the current Minnesota Statutes of the 21st century consistently uses the word "town" and says that legally these are corporations and their governing boards of supervisors are called "Town Board of name".

Rather than a town being a settlement larger in size than a village and smaller than a city, as our town article would have it, a town in Minnesota is actually countryside, a rural area and explicitly not a population centre or an urban area.

The urban areas used to be villages and cities and are now only cities.

• {{cite act|type=S.F.|index=655|date=1973|article=123|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Laws of Minnesota|title=|script-title=|trans-title=|page=233|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1973/0/Session+Law/Chapter/123/pdf/|language=|ref={{harvid|LM|1973}}}}.
• {{cite act|type=|index=01|date=2023|article=410|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Minnesota Statutes|title=Cities, Classes|script-title=|trans-title=|page=|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/410.01|language=}}
• {{cite act|type=|index=|date=2023|article=412|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Minnesota Statutes|title=Statutory Cities|script-title=|trans-title=|page=|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/412|language=}}
• {{cite act|type=|index=02|date=2023|article=365|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Minnesota Statutes|title=Towns, Corporation may sue, make public contracts|script-title=|trans-title=|page=|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/365.02|language=}}
• {{cite act|type=|index=44|date=2023|article=365|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Minnesota Statutes|title=Separation from statutory city|script-title=|trans-title=|page=|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/365.44|language=}}
• {{cite act|type=|index=01|date=2023|article=366|article-type=Chapter|legislature=Minnesota Statutes|title=Town Board powers listed; formal name|script-title=|trans-title=|page=|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/366.01|language=}}
• {{cite book|title=General Laws of the State of Minnesota|publisher=Earle S. Goodrich, state printer|year=1860|chapter=An Act to provide for Township Organization|ref={{harvid|GLSM|1860}}}}

{{further|Project:Reliability of GNIS data/Cleanup methodology and resources}}

; {{plainlink|1=https://mnatlas.org/gis-tool/?id=k_0040|2=Minnesota Natural Resource Atlas: Cities. Townships, and Unorganized Territories}} : This will at least tell you what town, city, or unorganized territory a GNIS-imported article is in. But being based upon OpenStreetMap it is not a source, merely a guide for figuring out what a faux "unincorporated community" likely really is.

; Warren Upham : The seemingly modern

:* {{cite book|title=Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia|author1-first=Warren|author1-last=Upham|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|year=2001|isbn=9780873513968|edition=3rd}}

: is an edition of

:* {{cite book|author1-last=Upham|author1-first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}} (which is {{Internet Archive|id=minnesotageogra00uphagoog|name=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance}})

: that was revised by "the staff of the Minnesota Historical Society". Unfortunately, it is unclear when during those 80 years the revisions were made, as this edition consistently uses "village" for places in Minnesota, almost 30 years after "villages" stopped being villages in Minnesota.

; Arcadia Publishing books : As usual, these are broad guides to where the history will be found. Here are just some of them:

:* {{cite book|title=Northern Pine County|series=Images of America|author1-first=Earl J.|author1-last=Foster|author2-first=Amy|author2-last=Troolin|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2011|isbn=9780738583440}}

:* {{cite book|title=Pine City|series=Images of America|author1-first=Nathan|author1-last=Johnson|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2010|isbn=9780738577401}}

:* {{cite book|title=Stillwater, Minnesota: A Brief History|series=Brief history|author1-first=Holly|author1-last=Day|author2-first=Sherman|author2-last=Wick|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2016|isbn=9781625857873}}

:* {{cite book|title=Swift County, Minnesota|series=Images of America|author=Swift County Historical Society|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2000|isbn=9780738507965}}

:* {{cite book|title=Grand Marais|series=Images of America|author=Grand Marais Historical Society|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2009|isbn=9780738560663}}

:* {{cite book|title=Freeborn County, Minnesota|series=Images of America|author=Freeborn County Historical Society|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=1999|isbn=9780738503035}}

:If the local historians that Arcadia usually uses have something, that probably means that there are older, full histories and newspapers and other sources to be found and consulted, such as, again to pick just some:

:* {{cite book|title=History of Fillmore County, Minnesota|author1-first=Franklyn|author1-last=Curtiss-Wedge|location=Chicago|publisher=H.C. Cooper, Jr|year=1912}}

:* {{cite book|title=History of Goodhue County, Minnesota|author1-first=Franklyn|author1-last=Curtiss-Wedge|location=Chicago|publisher=H.C. Cooper, Jr|year=1909}}

:* {{cite book|title=History of Houston City, Minnesota|author1-first=Franklyn|author1-last=Curtiss-Wedge|location=Chicago|publisher=H.C. Cooper, Jr|year=1919}}

:* {{cite book|title=An Illustrated History of Nobles County, Minnesota|author1-first=Arthur P.|author1-last=Rose|publisher=Northern History|year=1908}}

:* {{cite book|title=History of Stearns County, Minnesota|author1-first=William Bell|author1-last=Mitchell|location=Chicago|publisher=H.C. Cooper, Jr|year=1915}}

:* {{cite book|title=History of Brown County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions|author1-first=Louis Albert|author1-last=Fritsche|publisher=Walsworth|year=1916}}

; Gazetteers : These are useful for telling whether an "unincorporated community" is a post-town/post-village or only a post office. Lippincott's, in particular, has a uniform scheme for this. Many do not use the Minnesotan meaning of town, though, and long pre-date the conversion to city.

:* {{cite book|title=Wisconsin and Minnesota State Gazetteer, Shippers' Guide and Business Directory for 1865–'66|publisher=G.W. Hawes|year=1865}}

:* {{cite book|title=Gazetteer of Minnesota Railroad Towns, 1861–1997|series=Heritage Collection|author1-first=Hudson|author1-last=Leighton|location=Roseville|publisher=Park Genelogical Bookx|year=1998|isbn=9780915709618}}

• {{cite book|series=State and Local Government Special Studies|issue=34|publisher=United States Bureau of the Census|title=Local Government Structure in the United States|chapter=Minnesota|year=1936|ref={{harvid|USBS|1936}}}}
• {{cite book|title=The History of Faribault County, Minnesota: From Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers|author1-first=Jacob Armel|author1-last=Kiester|publisher=Harrison & Smith|year=1896}}
• {{cite book|title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States|chapter=Minnesota|author1-first=Paul T.|author1-last=Hellmann|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=9781135948597}}
• {{cite book|title=Minnesota|series=It's My State!|author1-first=Marlene Targ|author1-last=Brill|author2-first=Elizabeth|author2-last=Kaplan|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|year=2011|isbn=9781608700547|chapter=How the Government Works}}
• {{cite book|title=Urbanization of the Minnesota Countryside: Population Change and Low-density Development Near Minnesota's Regional Centers, 1970–2000|volume=10|series=Transportation and regional growth study report|author1-first=John S.|author1-last=Adams|publisher=University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies|year=2003}}
• {{cite web|title=Structures of Counties, Cities, and Towns|author1-first=Alexis|author1-last=Stangl|date=January 2017|publisher=Senate Counsel, Research, and Fiscal Analysis, State of Minnesota|url=https://assets.senate.mn/publications/topics/Structures_of_Counties_Cities_Towns.pdf}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/ped/pedrep/consollocgov.pdf|title=Consolidation of Local Governments|publisher=Office of the Legislative Auditor|author1-first=James|author1-last=Nobles|year=2012}}