Tenney is an unincorporated community and former city in section 28 of Campbell Township, Wilkin County,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States. A post office was established there in 1887, and Tenney was incorporated as a city on November 30, 1901. The population was five at the 2010 census, tying Tenney with Funkley as Minnesota's least populous community. It is part of the Wahpeton, ND–MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. The only remnant of Tenney is a grain elevator along the tracks on the south side of town.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all land. Tenney is located in the flat basin of prehistoric

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz ( ) was a large proglacial lake that existed in central North America during the late Pleistocene, fed by meltwater from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the last glacial period. At its peak, the lake's area wa ...

, a glacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age. The area's remarkably flat land is sometimes described as the upper valley of the Red River, though it is not technically in the Red River valley, but is near the

Bois de Sioux River The Bois de Sioux River ( ) drains Lake Traverse, the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. It is a tributary of the Red River of the North and defines part of the western border of the U.S. state of Minnesota ...

History

The city of Tenney was named for the owner of its site, lumberman John P. Tenney,Upham, Warren (2001) Minnesota Place Names, A Geographical Encyclopedia, Third Edition, p629; MHS Press; because of his willingness to give land to the railroad, which came through in 1885. The first house was built by his son-in-law, Fred Maechler. The post office was established in 1887, the plat was filed for record with the office of the

Register of Deeds Recorder of deeds or deeds registry is a government office tasked with maintaining public records and documents, especially records relating to real estate ownership that provide persons other than the owner of a property with real rights ove ...

in Wilkin County on August 4, 1887, and the city was incorporated on November 30, 1901. The city originally encompassed four square miles, but never grew enough to meet its boundaries, so in 1916 the farmers petitioned their land from the city, and their request was granted. According to an unpublished town history written in the mid-1980s, the city's population peaked at about 200 in 1910. Before 1910 the city boasted a church, three grain elevators, a hardware store, two mercantile stores, a butcher shop, bank, machine shop, implement shop, blacksmith shop, pool hall, lumberyard, and a hotel, which also housed the barber shop, saloon, and post office.unpublished town history compiled by the city for its 1985 centennial, author uncredited In 1909 a small post office building was erected and used until 1952, when Leonard Hardie became postmaster and moved the post office to the general store. Electricity arrived in Tenney in 1914, through a franchise granted to Otter Tail Power Company. After 1910 steady population decline was driven by the lack of significant population in outlying areas, migration to larger urban centers, and the absence of dynamic economic factors to generate wealth. The hardware store closed in 1928 and the bank, like thousands of other undercapitalized small-town banks in the United States, went out of business in 1929 or 1930 in the aftermath of the

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often fol ...

of 1929. U.S. Census bureau data indicates that the population fell to 102 in 1920, 80 in 1930, rose slightly to 89 in 1940, and fell to 62 in 1950, 35 in 1960 and 24 in 1970. As local establishments burned down or went out of business they were not replaced, and finally the post office was discontinued in 1980 when the census bureau pegged Tenney's population at 19. Today the only remaining business in town is the elevator. The last commercial building remaining in town was the former James Bigsby general store (later owned by G. A. Klugman), which also housed the post office until its closing in 1980. The population reached its lowest point of 2 sometime after the 2000 census, but had risen to 5 by the 2010 census. In late June 2011, residents of Tenney voted 2 to 1 to dissolve the town and have it become part of Campbell Township.

Description

The community encompassed two and a half blocks, but the elevator is all that remains as of mid-2024.

Location

Tenney is on Minnesota Highway 55 in far western Minnesota. It is approximately east of the junction of Minnesota Highway 55 and

U.S. Route 75 U.S. Route 75 is a north–south U.S. Highway that runs in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is located at the Canadian border near Noyes, Minnesota, at a now-closed border crossing. From this point, the highway ...

. It is six miles (10 km) east of

Fairmount, North Dakota Fairmount is a city in Richland County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 343 at the 2020 census. Fairmount was founded in 1884. It is part of the Wahpeton, ND– MN Micropolitan Statistical Area. In July 1884, a tornado dest ...

; south of Moorhead and northwest of

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. It is at roughly the same longitude as

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

and

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, and approximately the same latitude as

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,339 as of 2023. The combined populat ...

and

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 75 *

Minnesota State Highway 55 Minnesota State Highway 55 (MN 55) is a state highway that runs across the central part of state taking a diagonal route from its western most at the North Dakota state line near Tenney to its easternmost point at the intersection with U.S. H ...

Points of interest

Tenney Fire Hall

The

Tenney Fire Hall The Tenney Fire Hall was a historic fire station in Tenney, Minnesota, United States, built in 1904, but which burned down in 2010. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for having local significance in the theme of ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, was a small wood-frame building with a bell tower and flag mast, built in 1904. It housed the town's two hand-pulled chemical

fire engines A fire engine or fire truck (also spelled firetruck) is a vehicle, usually a specially designed or modified truck, that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to ...

. The rearmost part of the building also contained the town

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

. This building had passed into private ownership, but the city had hoped to reacquire it and perform important repairs, but the building no longer stands. According to the National Register's Inventory-Nomination Form, the Fire Hall was significant for the following reasons: #"Government functions were often centered in towns, ncludingplaces as small as Tenney with its Fire Hall..." #"Though of simple metal-sided, frame construction, the diminutive Tenney Fire Hall...is a visual landmark in the small town."

City Hall

The City Hall was at 295 Concord Avenue (the town's main north–south street). It was open to the public 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, and visitors were invited to go inside and sign the town's guestbook. City Hall was built in the early 1900s as a community church. Later it was a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

church. From 1914 to 1946 it was the

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

church, from 1946 to 1968 the

Evangelical United Brethren The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was a North American Protestant denomination from 1946 to 1968 with Arminian theology, roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities, and close ties to Methodism. It was formed by the merg ...

church, and from 1968 until closing in 1997 it was the Tenney

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

Church. The building was purchased in 1999 and had been renovated and expanded in 2006 / 2007, but has since disappeared from the landscape.

The Wheaton-Dumont Cooperative Elevator

The Co-op had its primary rail terminal in Tenney. In 2003, 20 million bushels of grain were trucked into Tenney from other elevators and shipped out by rail. At that time it was estimated that in 2004 this figure would rise to 32 million bushels. The elevator is served by the

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is one of the primary United States railroad subsidiaries for the CPKC Railway , one of six U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Saul ...

, which is the United States arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 5 people, 2 households, and 2 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 9 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 100.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

. There were 2 households, out of which 100.0% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together. 0.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.50. The median age in the city was 56.5 years. 0.0% of residents were under the age of 18; 20% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 0.0% were from 25 to 44; 40% were from 45 to 64; and 40% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 60.0% male and 40.0% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 6 people, 4 households, and 2 families residing in the city. The

was 115.8/km; (298.0/sq mi;). There were 8 housing units at an average density of 154.4/km; (397.3/sq mi;). The racial makeup of the city was 100.00%

. There were 4 households, out of which none had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were

living together, and 50.0% were non-families. 50.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 50.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.50 and the average family size was 2.00. In the city the population was spread out, with 33.3% from 25 to 44, 33.3% from 45 to 64, and 33.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 61 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $8,750, and the median income for a family was $0. Males had a median income of $0 versus $0 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $8,000. All of the population and none of the families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. None of those under the age of 18 and all of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Notes

External links

Google Maps showing Tenney
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wilkin County, Minnesota Unincorporated communities in Minnesota Former municipalities in Minnesota Populated places disestablished in 2011 Wahpeton micropolitan area