This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/iIB.2ACI/923.3 Message Board Post: Hi, Carol. You may have this data by now, but I find a small entry in a book published in 1977, "Faribault County 1855-1976. A Panorama". There is a plat map of Walnut Lake Township (103N Range 25W), with the following info: from page 56-57: "Walnut Lake Township took its name from the lake on its southern border. The lake was a favorite summer resort in the early days, as it had been prior to white settlement. It had been a favorite summer spot for Indians, especially the Winnebagos whose teepees were often seen on the banks. Daniel James Ackerman took the first claim in this township on the northeast side of the lake in 1856. Another early settler was Dr. R. R. Foster in whose honor nearby Foster Township was named. The village of Marengo was once planned here but never developed. A village called Walnut Lake sprang into being on the northwest side of the lake and flourished with hotels, post office, school, several stores, dwellings and a blacksmith shop. This was a popular stage stop for persons hunting lands to the west. There are no traces of this settlement remaining with the possible exception of a small cemetery not far from the old village site. The 1860 census included this ! township along with Clark and Barber and listed a total of 46 persons in all three. In 1880 the total in Walnut Lake township alone was 487. In a rare departure from most other townships, the town lost population from 1870 to 1880 because of what was called 'financial distress'. It was said that the 'heavy hand of the userer' descended upon these people and large mortgages with heavy interests drained the people of money and energy and they simply abandoned their claims." The lake itself (called North Walnut Lake, also called Lake Tazuka....must be an old name for it) is on the southern border of the township in sections 34 and 35. The township just to the south of Walnut Lake Twp. has a South Walnut Lake on the northern border. It's called Brush Creek Twp. There is no mention of a Walnut Lake or data on the village within the short write-up on Brush Creek Twp.