Adrian

History

Adrian owes its birth to the St. Paul and Dakota Railroad Company, a branch of the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad. Railroad employee O.D. Brown surveyed a 16-block town site in May 1876 and track-laying crews arrived in August of that same year. A city plat was dedicated on August 28 and filed on October 4. A copy of a portrait of Iselin's wife, painted by John Singer Sargent, has been displayed for years in Adrian City Hall. The first St. Adrian Catholic Church was established in 1877. The building burned to the ground Christmas Eve, 1899. The young town responded by building the current church, which was completed in 1901. St. Adrian Church is on the National Register of Historic Places along with the Hotel Slade. At 2:00 p.m., November 4, 1967, the section of Interstate Highway 90 passing Adrian officially opened to traffic. The previously used highway, U.S. Highway 16, passed directly through town. The by-passing of all east–west traffic forever sealed the character of Adrian as a small town.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Main highways include: * Interstate 90 * Minnesota State Highway 91 * Nobles County Road 35

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  182
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  182
• Common Grackle

  Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  161
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  140
• Killdeer

  Charadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  135
• Barn Swallow

  Hirundo rustica Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  108
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  106
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  104

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2023-10-19
  3 km E of Humboldt, South Dakota