CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Good Thunder, Minnesota

human settlement in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States of America

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ2230638 ↗
Source-derived summary

Good Thunder is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States, situated along the Maple River. The population was 560 at the 2020 census.

History

Originally, this area was a part of the Winnebago Reservation from 1855 to 1859. John Graham established a hotel in what is now the town in 1870. When the railroad arrived in Minnesota, the town began as an agricultural commerce center.

Good Thunder was platted in April 1871, and named for a Winnebago chief (who was also known as Wakuntchapinka). Chief Good Thunder was well known to the early white towns people, and he had converted to Christianity.

The town was incorporated on March 2, 1893.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.64 square miles (1.66 km2), all land.

Former State Highway 66; and County Roads 1 and 10 are three of the main routes in the community.

Editorial summary

“Good Thunder, Minnesota” enters the record as human settlement in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Good, Thunder and Minnesota can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 1855, 1859, 1870—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Good, Thunder and Minnesota.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Good Thunder, Minnesota” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Good, Thunder and Minnesota provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2230638. VIAF identifies the subject as 146858944. The Library of Congress control number is no90009157. Authority coordinates are 44.005, -94.066. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1855, 1859 and 1870.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Good Thunder, Minnesota”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Good Thunder, Minnesota primary sources, Good Thunder, Minnesota archive and Good research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Good Thunder, Minnesota”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Good Thunder, Minnesota” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.