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Welcome to Silverdale, Minnesota.

This is a Personal Web site belonging to 
LeRoy Lehman 
For the purpose of gathering and sharing information on the history of this area.

The community of Silverdale, Minnesota is located in the south eastern corner of Koochiching County.  It is neighbored by the communities of Rauch and Greaney.  All three areas were seperated by river or county lines as there were no roads or bridges to follow, only animal trails and surveyor lines.  They were settled during the early 1900's when the government opened areas under the Homestead Act.

Greaney was named after Patrick Greaney, owned and operated a general store. 

Rauch was named after John Rauch, first postmaster 1909- 1953

Silverdale was named after Johan Johansson (John) Silverdahl, first postmaster 1909- 1918


The settlers came from many different countries:  Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Yugoslavia and Poland.  A few were born in this country from earlier descendents from as far back as the Mayflower.  Some came as farmers, miners or loggers, others as merchants, fur traders and enterprisers.  All came with  the one thought  of "making a better place to live."  Each and every one had a place in this community.

Life was tough and many couldn't make it.  They helped each other out as much as possible.  Homes burned down and had to be rebuilt.  They fought the cold in the winter, bugs in the summer and mud in the spring.  Household items had to be carried in either on their backs, by horse or by building a raft and floating goods down the river.   Twenty mile trips took weeks to complete relying on friends to put them up for the night or sleeping under the stars. 

Could you imagine a young bride from a well established home in Sweden coming to this country by boat, landing in New York and seeing the new buildings, getting on a train heading west to Chicago, then to Duluth, then to Tower, Mn.?  They would have to haul all their possessions to a paddle boat for the trip to Cook, Mn.  There were no roads or trains, only a trail through the woods.  They had to walk for days without much food or shelter to find their husbands who had come months earlier looking for work and housing.  When finally they found their homes, they were without windows and  some were without roofs.  There were no stoves to cook on because they had to be hauled in during the winter after the ground was frozen enough for heavy hauling.  Cooking and bread baking was done by makeshift rock ovens over a camp fire.  Water had to be carried from streams or rivers.  Gardens had to be dug and planted out of the forest.  All this was accomplished despite the howling of wolves, intrusions of bears and other "critters" of the wild.