24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Browns Valley, MN

Browns Valley is a city in Traverse County in far western Minnesota, right against the South Dakota border.

Browns Valley was founded in 1866-67 by Joseph R. Brown and platted in 1878, making it the first village in Traverse County.

Browns Valley served as the first county seat of Traverse County before Wheaton took over the role in 1886.

The settlement and its post office, established in 1867, were originally called Lake Traverse and were renamed Browns Valley after founder Joseph R. Brown died in 1870.

Browns Valley sits in the Traverse Gap between Lake Traverse to the north and Big Stone Lake to the south, on a low continental divide separating waters that flow north to Hudson Bay from waters that flow south to the Gulf of Mexico — the southernmost point of the Northern Divide.

Because the valley floor at Browns Valley is so flat, floodwaters have occasionally flowed across that continental divide from one drainage basin into the other.

In March 2007 the Little Minnesota River flooded Browns Valley and about 100 residents had to be evacuated from their homes, drawing a visit from Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Browns Valley records some of Minnesota's highest summer temperatures, including a high of 107 degrees Fahrenheit on July 31, 2007.

Browns Valley had 553 residents in the 2020 census, down from a peak of 906 in 1970, and its 589 residents in the 2010 census lived in 247 households.