Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Farwell, MN

Farwell is a tiny city in Ben Wade Township, Pope County, in west-central Minnesota, created when the Minneapolis and Pacific Railway — the forerunner of the Soo Line — was built through the site in 1886.

Farwell was platted in April 1887 and incorporated as a village on June 12, 1905, with railroad president William D. Washburn's company directing the surveying, platting and lot sales.

Local tradition links Farwell's name to the Norwegian word 'farvel,' meaning farewell, though Soo Line historian Alton Chermak concluded it was most likely named for Charles B. Farwell of Illinois, a political colleague of Washburn's.

Farwell peaked at 147 residents in the 1930 census, when its cooperative creamery, lumber yard and grain elevator drew trade from hundreds of surrounding farm families; the 2020 census counted just 56 residents.

The 2010 census counted 51 people living in 27 households in Farwell, on a total area of 0.29 square miles along Minnesota State Highway 55.

Farwell's post office, opened in 1887 with Ole Irgens as its first postmaster, closed as a regular post office in 1998 — but the city kept it alive through a rare community post office arrangement in which the city pays the postmistress's wages while she remains a USPS employee, an unusual survival for a town of Farwell's size.