Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Frontenac, MN

Frontenac is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Florence Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Pepin, a natural widening of the Mississippi River.

Frontenac began as a trading post established by James Wells before 1850, where he traded mainly with Native Americans.

The town was platted in the 1850s as Westervelt, named for postmaster Evert V. Westervelt, but the Garrard brothers who developed it renamed it Frontenac around 1859-1860 after Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the French colonial governor of Canada in the late 1600s.

In the 1860s steamboats delivered wealthy vacationers to Frontenac's posh three-story Lake Side Hotel, and the resort village became known as the 'Newport of the West.'

Frontenac is really two communities - Frontenac Station, which grew up along the railroad and highway, and Old Frontenac, the historic bluff-top village whose entire community is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Between the two villages lies Frontenac State Park, established in 1957 and covering more than 2,600 acres of Mississippi River bluffs, prairie and hardwood forest.

Frontenac State Park sits on the Mississippi Flyway, one of North America's four major migratory bird routes, and more than 260 bird species have been recorded inside the park.

Frontenac had a population of just 249 at the 2020 census, down from 282 people in 114 households at the 2000 census.

Frontenac lies along U.S. Highways 61 and 63 in Minnesota's Driftless Area, a region the glaciers skipped, and it was once home to the Mount Frontenac ski area, which had 17 named runs and six lifts.