Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near North Oronoco Oronoco, MN

Oronoco is a city in Olmsted County along the Middle Fork of the Zumbro River, just north of Rochester.

The village was founded in 1854 by settlers including Leonard B. Hodges, John B. Clark, and Ebenezer S. Collings, and platted in 1855 — but it did not incorporate as a city until March 6, 1968.

Early settler Dr. Hector Galloway named the town after the Orinoco River of South America, in tribute to the power of the Zumbro River.

In the summer of 1858, gold was discovered in the bed of the Zumbro River near Oronoco, sparking Minnesota's own short-lived gold rush; the Rochester Democrat reported 90 to 100 men working diggings that yielded two to six dollars a day per man.

Spring floods on the Zumbro in 1858 and 1859 destroyed the mining works and ended the gold rush.

The episode is still commemorated by the Downtown Oronoco Gold Rush Days, a major antique show and flea market held in the third week of August, and by a gold-rush plaque in Oronoco Park.

Oronoco had 1,802 residents at the 2020 census.

Oronoco has boomed as a bedroom community for Rochester: its population more than doubled between 2000, when it was 883, and 2020, when it reached 1,802.

In the 1850s Oronoco vied with Rochester and Marion for the Olmsted County seat before throwing its support to Marion; Rochester won the seat thanks to its more central location.

Oronoco Township, organized in 1858, wraps around the city on three sides.