Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Pelican Rapids, MN

Pelican Rapids was platted in 1872 and named for the rapids on the Pelican River that flows through town.

A post office has been in operation at Pelican Rapids since 1872, the year the town was platted.

The railroad reached Pelican Rapids in 1882 as a branch line from Fergus Falls, tying the young farming town to outside markets.

Downtown Pelican Rapids is watched over by Pelican Pete, a 15.4-foot concrete-and-plaster statue built in 1957 that is claimed to be the world's largest pelican.

For Pelican Pete's 50th anniversary in 2007, about three dozen smaller four-foot pelican statues, painted by local artists, were placed around town.

In 1931, a road crew near Pelican Rapids uncovered the 'Minnesota Woman,' a human skeleton more than 10,000 years old and among the oldest ever found in North America.

The 2020 census counted 2,577 residents in Pelican Rapids.

In the 2010 census, Pelican Rapids had 2,464 residents living in 904 households.

Pelican Rapids is one of Minnesota's most diverse small towns — about 31.5% of its residents were Hispanic or Latino in 2010, a community that grew after the West Central Turkeys plant, founded in 1956, began recruiting workers from South Texas in 1971.

E.L. Peterson Memorial Park and Sherin Memorial Park line the Pelican River in town, and Maplewood State Park, famous for its sugar maple forests and fall color, lies a short drive east.