Biohazard Cleanup Near North Pipestone Pipestone, MN

Pipestone is a city in and the county seat of Pipestone County in southwestern Minnesota, and its motto is "Home of the Red Stone Pipe."

Pipestone is the site of Pipestone National Monument, designated in 1937, where Native Americans have quarried the soft red stone called pipestone (catlinite) for centuries to carve ceremonial pipes, a practice that continues today.

The 282-acre monument preserves tallgrass prairie, a three-quarter-mile trail along Pipestone Creek, and Winnewissa Falls.

Pipestone was platted in October 1876, incorporated as a village on February 10, 1881, and as a city on July 23, 1901.

Downtown Pipestone is famous for its buildings of locally quarried red quartzite, including the Calumet Inn, built in 1888 and still operating as a hotel, and the 1899 county courthouse, whose 110-foot clock tower is topped with a dome and a statue of Lady Justice; both are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow set part of "The Song of Hiawatha" at the Pipestone quarries even though he never visited, and the outdoor Song of Hiawatha Pageant was performed beside a quarry lake in Pipestone for 60 years, ending in 2008.

The population of Pipestone was 4,215 at the 2020 census, down from a peak of 5,328 in 1970.

Pipestone had 1,859 households at the 2020 census, and about 12% of its residents identified as Hispanic or Latino.

Sitting on high ground near Minnesota's southern border, Pipestone has recorded temperatures as low as -44 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 108 degrees, with an average of about 40 inches of snow a year.

Pipestone Area High School, a combined middle and high school of about 197,000 square feet, opened in January 2003, and Minnesota West Community and Technical College operates a campus in the city.