Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near North Ranier Ranier, MN

Ranier is a tiny city in Koochiching County in far northern Minnesota, sitting where the Rainy River meets Rainy Lake, directly across the river from Fort Frances, Ontario, and just east of International Falls along State Highway 11.

Ranier was incorporated in 1908 - the vote to incorporate was held on March 17, 1908, in one of the town's first hardware stores - after the railroad arrived in 1907 and made the village the 'Port of Rainy Lake', where rail travelers could rent a boat to anywhere on the lake.

The Rainy River and Rainy Lake meet at Ranier beneath the Ranier Railroad Bridge, a Canadian National lift bridge built in 1908 that remains one of the busiest ports of entry for international rail freight in the United States.

During Prohibition, Ranier's position as a port of entry into Canada on Rainy Lake made it a prime playground for bootleggers, and the little town gained a rough reputation for illegal liquor.

The 2020 census counted 569 people in Ranier, a dramatic jump from the 145 residents counted in 2010.

Ranier packs its community into one of the smallest city footprints in Minnesota - the Census Bureau measures its total area at just 0.14 square miles, all of it land.