24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Starbuck, MN

Starbuck is a city in Pope County in west-central Minnesota, sitting on the western shore of Lake Minnewaska where Minnesota State Highways 28, 29 and 114 meet.

Starbuck was platted in the spring of 1882 as a village on the Northern Pacific railway and was incorporated on June 6, 1883.

Pope County histories say Starbuck was named after William H. Starbuck of New York, who financed the Little Falls and Dakota Railroad, though local tradition also tells competing stories - that it was named for Stabekk in Norway, or after Star and Buck, a pair of oxen that helped build the railroad.

Starbuck's 1882 Little Falls and Dakota Railroad depot still stands and is now used as a museum; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Starbuck had a population of 1,365 at the 2020 census, up from 1,302 in 2010, making it one of the few small Pope County towns that grew over the decade.

The 2010 census counted 576 households in Starbuck, and the town's median age of about 46 reflects its popularity with retirees drawn to Lake Minnewaska.

Starbuck celebrates its Norwegian heritage each summer with Lefse Dagen, a festival honoring the traditional Norwegian potato flatbread, alongside its Dragon Boat Festival and arts and crafts fair on the lake.

Lake Minnewaska, on whose shore Starbuck sits, anchors the town's summer economy of fishing, boating and cabin visitors.

Starbuck covers only about 1.5 square miles, all of it land, so the lake that defines the town actually lies just outside its city limits.