Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Upsala, MN

Upsala is a small city in southwestern Morrison County, Minnesota, completely surrounded by Elmdale Township.

Swedish settlers named the town after Uppsala, Sweden, and the community was long known simply as the Swedish Settlement; it remained primarily Scandinavian and Protestant through the first half of the 20th century.

Some of the area's first settlers were actually Danish - Ib Hanson Misfeldt and Knut H. Gunderson cleared land a couple of miles east in the Elmdale area in 1868, before Swedish settler John Henry Peterson arrived in 1872.

A post office called Upsala was established in 1883, and one of the town's early industries was a creamery started by John Swedback, after whom the settlement was also called Swedback's Settlement.

The townsite was platted in 1913 by J.S. Borgstrom and his son Axel on 60 acres bought from August Johnson, and Upsala was incorporated as a city in December 1916.

Upsala is tiny: the 2020 census counted 487 residents, up from 427 in 2010, when the city had 188 households.

The Borgstrom House, a 1913 home donated by Axel and Carrie Borgstrom, is now the Upsala Area Historical Society museum, displaying Swedish-American memorabilia including a 1928 REO Speed Wagon fire truck.

Upsala celebrates its Swedish heritage each August with Heritage Day, and its welcome sign carries the town slogan: 'Upsala: where life is always looking up!'

Minnesota State Highway 238 is the main route through Upsala, which covers about 3.24 square miles of central Minnesota farmland.