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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Scranton (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Scranton. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Scranton is located in Saint Louis County.

To see how the shape of Minnesota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Saint Louis County: Aitkin, Carlton, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake & Douglas (WI).

Below are the counties that are near Scranton. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Scranton:

  • Saint Louis County     (The home county of Scranton)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scranton, with the one closest to Scranton listed first.
    • Hibbing
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Hibbing is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hibbing
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,716 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hibbing <1>
    • Ruby Junction
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Ruby Junction is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ruby Junction
    • Chisholm
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Scott
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Scott is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scott
    • Buhl
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Buhl is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buhl
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 969 people
    • Kinney
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Kinney is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinney
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 144 people
    • Forbes
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Iron Junction
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Iron Junction is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Junction
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
    • Side Lake
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Mountain Iron
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ramshaw
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Ramshaw is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ramshaw
    • Leonidas
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Leonidas is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leonidas
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 52 people
    • Eveleth
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Eveleth is located in Saint Louis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eveleth
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,536 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eveleth <1>
  • Itasca County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scranton, with the one closest to Scranton listed first.
    • Keewatin
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Keewatin is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keewatin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,010 people
    • Nashwauk
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Pengilly
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Calumet
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Marble
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Goodland
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Goodland is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodland
    • Taconite
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Taconite is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taconite
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 629 people
    • Bovey
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Warba
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Coleraine
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Wawina
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Wawina is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wawina
    • Swan River
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • La Prairie
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Scranton, see our County-by-County Page for Scranton.

Cemeteries Near Scranton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Scranton.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Scranton - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Scranton covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Scranton, with the one closest to Scranton listed first.

  • Old Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Maple Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Hibbing Park Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Grandview Memorial Garden
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Chisholm Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Keewatin Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Lake View Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake View Cemetery
    • The Lake View Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Lakeview Cemetery
  • Little Swan Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Nashwauk Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Zim Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Sarikoski Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (42 more) ...
    • Forbes Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Toivola Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Toivola Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

While we didn't find Scranton in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Scranton.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Scranton, with the one closest to Scranton listed first.

  • Midway
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Midway is located in Saint Louis County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway
  • Blackberry
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Blackberry is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackberry
  • Swan River
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Wawina
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Wawina is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wawina
  • La Prairie
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Scranton. See our List of 1890's Communities around Scranton.

Newspapers Published in Scranton ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 70 newspapers that have been published in the area around Scranton.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Scranton, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Scranton.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Scranton:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Scranton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Scranton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.