Muskoda is a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 in section 7 of Hawley Township

Hawley Township, Minnesota

Hawley Township is a township in Clay County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 459 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there...

 in Clay County

Clay County, Minnesota

Clay County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 58,999. Its name is in honor of American statesman Henry Clay, member of the United States Senate from Kentucky and United States Secretary of State in the 19th century. Its county seat is Moorhead...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

Muskoda received its name from the Ojibwa word Mashkode, which according to Baraga

Frederic Baraga

Frederic Baraga, Servant of God was a Slovene American Roman Catholic missionary, bishop, and grammarian.-Early life:Frederic Baraga was born as Friderik Irenej Baraga in the manor house at Mala Vas no...

 means "a meadow or tract of grassland, a large prairie." The townsite was originally on a line of the Northern Pacific Railroad until that railroad moved its line to a more gradual grade, leaving Muskoda about one half mile off the new line. The town had a post office from 1873 until 1930, and also at one time had a general store, a grain elevator, and a potato warehouse. Little trace of the town remains today.