LANKIAGUN CITY

This information from "A Chronicle of Aitkin Minnesota ~ 1871 to 1971


Lankiagun City existed only as one of the many Minnesota "paper towns" which were platted by land developers in the 1850's (but never developed).

A Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, published in 1852, misspelled the name of the county "Aiken." They then compounded their error further by proclaiming: "And the county seat of said county is hereby established, temporarily, at Lankiagun city," a settlement described by some latter day historians as "an Indian village located at the mouth of Mud River."

The origin of the name Lankiagun will have to remain a mystery known only to the land developer who originated it. The Chippewa language carries no "L" sound in its alphabet. William Watts Folwell writes, "No form of speculation was more alluring, and for a time more profitable, than operations in town sites. Wherever along the rivers there was found a possible steamboat landing, there some enterprising operator, having secured a preemption or established other inchoate title, laid out a town, of which he had a tasteful map drawn and multiplied by lithography"

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