Location
Hokah is in Houston County HOKAH Township, settled in 1851, organized May 11, 1858, bears the Dakota name of the Root River, which is its English translation. Hutkan is the spelling of the word by Stephen R. Riggs and Dr. Thomas S. Williamson in their Dakota dictionaries, 1852 and 1902, but it is spelled Hokah on the map by Joseph N. Nicollet, published in 1843, and on the map of Minnesota Territory in 1850. A part of the site of the village, which was platted in March 1855, had been earlier occupied by the village of a Dakota leader named Hokah. This railway village was incorporated March 2, 1871. The city of Hokah reincorporated on April 23, 1923, and separated from the township. It was first settled by Edward Thompson, who built a sawmill in 1852, a flour mill in 1853, and a dam in 1866 across the Root River in anticipation of the Southern Minnesota Railroad coming; the railroad caused the population to increase tenfold. Thompson Creek south of Hokah andMt. Tom are named for Thompson. Part of the city was called Slab Town for the houses built on slabs from the sawmill. The post office began in 1856. Hear Hokah pronounced in Dakota. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
