City of Lake Crystal Information

Lake Crystal, a railway village and junction and located on the shores of Crystal Lake, platted in May 1869, incorporated by the legislature February 24, 1870, was named by Gen. Judson W. Bishop of St. Paul, engineer of the survey and construction of this railway, for the adjoining lake, which, according to Stennett, "was named by John C. Frémont and J. N. Nicollet, who explored the country around it in 1838, because of the unusual brilliancy and crystal purity of its waters." (This lake and the others near are unnamed on Joseph N. Nicollet's map, 1843.) The village was known as Loon Lake when its post office was established in 1867, the name changing in 1869.