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Hayfield, Minnesota is in Dodge County, Minnesota. The main routes through the city are Minnesota Highways 30 and 56, which intersect at the western city limits. Nearby communities include Blooming Prairie, Corning, Dodge Center, Hollandale, Kasson, Rock Dell, Salem Corners, Sargeant, Steele Center, Summit, Vernon, and Waltham. Rochester is about thirty miles northeast, Owatonna thirty-three miles northwest, Spring Valley thirty-five miles southeast, and Albert Lea forty-three miles southwest of Hayfield. In 1872, Hayfield separated from Vernon and became Hayfield Township, named for a township in Pennsylvania. A post office was established there in 1885, and the city of Hayfield was incorporated in 1896. Hayfield had been in important railroad junction for the Chicago Great Western Railroad, but its status was greatly reduced when the Chicago and North Western took over management of the railroad. In 1981, the C&NW filed for permission to abandon the Hayfield line and, a year later a group of shippers formed the Hayfield Northern Railroad Company in an attempt to preserve the rail line. C&NW appealed, and the matter was heard by the US Supreme Court in 1984. Although the Court sided with the Hayfield Northern 9-0, the decision was unfortunately too late for the Hayfield Northern, as the C&NW had already removed the tracks, and the Hayfield Northern shippers could not absorb the costs involved in forcing the C&NW to put the rails back in. The Vernon Cooperative Creamery, in Hayfield, had been the oldest farmer-owned creamery in Minnesota, but is currently inactive. Nevertheless, Hayfield’s population has increased each census year since 1930.

 

 

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