Curling Capital of Southern Minnesota
The site of the city of Mapleton was first settled in 1856 by a colony named the Minnesota Settlement Association from New York. The city had a station of the Southern Minnesota Railroad and its post office, begun in 1857, was called Mapleton, Old Mapleton, Hawkins (Sylvester Hawkins being postmaster, 1863-66), and then Mapleton Station until 1888, when it was finally reestablished as Mapleton. Being the Curling Capital of southern Minnesota is no small feat for Mapleton considering that Minnesota is home to one-fifth of the Americans who consider themselves \”curlers\” (3,000 of the 15,000 nationwide). Mapleton has one of the oldest curling clubs in the state with members whose ancestors were curling on the rivers and lakes around Mapleton perhaps as far back as the late 1850s when the first settlers arrived.