Lake Crystal is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States, established in 1869. The population was 2,539 at the 2020 census. It is allocation of the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In 1853, two families from little towns close Ithaca, New York, left their homes and traveled west. One was 32-year-old William Riley Robinson. In June 1854 Robinson and his companion Lucius O. Hunt traveled from Wisconsin to Blue Earth County. Robinson and Hunt arrived and came upon the three available lakes, Loon, Crystal, and Lily, and marveled at their beauty. They returned for their families and headed help to fall in with in the Lake Crystal area. The families were joined by two additional men and their families, Calvin Webb and Samuel Thorne. Robinson and his family contracted in a log cabin on the south shore of Crystal Lake, a few feet south of where the Robinson House is today. Hunt and his family arranged in a log cabin upon the south shore of Lily Lake, where Holy Family Catholic Church is now. Each man took plots of estate one mile long and half a mile wide (the dividing lineage being modern-day Main Street), the happenings to which were signed by President James Buchanan. Webb fixed in the Judson Township, while Thorne took a allegation on Crystal Lake. During the Dakota War of 1862 the settlers escaped to the fort at Mankato. Eventually the Dakota uprising was subdued and the settlers returned and rebuilt their homes. Hunt built a brick home in 1869 that was torn beside in the mid-1900s, where Holy Family Catholic Church is today. Robinson built his brick house in 1870, which nevertheless stands as a historical building on Robinson Street.

In June 1857, a town named Crystal Lake City was planned out upon the southwest shore of Crystal Lake, but it fruitless to become reality. In October 1868, The Valley Railroad, later the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Omaha Railroad, was completed in the area. The railroad, after looking for potential locations, choose Lake Crystal for a additional station. And correspondingly Lake Crystal began along the railroad, and was platted by Robinson and Hunt in 1869. The railroads’ engineer, General Judson W. Bishop of Saint Paul, named the town after handy Crystal Lake. A proclaim office began operation in Lake Crystal in 1869. By December 1, 1869, the town had a grain elevator, hotel, schoolhouse, grocery, drugstore, hardware store, two general stores, harness shop, cooper shop, and a doctor’s office. Lake Crystal was incorporated as a city upon February 24, 1870. Its first newspaper, The People’s Journal, started in March 1870. The mature between 1870 and 1895 is generally known as the “Wheat Era”; most local farmers used nearly whatever their cropland for wheat. Lake Crystal’s economy was adversely affected by the grasshopper assault of 1873, when millions of grasshoppers devoured whatever the crops. The plague lasted until June 1877, when the grasshoppers fled. It took years to recover; only in 1882 were good quantities of wheat anew marketed at the local grain elevator. In 1879, the Elmore railroad lineage was completed, with Lake Crystal as a junction amid this stock and the obsolete main line. This rail line amalgamated Lake Crystal to Garden City, Vernon Center, Amboy, Winnebago, Blue Earth, and Elmore. No fewer than 23 trains passed through town each day. In 1882, land was purchased from the railway for $100 and a new, two-story brick schoolhouse was built. This building was supplementary onto in 1895 and 1905 and demolished in 1972. In 1885, a 16-man volunteer ember department was founded to case several outbreaks of ember in the area. On September 20, 1887, a flare broke out at 3AM in the town’s issue block. A man was seen pouring gasoline throughout one of the buildings, then lighting it. Within a few hours the blaze was under control; it was extinguished behind the incite of Mankato’s Fire Department. This blaze damaged and destroyed roughly seven buildings. Also in 1887, All Angels Episcopal Church was built upon the corner of Main and Howard Streets; it was torn beside in 1964. In 1890 the United Methodist Church was built upon the corner of Humphrey and Crystal Streets. In 1893 the Lake Crystal Boat Club built a ship pavilion at modern-day Robinson Park. The Boat Club furthermore launched a steamship, the New Era, which is believed to have sunk near the lake’s south shore. Norwegian Lutherans built a church upon the corner of Anna and Shepherd Streets in 1893, later renamed Zion Lutheran. In 1894, the Graif Brothers Flour Mill was built, which marketed flour to Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Glasgow, Scotland. By 1895 Lake Crystal had higher than 1,100 residents. In 1896, Catholics built their first church, on Humphrey Street. In 1898, space was made for a supplementary electric light forest between the Graif Flour Mill main building and engine room. Power-line poles next arrived and were installed along 16 streets. Lake Crystal time-honored electricity in December 1898. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church was constructed in 1899 upon the corner of Prince and Crystal Streets.

The Graif Brothers Flour Mill burned by the side of in 1901 and was replaced in 1902 by the Lake Crystal Milling Company Plant, which was torn next to in the late 1980s. The Lake Crystal First National Bank building was built in 1902 on Main Street, and held the bank until the 1920s. In 1905 the main railroad and depot in town was moved north to the south shore of Lily Lake, where the railroad resides today. In 1908, the first water tower was built, standing practically 110 feet tall. It was torn down in 1995. On October 10, 1919, the Lake Crystal American Legion John W. Roth Post 294 was traditional by 15 Lake Crystal World War I veterans. Also in 1919, Main Street was paved and the sewer system was reconditioned. The Lake Crystal Tribune began publishing weekly in December 1921. In 1926 a additional hospital was built on Main Street, run by Fred Franchere. Also in 1926, a new speculative addition was added. It was demolished in 2007. In 1937, the City Municipal Power Plant was built, and still provides faculty to the city today. On January 1, 1937, an accidental flame destroyed the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. The present-day First Presbyterian Church was built in 1937 on the corner of Prince and Crystal Streets. The Minnesota Valley Gas Company began to service the community in 1941. Trinity Lutheran Church was built in 1947 on the corner of Watonwan and Main Street. The present-day Holy Family Catholic Church was built in 1951, replacing the Humphrey Street Catholic church. In 1954, another scholarly addition was built, which was demolished in 2007. Zion Lutheran Church moved to its gift site on the corner of Robinson and Crystal Street in 1957. In 1959, the Crystal CO OP elevator was built. It had 2,200,000 bushel grain bins extra to it in the late 1960s to before 1970s. Highway 60 was moved closer to the railroad and became a four-lane highway in 1968, replacing the outdated highway, also known as Lily Street. In 1970 a new post office was built on the corner of Prince and Main Street, which is yet in use today. In 1971, an elementary bookish was built along County Road 9. In 1973 the Lake Crystal National Bank was moved from 101 South Main Street to a supplementary building, which is now owned by MinnStar Bank. The city population reached 2,068 in 1978. In the 1970s, three historic buildings were demolished upon south Main Street and replaced by the Lake Crystal Towers, a five-story apartment building built in 1978. A additional City Hall was built in 1980 in Marston Park, and was other onto in 2017. In 1983, Crystal Valley built a new, two-bin, concrete grain elevator. It extra three larger bins in 1985, and is yet in use today. Also in 1983, the Baptists moved from their Humphrey Street church to their gift one upon Oakland Street. A additional wastewater treatment reforest opened along County Road 20 North in 1987. The Elmore Line was removed in the 1980s along afterward the many grain elevators along its path. A extra Lake Crystal Fire Hall was built in 1988 upon Hunt Street, replacing the Fire Hall at 101 North Main Street, which is now the police department. In 1995 a other water tower was built along with Hunt and Lincoln Streets which was painted tan, and is nevertheless in use today. In the late 1990s to beforehand 2000s, five historical buildings upon Humphrey Street were demolished. In 1999 Crystal Gardens housing developments were build up at the fall of Blue Earth Street, which now houses 40 residences.