Britt, Minnesota

Britt
Unincorporated area
Britt Location of Britt within Saint Louis County Show map of Minnesota Britt Britt (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 47°38′25″N92°31′32″W / 47.64028°N 92.52556°W / 47.64028; -92.52556
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
County	Saint Louis
Township	Sandy Township
Elevation	1,476 ft (450 m)
Population  (2010) [1]
• Total	1,069
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	55710
Area code	218
GNIS feature ID	660881 [2]

Britt is an unincorporated area in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, located 11 miles north of the city of Virginia.

Geography

The area Britt covers begins at Highway 169 near Florenton, extending south towards Wouri Township. It also extends west past U.S. Highway 53 towards Sand Lake.

Saint Louis County Roads 65, 68, and 106 (Britt Bypass) are located within the Britt area. ^[3]

Britt is located within the Superior National Forest.

Natural lakes in the area include Lake Fourteen, Lake Leander, Lake Little Fourteen, Dark Lake, Arrowhead Lake, Sand Lake, Little Sand Lake, Sandy Lake, Little Sandy Lake, Moose Lake, Clear Lake, and a number of smaller lakes.

Britt Creek flows through the area.

History and culture

The original center of Britt was generally considered the intersection of Saint Louis County Road 68 and Jarvinen Road (County 662) in the southwest corner of Sandy Township.

Since the 1950s, a camp site has operated on Arrowhead Lake. ^[4] This site is currently known as Laurentian Environmental Center, operated by Mounds View Public Schools, a school district in the Twin Cities.

In 1976, Jim Mulligan created a documentary where he interviewed citizens of Britt on their actions against the Forestry Service to stop the organization's use of controversial herbicide 2-4-5T, a chemical that created health problems for local animals, people, and vegetation. ^[5]

Minntac Tailings Basin Cell One in Mountain Iron, Minnesota also lies partially in southern Britt.

References

1. "Britt (zip 55710), Minnesota". Best Places. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
2. "Britt, Minnesota". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
3. "Britt Community Historical Society".
4. 1952 Esko High School. https://archive.org/details/classmates-yearbook-58285-1952-esko-high-school/page/34/mode/2up
5. Pesticide Politics, 1976. 1 master videocassette (32 minutes, 22 seconds): U-matic, 1 user videocassette: S-VHS, and 1 user video file: MP4 (318 MB). https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-finding-aids-public/library/findaids/sv000292/video/sv000292-00079.mp4. From the Minnesota Historical Society finding aid "INTERMEDIA ARTS MINNESOTA: An Inventory of Its Video Collection at the Minnesota Historical Society"