About:

The City of Benson, county seat for Swift County, is located in West-Central Minnesota with a population of 3,240. Benson is approximately 130 miles west of Minneapolis/St Paul metropolitan area, 30 miles west of Willmar, and 22 miles east of Morris. Highways 12, 29, and 9 all travel through Benson. It is a great place to live, work and raise a family!

Come visit for a weekend or a week.

You may decide to stay for the rest of your life!

History:
This region was the disputed land of the Chippewa and Sioux Indians. Raiding parties of each tribe made life quite perilous for any person. The first white man to travel across the future Benson area was Gideon S. Pond, an Indian Missionary who accompanied an Indian hunting party up the Chippewa River in order to study their habits and customs. However, it was not until after the Great Sioux Uprising that western Minnesota was made safe for white settlement. The first white settler in the Benson area is thought to be Ole Corneiliusen, a Norwegian who arrived in 1866. By this time the railroad had been extended from Minneapolis to Delano. This resulted in more rapid settlement in western Minnesota.

Early development of Benson and the rest of Swift County was strongly related to the railroad. A.W. Lathrop and W.V. Lathrop opened the first general store in Benson in 1869 in anticipation of the arrival of the construction of trackage through the area. The railroad continued laying tracks in the westward direction and by 1870 they had reached the site that they had determined to be a trading center named "Benson" in memory of a prominent politician from Anoka.