Victoria Relocation Information

History- Victoria’s early settlements appear to have been Native Americans, specifically the Mound Builders as many artifacts and year round villages have been found and located between Steiger Lake and Lake Auburn as well as on the McKnight farm and Carl Krey Lake. The next settlers of the area known to us as Victoria were the Midewakaton Dakota who had summer residences in the Carver area along the Minnesota River. The first European settler is thought to be Michael Diethelm when he set up a temporary shelter in 1851, not far from the present site of St. Victoria Church. Other European settlers came to Victoria shortly after the Treaty of Mendota went into full legal effect on February 24, 1853. Victoria’s name goes back to 1856 when after several years of disagreement the families located on the north side of Lake Bavaria and those on the south side reached an agreement. Two families on the north side donated 30 acres of land for the church and at the suggestion of the southern fraction, the church was named St. Victoria, a favored saint among three families from the south fraction. City of Victoria