The Village of Rustwood is a one-of-a-kind gem cozied up by the boarder of Minnesota and Wisconsin, with a strong arts community and beautiful natural landscapes to admire! We are home to a street almost entirely owned by local businesses, a state-renowned park and hiking trail system, and Rustwood College, a leading institution in biology and entomology.All resident concerns should be addressed to [email protected].

Population: 783

ALERTS

- Curfew beginning 10PM effective immediately.
- Severe weather alert from 7:30PM-9:45PM.
- Sinkhole warnings affecting north and east sides. Stay indoors and steer clear of construction sites.
- NEW Missing People’s Search Party Broadcast HERE
- NEW Strange/Uncommon Wildlife Report Hotline HERE
- PARK CAVES BLOCKED OFF EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. IGNORE ALL NOISES FROM WITHIN. USE WILDLIFE REPORT HOTLINE IF YOU SEE ANY UNUSUAL ANIMAL ACTIVITY NEAR A CAVE ENTRANCE.

Rustwood has a plethora of hiking trails through our beautiful, dense forests that have enchanted campers, birdwatchers, and cavers alike. If you would like to purchase tickets for one of our famous cave tours, you can do so through our website HERE. Please be aware that caving is an activity taken at one’s own risk and proper precautions should always be taken beforehand. It is especially important to keep up to date with any caves deemed off limits to the public, as sinkholes can occur due to our proximity to Fountain, Minnesota and its karst landscapes.With a long history of mythos and urban legend, we have many events celebrating our community’s rich past into the world of sprites and fairies. Take a tour through the park’s Evergreen Woods and maybe you’ll catch a dryad, carve a pumpkin at Hallowfest to ward off any ghouls, or partake in the annual Spring Tilling to feed the dragon beneath the earth in time for the harvest season! There’s always something to do for magic-lovers and ghost-chasers alike!

In addition to our natural wonders, Rustwood boasts an impressive number of local businesses located right on the main street, close to our college - books, coffee, food, trinkets, clothes, you name it! Maybe you’d like to stop in Athen Books for a cozy read, or have some award-winning rubarb pie over at Brewhalla, or get ready for winter with one of Lacy’s premium alpaca-wool scarves. Community gathering spots, walkways, and an excellent transit system means you’ll never get bored of exploring the town.When booking a stay, please take a look at our local inns located throughout town as well as where parking is offered. We have an extensive list HERE for convenient access. If you haven’t already, it is strongly encouraged to download the Rustwood PD Alert App, which updates you on any sudden changes in weather events, sinkholes, animal attacks, or crime nearby.

How Rustwood Got Its NameRustwood Village actually used to be a part of an older city near Fountain that collapsed during the Civil War; the area, once a full forest, had gained the nickname “Rusty Woods” due to the unique red-colored dirt carpeting the lush forest, copper and iron deposits littered among the creeks, and the beautiful maple trees that grow in the fall. Mining for minerals led to many setting up their homes near the forest and gradually moving into it to expand a small, tight-knit community that would grow to be the town we all know and love. To this day, artisans use the locally sourced copper in the area to create jewelry and household items which are sold at markets throughout the year, and the rustic color of the soil has proven to provide beautiful shades of red to clay, paint, and fabric dye. Most notably, urban legends have sprung up regarding the soil’s unique nutritional benefits to local plant life, celebrated during our annual Spring Harvest Festival.

CavesOur caves are notorious for the unusually potent smell of metal the further you go into it. Cavers enjoy exploring the network throughout town, some legends propping up of unusual wildlife crawling about under the earth. It is not fully known why the caves themselves are so interconnected and why there seems to be so many minerals within them - though people have speculated on mineral-rich water that used to flow through it, or perhaps tunnels that were man-made, as some of the terrain seems distinctly unnatural. An interesting thought indeed!Anthropologists have found fossils and old artifacts found from cultures past within them. If some of the tunnels were manmade, it is possible that they were made centuries before, which makes it an incredibly impressive feat that they are still traversable. Nevertheless, sinkholes are a constant threat around the cave clusters found north of the woods, and hikers are discouraged from straying too far from the trails that were built to maximize safety.