History:

The settlement of the area now known as the Township of Windemere in Pine County, Minnesota was a direct result of the lumber industry which was well underway by 1860. The Township itself was not organized until January 3, 1882. Its first school was built some time around 1889, which is now the Windemere Town Hall. The timber industry reached its peak in the area including Windemere Township between approximately 1870 and 1894. While the September, 1894 Hinckley fire missed the northern part of Pine County, and thus Windemere Township, the Township was not so lucky with respect to the Moose Lake fire of 1918 which burned throughout much of the Township. The 1918 Moose Lake fire together with the decline of the lumbering industry was the cause of the transition from logging to farming in the Township. Thus, by 1920, dairy farming was the predominant land use in the Township. Up until around 1940, the Township continued to experience population growth, but after 1940 due in part to the mechanization of agricultural operations and the exodus of the populace from the rural areas to the urban areas, the township's population commenced a period of erratic growth and population decline. This unstable period continued for the next 30 years. Since 1970, however, the population decline has been halted somewhat by the growth of the "seasonal population" around the lakes in the township.