Editing Baxter, Minnesota (section)

==History==
Baxter owes its existence partly to the 1920s operation of a (since closed) large [[Railroad tie|tie]]-treating plant, owned by [[Northern Pacific Railroad]].  Farming was also an important early industry.

Baxter was incorporated on May 25, 1939. The town is named after Luther Baxter,<ref>{{cite book|author=Warren Upham|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n174 155]}}</ref> an [[Lawyer|attorney]] for the railroad who served in the [[Minnesota Legislature]] and as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].

[[Tourism]] and various [[service industry|service industries]] have become Baxter's biggest employers, and numerous [[urban sprawl#Housing subdivisions|housing subdivisions]] have been developed in the wooded area west of Minnesota Highway [[Minnesota State Highway 371|371]], which passes through the town. Owing to the amount of unused land in the area, commercial development along the highway itself has also increased in recent years, though it has tended to conform to the pattern of [[urban sprawl]].