2500 28th Street - PO Box 57 - Slayton, MN 56172

Avoca

AvocaAvoca, Minnesota is located in the eastern part of Murray County. It is six miles southeast of Slayton, Minnesota, the county seat, on Highway 59 and six miles north of Fulda, Minnesota. Avoca is within the boundaries of Lime Lake Township. The lakeshore of Lime Lake wraps around the north and west side of Avoca.   There is a county park with a picnic shelter, horse shoe pits and camp sites with water and sewer facilities, also there is a tennis court, half pipe skate area, volleyball court, playground equipment and Spike Poss Memorial Ball Park.

Avoca’s annual Fun in the Sun Days, usually held the third weekend in July, celebrates the beautiful summer days of the area with softball, volleyball and horseshoe tournaments as well as games for the children and a street dance for the grouwn ups.

The monument at the wayside rest was built by the State of Minnesota in 1959 and given to the City of Avoca to maintain. The local Federated Women have added a picnic table and flowers on either side.

Inscription on monument reads as follows:

This town began in 1878 and, named for a river in Ireland, became a key point for the sale of 50,000 acres of railroad land to Catholic Colonists in Murray County through the activities of Archbishop Ireland and the Catholic Colonization Bureau.

Early erection of a church, Immigrant house, and other public buildings greatly facilitated settlement.

At the turn of the 20th century, Avoca was considered one of the largest communities in Murray County. But fire, the worst enemy of a town, destroyed Avoca on two occasions. The first fire was in 1907 and the other in 1952. The destruction was so devastating that Avoca was never able to rebuild the businesses that were lost.
 
In the early days of Avoca’s history, the town had four churches. Besides St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, which was the first church established, there were three Lutheran congregations that worshipped in three different languages-Norwegian, Swedish and German. As English replaced the foreign languages the Lutheran congregations merged into one. Today there are two churches in Avoca: Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church and Word of Faith Fellowship.
 
The Avoca Park has a tennis court, a picnic shelter and playground equipment.
 
In the summer, Spike Poss Memorial Ball Park is active with weekly softball games and an annual area softball tournament in June. The Lime Lake County Park and Lime Lake are popular recreation spots for camping, fishing, boating, and hunting.