Frazee, Minnesota

The community was originally named Detroit and later Third Crossing before adopting the name Frazee. With Becker County not formally organized until 1871, it was the earliest settlement in the area. The city was incorporated on January 6, 1891.^[7] It was named after Randolph Lafayette Frazee, owner of a sawmill.^[8]

Frazee was the birthplace of Kieth Engen, a noted operatic bass.^[9][10]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.110 square miles (2.87 km²), of which 1.073 square miles (2.78 km²) is land and 0.039 square miles (0.10 km²) is water.^[2]

As of the 2023 American Community Survey, there are 640 estimated households in Frazee with an average of 2.4 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $49,000. Approximately 22.1% of the city's population lives at or below the poverty line. Frazee has an estimated 60.6% employment rate, with 9.5% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 85.1% holding a high school diploma.^[12]

The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (97.8%), Spanish (0.0%), Indo-European (1.6%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.5%), and Other (0.1%).

The median age in the city was 31.1 years.

Frazee is governed by the Statutory City Plan A form of government (in Minnesota, 601 cities operate under Plan A). This plan removes the clerk from the council and replaces that position with a fourth (or sixth) elected council member. The city council appoints the clerk and treasurer to indefinite terms of office. A mayor and four council members are elected to three-year terms. The council meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the Frazee Event Center.^[1][18]

Frazee's three largest employers are Frazee-Vergas Public Schools (160 employees), Frazee Care Center (160), and Daggett Truck Line (102). Daggett Truck Line has been operating for 80 years out of Frazee, carrying refrigerated and dry freight throughout the United States and southern Canada. It transports frozen foods, snack foods, pet food, produce, and manufactured goods. Its trucks return with processed foods or raw materials for local manufacturers.^[19]

Major roads are U.S. Route 10, a four-lane divided highway connecting the twin cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul to the east and Fargo-Moorhead to the west; and Minnesota State Highway 87, a two-lane secondary road running east from the city.

Frazee is on the Northern Pacific Railway's former main line, now the Northern Transcon of the BNSF. In 2015, this line carried an average of 49 trains per day.^[20]

Amtrak's Empire Builder runs through town in each direction in the early morning; its closest station stop is Detroit Lakes, ten miles (16 km) away.^[21][22]

This section does not cite any sources. (May 2019)

Frazee is best known as the home of Big Tom: the World's Largest Turkey.^[23] Frazee has long been part of the turkey industry. In 1984, turkey growers and committee members put up a giant turkey statue to honor the town. For $20,000, the group commissioned artist Shell Scott to construct the statue, which was built on a metal frame and covered in cement, fiberglass, cardboard, and insulation. The statue, named "Big Tom", was finished in 1986 and stood 22 feet (6.7 m) tall, earning Frazee the title "Home of the world's largest turkey."

Due to Big Tom's physical makeup, the statue needed frequent repairs. There were also complaints that Big Tom was not proportioned like a real turkey. The area committee decided it needed a new Big Tom and commissioned artist Dave Oswald. On July 1, 1998, during the removing process for Big Tom, the statue caught fire from a cutting torch that was being used to remove the wings.

On September 19, 1998, a new statue arrived in Frazee in three pieces on a flatbed trailer. The new "Big Tom" took eight hours to assemble, standing over 20 feet (6.1 m) tall and 17 feet (5.2 m) wide. It weighs over 5,000 pounds, having 1,000 pounds of steel reinforcement. It has 3,000 to 4,000 separate fiberglass feathers, which took the D.W.O. Fiberglass Company over 2,000 hours to make.