When I was a youngster, back in the days before zip codes were invented, I once ordered a nifty glow-in-the-dark Roy Rogers belt from a merchandise offer on one of the General Mills breakfast cereal boxes. When the company sent out my package they made a mistake and addressed it to me at “Hackensack, Minn.” The “Minn” had later been crossed out and someone had handwritten “try N.J.” on the package, and believe it or not I actually received my belt after a long delay.
This was the first time I had ever heard of another Hackensack, and I learned that it is actually located in the lake district of Minnesota. It is just a small community of about 300 people, and as an advertising gimmick they say it is the home of Paul Bunyan’s fictitious sweetheart.
The Wikipedia entry for Hackensack, MN says it was named after Hackensack, NJ. Out of curiosity, I did a little internet searching and found out that the town was founded and named by a former Hackensack, NJ resident named James Curo back in the 1880s. Here is one of the links:
http://www.resilientregion.org/quality-of-place/hackensack.htmlI’ve been trying to find out more about the man who was apparently so proud of being from Hackensack, NJ that he gave the same name to his new settlement in Minnesota, but I’m not coming up with anything. Does anyone else have any information? Who was James Curo and why did he move to Minnesota? Does he or his family have any descendants living in NJ today?
