Plato, Minnesota: Named by a Greek Philosophy Fan

Most prairie towns along this corridor are named for rivers, railroad officials, or surveyors. Plato got its name from a man who preferred ancient Athens. When early settlers here in McLeod County applied for a post office in the late eighteen fifties, they are said to have proposed calling the settlement Buffalo Creek. According to local tradition, a resident with a fondness for Greek philosophy suggested Plato instead, and the Post Office accepted, and so a small town on the Minnesota prairie has carried the name of one of history's great thinkers ever since.