Black Hammer Township is a township in Houston County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 326 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Black Hammer is located in the township.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , all land.
Demographics
As of the census
At the first town meeting on April 5, 1859, a motion was made to name the town "Clinton." The state government rejected the name because there was already a Clinton, Minnesota. At a later date the name Black Hammer was decided upon as a partial translation of the Norwegian phrase "Sort Hammer." A history of the county from 1882 tells the story of how the name came about:
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Knud Olson Bergo, who was living just across the town line in Spring Grove, on getting up one morning, saw that a fire had swept over the prairie in the south part of the town...Its charred appearance at once suggested to his mind a certain bluff located in Slidre Valders, Norway, which was Mr. Bergo's birthplace, and so he exclaiming in Norwegian, "Sort Hammer," which signifies Black Bluff, and the people have had the good sense to retain the name to this day, which, it will be perceived, is composed of an English and a Norwegian word.
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