The decision late in 1868 to route the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad's Sioux City line from Mankato past Crystal Lake led directly to the founding of Lake Crystal. By May 1869, railroad surveyors were planning the townsite on 40 acres of the William R. Robinson farm, about 60 acres of the L.O. Hunt farm, and some land owned by the railroad company. On December 10, 1869, the Mankato Weekly Union announced that the tracks had reached the new town. By then, Lake Crystal had about 40 buildings, including a large hotel, a two-story schoolhouse, three general stores, a hardware and tin shop, four or five saloons, a barrel factory, and several very pretty residences. General Judson W. Bishop of St. Paul, engineer of the railroad survey, gave the town its name. Approaching along the west shore of Crystal Lake, the first locomotive traveled southwestward through Marston Park to a depot area near the corner of Main and Humphrey streets. In 1905, the depot was moved from the center of the business district to the southeast shore of Lily Lake after the railroad trackage was relocated.