Lieutenant Heber M. Creel a graduate of West Point resigned from the Army and settled or more correctly, squatted on the southeast quarter of Section 34 Township 154 Range 64. He surveyed a townsite and called it Creelsburgh.
On November 15, 1882, a post office was established at Creelsburgh. This post office was changed to Creel City on February 28, 1883, and to Devils Lake on January 14, 1884.It really had been Devils Lake since the latter part of May 1883 when the Saint Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company decided to establish its “station on the lake” at this point and changed the name to Devils Lake.
Lieut. Creel thereupon sold the townsite land to a group of St. Paul people. He later became inspector General and Adjutant General of the North Dakota National Guard and was sometimes called General Creel.
Among those who took early claims on the north shore were a number of soldiers whose term with the army at Fort Totten had expired. About twenty people had settled land on Graham’s Island and Rock Island by 1880 and 1881, fully convinced that the “Manitoba” as the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba was called, woud soon build close to the most northernly bay on Devils Lake. Nesar the wooded area log houses were built, and farther away the homesteader constructed either sod houses, or small frame shacks covered with tar paper.
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Ramsey County was named for Governor Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, or it would be more correct to say that it was named for Ramsey County, Minnesota, which was named for Governor Ramsey. That was because there were so many St. Paul people interested in the Devils Lake townsite ownership and who came here to live.