Don’t Drive Past Charming Minnesota Small Town Isanti

Just 45 minutes north of Minneapolis, Isanti feels like you’re in a whole different world.

This is small-town Minnesota: a compact Main Street, locally owned businesses, old cars, cornfields, dirt roads and, if you visit at the right time of year, enormous fields of sunflowers. (North Dakota gets the press for giant sunflowers, but believe me, they’re just as huge in Minnesota too.)

We came to Isanti while filming for a Photowalks summer road trip, looking for something completely different from Minneapolis. What we found was one of the most enjoyable small-town stops of our Minnesota travels.

Isanti grew up around the railroad at the end of the 19th century, and downtown remains small enough that you can park the car and explore much of it on foot. The real fun, however, comes when you combine Main Street with a drive along the surrounding country roads.

Here’s our Photowalks itinerary:

1. Start with a walk down Main Street

Downtown Isanti
Main Street W & 1st Avenue NW
Isanti, MN 55040

Start in the historic center of town. This isn’t a polished tourist district filled with souvenir stores. It still feels like a working Minnesota Main Street, which is exactly why I enjoyed photographing it.

Look for the older brick storefronts, signs and architectural details. The city has put together an excellent online history of downtown buildings, including structures that date to Isanti’s early commercial years.

Explore the City of Isanti’s historic downtown guide

2. The Old Chrysler Garage

117 W. Main Street
Isanti, MN 55040
Phone: 612-599-7669

This was my favorite surprise in Isanti.

Behind an unassuming Main Street storefront is a remarkable collection of vintage Chryslers, primarily from the 1920s through the 1940s. Owner Greg Biskey opened the museum in 2018, and the collection includes roughly 20 cars along with vintage Chrysler signs and memorabilia. The building itself has automotive history: it was constructed in 1919 for an auto garage.

Greg showed us a 1924 Chrysler — the first model year for the Chrysler automobile — and told me that the cars in the collection are still drivable.

Admission has traditionally been free, with donations accepted. Published hours are Thursday through Sunday, 1–5 p.m.; I’d confirm before making a special trip.

Old Chrysler Garage visitor information

Afterwards, stop next door and say hi to the country lawyer in the cowgirl hat, Rachel Gillespie, who told us in the video why she believes Isanti is the perfect place, thanks to Minnesota Nice. “We are all nice and loving and would do anything for each other,” she said. “And I’m confident they feel the same way about me.”

3. Stop at the local butcher

Isanti Retail Meats
30 W. Main Street
Isanti, MN 55040

One of the pleasures of a small-town Main Street is finding businesses that haven’t been replaced by national chains.

Isanti Retail Meats is the local butcher and deli, selling steaks, smoked meats, sausages and other locally prepared foods. It’s also another good excuse to slow down rather than treating downtown as a quick drive-through.

4. Check out the old Creamery

The Creamery Building
104 Main Street E
Isanti, MN 55040

This building tells another part of Isanti’s story.

The Isanti Farmers Creamery Company was organized by local farmers in 1913. A newer downtown creamery facility followed in the 1920s, reflecting just how important dairy farming was to the local economy.

The old Creamery Cafe that operated here for decades has closed, but the historic building is being revitalized; the city awarded the Creamery Building $75,000 through its Main Street Economic Revitalization Program in 2025. When I visited the owners, they told me they expected to be open by late 2026.

5. Get off Main Street and onto the back roads

This was where Isanti really came alive for me.

You don’t have to drive far from downtown before the commercial buildings disappear and you’re surrounded by cornfields, farms and dirt roads. And just south of town is one of the most photogenic stops we found on the entire trip.

Green Barn Garden Center
26501 Highway 65 NE
Isanti, MN 55040
763-444-5725

Green Barn is a third-generation family garden center that has been around since 1957. But in late summer, the big attraction is its enormous sunflower field.

Visitors are invited to walk through the rows of towering sunflowers and, naturally, pose for pictures. Green Barn even puts photo props throughout the field, turning the place into one giant outdoor photo studio. They stagger their sunflower crops to extend the blooming season rather than having everything peak at once.

Across the highway is the garden center itself, where you can shop for plants, flowers, produce and garden supplies. They also grow cut flowers, including sunflowers.

Check the Green Barn sunflower field and current bloom status

After Green Barn, keep driving. The back roads surrounding Isanti are full of cornfields, farms and dirt roads — the rural Minnesota landscapes we came here to photograph.

6. If you’re staying overnight

Best Western Plus Isanti
409 Main Street E
Isanti, MN 55040
763-452-0520

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Isanti, the major hotel in town and a convenient base for exploring both downtown and the surrounding countryside.

It has 60 rooms and 12 suites, an indoor pool and hot tub, complimentary breakfast and free parking. And it’s right around the corner from the VFW (best lunch in town) and Main Street.

Best Western Plus Isanti official website

Hotel manager Katie Hinrichs described Isanti perfectly when we talked: it’s rural, but it’s close to pretty much everything. Minneapolis is roughly 45 minutes away, while Duluth is about 90 minutes north.

How I’d spend a day in Isanti

Come up from Minneapolis in the morning and begin with a walk around downtown. Stop at Isanti Retail Meats, explore the historic buildings and save an hour for the Old Chrysler Garage if it’s open.

After lunch, get in the car.

Drive the country roads outside town. Look for barns, cornfields, sunflowers and those little slices of rural Minnesota that you simply aren’t going to find back in Minneapolis.

That’s really the Isanti experience.

It isn’t about checking ten famous attractions off a list. It’s about slowing down and seeing a Minnesota small town that grew up around the railroad more than a century ago — and discovering how quickly the city gives way to the countryside.