Nerstrand (/ˈnɪərstʃrænd/ NEER-schrand)[4] is a city in Rice County, Minnesota, United States.

In 1856, Norwegian immigrant Osmund Osmundson moved to Wheeling Township in Rice County.

In 1885 the Minnesota and North Western Railroad (later the Chicago Great Western Railway) was constructed, extending from Lyle, Minnesota to St. Paul, and Osmundson platted the town on the line, naming it after his hometown of Nedstrand in Tysvær, Norway.

[6] The town was the center of a significant Norwegian immigrant community, which included people in the surrounding township and county.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.417 square miles (3.67 km2), all land.

[12] The town was notorious for the nearby Nerstrand Hill, bane of the locomotive engineer, with the steepest grade on the line from St. Paul to Manly Junction, Iowa.

The business district declined with the advent of the automobile, with most area residents choosing to shop in Northfield, which has always been more prominent because of its two colleges, or Faribault, the county seat.

As businesses left, Nerstrand became more of a bedroom community for people working in Northfield, Faribault, or Kenyon.

A few nonretail businesses, including a cabinet shop and two specialty construction firms, have come to the community, occupying what would otherwise be vacant storefronts.

Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), usually characterized as an economist or sociologist, and best known for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (ISBN 0-14-018795-2), lived about a mile northeast of town.

The Thorstein Veblen Farmstead was renovated in 1994 as a historic site and is occasionally open to the public.