Balaton, Minnesota Balaton, Minnesota Balaton is a city in Lyon County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 643 at the 2010 census. Balaton was platted in 1879 by the railroad. It was named after Lake Balaton, in Hungary. A post office has been in operation at Balaton since 1879. Balaton was incorporated in 1882. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 643 people, 273 households, and 168 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were
Lake Balaton the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by "Phylloxera" attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes. In Hungarian, the lake is known simply as "Balaton". It was called "lacus Pelsodis" or "Pelso" by the Romans. The name is Indo-European in origin (cf. Czech "pleso" ‘sinkhole, deep end of a lake’), later replaced by the Slavic *"bolto" (Czech "bláto", Slovak "blato", Polish "błoto") meaning 'mud, swamp' (from earlier Proto-Slavic "boltьno", , ). Slavic prince Pribina began to build in January 846 a fortress as his seat of power and several churches in