Carver

Formed February 20, 1855 (21^st county)

Carver County (106,914), Chaska (27,810)                

The tan brick and concrete Modern courthouse was built in 1963 and augmented in 1994 with a Justice Center.  Carver County was organized on February 20, 1855 from parts of Hennepin and Sibley counties as the 21^st county.  Chaska, the only county seat, also had an 1872 courthouse.  The current courthouse sits at 4^th and Beech streets.  United States Highway 212 is seven blocks to the northwest of the site.  Stegner/Hendrickson/McNutt and Ericksen/Ellison Associates combined on the designs.  The county is named for explorer Jonathan Carver.  The county seat’s name is Native American for “name given to first born child.” 

Carver County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a treasurer, an auditor, an assessor and a clerk (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Thirty-nine District Court Judges serve Carver, Dakota, Goodhue, Le Sueur, McLeod, Scott, and Sibley counties (judicial.) The county is situated in northeast Minnesota.  The county is in south central Minnesota directly southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The Minnesota River forms its southeast border.  The county center is 11 miles West-Northwest of Chaska in Waconia.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Hennepin, Scott, Sibley, McLeod, and Wright counties. 

The area of the county is 357.0 square miles.  It is 85 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 11 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 299.5 persons per square mile making it 7 out of 87 in the state.  Carver County has 90.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 212 crosses the southern part of the county from east to west from Scott County to McLeod County.  The county looks like a chair.  Chaska is located on the eastern border of the county.  Chaska is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 26.0% of the county population.  The county seat is pronounced CHAS-KA.  This county is in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area.