Goodhue

Formed March 5, 1853 (12^th county)

Goodhue County (47,580), Red Wing (16,540)

The 1932 Modern masonry building was augmented in 1999 by a Justice Center.  The facility is on 6^th, West, 5^th, and East streets.  United States Highway 61 is three blocks to the northwest.  Buechner & Orth and E. D. Corwin are the architects.  Veterans memorials are on the grounds.  The county was founded on March 5, 1853 from parts of Wabasha and Dakota counties as the 12^th county.  There was an 1859 courthouse earlier in Red Wing, the only county seat.  The county is named for newspaper editor James Madison Goodhue.  The county seat is named for the Native American chief. 

The area of the county is 758.3 square miles.  It is 31 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 20 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 62.8 persons per square mile making it 23 out of 87 in the state.  Goodhue County has 69.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 52 travels northwest to southeast in the county from Dakota County to Olmsted County.  United States Highway 61 crosses northwest to southeast from Dakota County to Wabasha County.  United States Highway 63 goes north to south from Wisconsin to Wabasha County.  The county looks like a small letter r.  Red Wing is located on the northeast border of the county.  Red Wing is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 34.8% of the county population.  It has a density of 59.21 persons per square mile making it 21 out of 87 in the state. 

Goodhue 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 Goodhue, Carver, Dakota, Le Sueur, McLeod, Scott, and Sibley counties (judicial.) Goodhue County is in southeast Minnesota on the border with Wisconsin.  Minneapolis, Minnesota is northwest of the county.  The county center is 13.6 miles Southwest of Red Wing nearer Goodhue.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Wisconsin and Wabasha, Olmsted, Dodge, Steele, Rice, and Dakota counties.  This county is in the Red Wing Micropolitan Statistical Area.

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