Isanti

Formed February 13, 1857 (39^th county)

Isanti County (41,133), Cambridge (9,620)                

The Modern red brick and stone courthouse was built in 1996 on 18^th Avenue near Dellwood Street.  Minnesota State Highway 65 is seven blocks to the east.  Buetow and Associates are the architects.  The county was created on February 13, 1857 from Ramsey County as the 39^th county.  The county is named for the Native American tribe.  The county seat is named for Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Cambridge has always been the county seat.  There was a basic courthouse dating from 1887 earlier.  The county looks like a capital letter L. 

Isanti 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.)  Forty-three District Court Judges serve Isanti, Anoka, Chisago, Kanabec, Pine, Sherburne, Washington, and Wright counties (judicial.) The county is in eastern Minnesota.  Minneapolis, Minnesota is south of the county.  The county center is 6.1 miles North-Northwest of Cambridge nearer Grandy.  Cambridge is south and east of center in the county.  Cambridge is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 23.4% of the county population.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Kanabec, Pine, Chisago, Anoka, Sherburne, and Mille Lacs counties. 

The area of the county is 439.1 square miles.  It is 75 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 25 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 93.7 persons per square mile making it 15 out of 87 in the state.  Isanti County has 44.3% of its population in its incorporated areas.  There are no Interstates or United States Highways in the county.  The county is pronounced I-SAN-TEE.  This county is in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area.