Mahnomen

Formed December 27, 1906 (85^th county)

Mahnomen County (5,400), Mahnomen (1,244)

The red/brown brick Neo-Classical building was erected in 1910.  It is on Main, Washington, 1^st, and Birkett streets.  United States Highway 59 passes two blocks east.  It was enlarged and remodeled in 1975.  F. W. Kenney designed the courthouse.  Veteran memorials are on the grounds.  The county was created on December 27, 1906 from Norman County as the 85^th county with Mahnomen as the only county seat.  The county and county seat names are Native American for “wild rice.” 

Mahnomen 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.)  Twenty-two District Court Judges serve Mahnomen, Aitkin, Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau counties (judicial.) The county is in the northwest part of the state.  Minneapolis, Minnesota is southeast and Fargo, North Dakota is southwest of the county.  The county center is 12.4 miles Northeast of Mahnomen nearer Beaulieu.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Polk, Clearwater, Becker, and Norman counties. 

The area of the county is 556.1 square miles.  It is 61 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 82 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 9.7 persons per square mile making it 73 out of 87 in the state.  Mahnomen County has 32.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 59 goes north to south through the county from Polk County to Becker County.  The county is a square.  The City of Mahnomen is in the western quarter of the county.  Mahnomen is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 23.0% of the county population.  The county and county seat are pronounced MA-NA-MEN.