Mower

Formed February 20, 1855 (25^th county)

Mower County (40,034), Austin (26,178)

The Modern masonry and concrete courthouse was built in 1953 and remodeled in 1997.  The courthouse is at 1^st Avenue, 1^st Street, 2^nd Avenue, and Main Street.  Interstate Highway 90 Business is one block to the south of the courthouse.  Liebenberg, Kaplan, and Glotter are the courthouse architects.  It was enlarged in 1966 and 1975.  A Justice Center was added in 2010.  An 1869 and the classic 1894 courthouses preceded the current one.  The county was established on February 20, 1855 from Rice County as the 25^th county with Austin as the only county seat.  The county is named for Legislator John Edward Mower.  The county seat is named for settler Austin Nichols. 

Mower 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-seven District Court Judges serve Mower, Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Houston, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha, Waseca, and Winona counties (judicial.) The county is on the southern border of the state across the border from Iowa.  Minneapolis, Minnesota is north of the county.  The county center is 17.2 miles East of Austin nearer Elkton.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Dodge, Olmsted, and Fillmore counties and Iowa and Freeborn counties. 

The area of the county is 711.5 square miles.  It is 39 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 26 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 56.3 persons per square mile making it 26 out of 87 in the state.  Mower County has 79.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 90 goes northeast to west in the county from Olmsted County to Freeborn County.  United States Highway 63 clips the northeast corner of the county from Olmsted County, north, to Fillmore County, east.  United States Highway 218 travels north to south from Steele County to Iowa.  The county is an overall rectangle.  Austin is near the western border of the county.  Austin is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 65.4% of the county population.  This county is in the Austin Micropolitan Statistical Area.