Roseau

Formed December 31, 1894 (81^st county)

Roseau County (15,323), Roseau (2,746)

The Modern 1996 brown brick structure is at the intersection of 5^th Avenue and 6^th Street.  Minnesota State Highway 89 is 5^th Avenue in the town.  Thomas & Vecchi are the architects.  The facility has a working clock on the front.  There were 1894 and 1913 courthouses earlier in Roseau, the only county seat.  The county was created on December 31, 1894 from parts of Kittson and Beltrami counties as the 81^st county.  The county and county seat are named for the lake and river. 

Roseau 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 Roseau, Aitkin, Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, and Red Lake counties (judicial.) Roseau County is on the northern border of Minnesota.  Canada is its northern border.  Grand Forks, North Dakota is southwest of the county.  The county center is 4.6 miles South of Roseau.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Canada and Lake of the Woods, Beltrami, Marshall, and Kittson counties. 

The area of the county is 1662.5 square miles.  It is 11 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 55 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 9.2 persons per square mile making it 74 out of 87 in the state.  Roseau County has 38.3% of its population in its incorporated areas.  There are no Interstates or United States Highways in the county.  The county is shaped like a square pig.  The City of Roseau is located in the northern third of the county.  Roseau is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 17.9% of the county population.  The county and county seat are pronounced RO-SOE.