Traverse

Formed February 20, 1862 (67^th county)

Traverse County (3,366), Wheaton (1,456)

A brown brick Romanesque courthouse was erected in 1892 and remodeled and enlarged in 1919 and 1974.  The facility is on 2^nd Avenue between 7^th and 8^th streets.  United States Highway 75 passes two blocks to the east of the site.  Harry W. Jones is the architect.  Veteran memorials are on the grounds.  Traverse County was established on February 20, 1862 from Pierce County, which no longer exists, and Native American Territory as the 67^th county.  The county is named for Lake Traverse which is Native American for “lake lying crosswise.”  The county seat is named for surveyor Daniel Thomas Wheaton.  Browns Valley (1862 & 1884), Maudada (1882), and Wheaton (1889) have all been the county seat. 

The area of the county is 574.1 square miles.  It is 56 out of 87 in the state.  It ranks 87 out of 87 in population in the state.  It has a density of 5.9 persons per square mile making it 81 out of 87 in the state.  Traverse County has 64.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 75 travels through the county north to south from Wilkin County to Big Stone County.  The county looks like a boot.  Wheaton is geographically located near the center of the county.  Wheaton is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 43.3% of the county population.

Traverse 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.)  Nine District Court Judges serve Traverse, Big Stone, Chippewa, Grant, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Meeker, Pope, Renville, Stevens, Swift, Wilkin, and Yellow Medicine counties (judicial.)  The county is on the western border of the state.  North Dakota and South Dakota form its western border.  Minneapolis, Minnesota is southeast of the county.  The county center is 6.6 miles East of Wheaton.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Wilkin, Grant, Stevens, and Big Stone counties and South Dakota and North Dakota.

Wheaton