t. Louis County: Named for the St. Louis River, the largest river flowing into Lake Superior. It is the largest county in the state. Est. March 3, 1855, and March 1, 1856.

Scott County: Named for General Winfield Scott, who served in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and, for 20 years, was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army. Est. March 5, 1853.

Sherburne County: Named for Moses Sherburne, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Minnesota Territory. Est. Feb. 25, 1856.

Sibley County: Named in honor of General Henry Hastings Sibley, an early pioneer, governor, and military defender of the state. Sibley was the first governor of Minnesota. Est. March 5, 1853.

Stearns County: Named after Charles Thomas Stearns by mistake. The county was to be named after Isaac Ingalls Stevens, but a clerical error changed the name to Stearns. The Legislature decided Stearns was worthy of the honor, and another county was later named after Stevens. Est. Feb. 20, 1855.

Steele County: Named after Franklin Steele, a prominent pioneer of Minneapolis. The Legislature elected Steele to the first Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota. Est. Feb. 20, 1855.

Stevens County: Named after Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who commanded a surveying expedition for a Pacific railroad. An earlier attempt to name a county in his honor failed due to a clerical mistake in the Legislature. Est. Feb. 20, 1862.

Swift County: Named for Henry Adoniram Swift, governor of Minnesota in 1863. Elected lieutenant governor, he succeeded to the governorship when Governor Alexander Ramsey resigned to take a U.S. Senate seat. Est. Feb. 18, 1870.

odd County: Named in honor of John Blair Smith Todd, commander of Fort Ripley from 1849 - 56. He was a veteran of the
Seminole and Mexican wars and later became a trader. Est. Feb. 20, 1855.

Traverse County: This county’s name comes from Lake Traverse which lies "transverse" to Big Stone and Lac qui Parle lakes. The name comes from a Dakota word meaning "lake lying crosswise." Est. Feb. 20, 1862.

abasha County: Named after three successive chiefs of Mississippi bands of Dakota Indians. Est. Oct. 27, 1849.

Wadena County: Received its name from an old trading post. It stems from an Ojibway word meaning "a little round hill." It’s also a common Ojibway name. Est. June 11, 1858.

Waseca County: Named for the Dakota word meaning "rich," a reference to the fertile soil in the area. Est. Feb. 27, 1857.

Washington County: Named in honor of George Washington, a founding father and first president of the United States. Est. Oct. 27, 1849.

Watonwan County: Taken from the Dakota word, "watanwan," meaning "fish bait," or "where fish bait abounds." Est. Feb. 25, 1860.

Wilkin County: Named, for the third time, after Colonel Alexander Wilkin, a lawyer who served as Minnesota’s U.S. marshal and was later killed in the Civil War. Earlier, it was named for a U.S. senator from Georgia who later became the Confederacy’s secretary of state; then, for Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Neither of them were acceptable to county residents, so they petitioned the Legislature to change the name to Wilkin. Est. March 6, 1868.

Winona County: Named in honor of Winona, a female cousin of Wabasha, who was the last of three successive chiefs of the Mississippi band of Dakota with that name. Winona, in the Dakota language, means "first-born female." Est. Feb. 23, 1854.

Wright County: In a compromise, this county was named after Silas Wright, a New York statesman. The delegation traveling to St. Paul to propose the establishment of the county was unable to agree on a name. A member of the delegation, who was a friend of Wright, proposed Wright’s name for the county; the delegation agreed. Est. Feb. 20, 1855.

ellow Medicine County: Named after the Yellow Medicine River that crosses the county. Yellow Medicine stems from the Dakota word, "pajutazee," for the long, yellow grasses that are abundant in this region. Est. March 6, 1871.