Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota: History
The name of the county is a French translation of the Dakota name, "Mde Iyedan," meaning "lake that speaks."
In 1862 the Minnesota legislature authorized creation of a county to be called Lac qui Parle on an area north of the Minnesota River. However, that initiative was not approved by the local voters affected, so the proposed county did not come into existence. Nine years later (March 6, 1871) the legislature authorized creation of the present Lac qui Parle County, south of the Minnesota River, and it was approved by local voters. The county seat was established at Lac qui Parle village.
In 1884 a settlement was platted at the railway stop in Madison Township (named for Madison, Wisconsin). The settlement, also named Madison, was incorporated in 1885, and in 1889 the county government was moved from Lac qui Parle village to this new town, which incorporated as a city in 1902.
In 1886, a county-wide election chose Madison as the county seat. 150 men and 40 teams of horses rode to Lac qui Parle village, where the town hall was at the time, and dragged the building to Madison.
A new county courthouse was built in Madison in 1899, and in 1903 the Madison City Hall was completed. A total of four fires swept the city's main area during the early years of the twentieth century, resulting in most wood structures in the area being replaced with brick buildings.
Until May 1965, when county option was eliminated, Lac qui Parle was a dry county; no beverages with over 3.2% alcohol could be sold.
A March 2011 study by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked this as Minnesota's healthiest county.
The county reached its peak population of 15,554 in 1920. However, the county seat continued its population growth until 1960, when 2,380 residents were counted.