Red Lake County, Minnesota
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Red Lake County Facts

Red Lake County was created on December 24, 1896 (Organized in 1897) from Polk County. The County Seat is Red Lake Falls. The County was named for Red Lake River. Red Lake is the translation of the Ojibway name for this geographic feature, so named because of the color of the lake at sunset.

Counties adjacent to Red Lake County are Pennington County (north), Polk County (east, south, and west). Cities and Towns Include Brooks, Oklee, Plummer, Red Lake Falls. Townships Include Browns Creek, Emardville, Equality, Garnes, Gervais, Lake Pleasant, Lambert, Louisville, Poplar River, Red Lake Falls, River, Terrebonne, Wylie Townships. See also County History and County Courthouse for more details.

The Red Lake County Official Government Website
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Minnesota County History Name Index: This database is a name index of eleven county histories and plat books for the area immediately south of the city of St. Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Researchers will find the name of the county resident, the book in which the person's name appears, and the page number. Where information is available, town of residence is also given.
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Records at the Red Lake County Courthouse
See Also Minnesota Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ FIRST!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information. In April 1909, the original wooden courthouse burned to the ground. No records were destroyed

All Departments below can be contacted by clicking the link, by contacting the Phone number below for each department or contacting the County Courthouse at 124 Langevin Avenue, Red Lake Falls, MN 56750; Phone: (218) 253-2598. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Red Lake County Recorder's Office has Birth Records from 1897, Marriage Records from 1897, Death Records from 1897 and Land Records from 1873.

The Recorders Office is responsible for all the real estate records for properties located in the County. Permanent records of deeds, mortgages and other various real estate records are recorded/filed in this office. As Local Registrar, the office protects and issues certified copies of Birth and Death records, Marriage Certificates & Military Discharge Records.

Red Lake County Court Administrator's Office has Probate Records from 1897 and has Court Records from 1897.

The Court Administrator's Office maintains court files for Civil, Criminal, Traffic, Probate, Conciliation, Juvenile, Tax and Family Court matters.

Below is a list of online resources for Red Lake County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Red Lake County Court Records by clicking the link below:

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Minnesota Naturalization Records Index, 1854-1957: An index to the microfilmed Minnesota Naturalization Records

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

Minnesota Land Records: This database contains information on Minnesota (U.S.A.) land records. The database comes from the Bureau of Land Management's Minnesota Pre-1908 Homestaed and Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. Information recorded in the collection includes patentee name, land office, legal description, etc.

Red Lake County, Minnesota Court Books at Amazon.com

Court, Land, Wills & Financial - Court records are an often overlooked, yet very valuable tool for finding information to assist you in your research. Land records, such as deeds, allow you to tie an ancestor to a specific place at a point in time. Other court records like those dealing with finances and estates often list related family members or give interesting details like the total value of property owned by your ancestors to add interest to your family history.

Immigration & Emigration - As our ancestors moved from one country to another, details about their lives were recorded on passenger lists and government documents. Immigration and emigration records can help you learn where your ancestors originally came from, where they went, when they left, who they traveled with, and more.

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Red Lake County Tax Records

Red Lake County Vital Records

Red Lake County Census Records

Red Lake County Maps & Atlases

Red Lake County Military Records

Red Lake County Genealogical Addresses

Red Lake County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Red Lake County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Red Lake County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Red Lake County, Minnesota Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

Minnesota County History Name Index: This database is a name index of eleven county histories and plat books for the area immediately south of the city of St. Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Researchers will find the name of the county resident, the book in which the person's name appears, and the page number. Where information is available, town of residence is also given.
Minnesota Crew Lists, 1929-1952: For several decades in the early half of the twentieth century, Two Harbors, Minnesota was one of the busiest iron ore loading ports in the world. This database is an index to the crew lists (NOT passenger lists) of vessels that arrived at Two Harbors,

Red Lake County, tho not one of the greatest in the State, either in square miles, or population, has had an eventful and interesting existence. Born in strife through a long county division fight with the parent county of Polk, it has since lived through a county seat fight lasting five years, and a later county division fight which left it full of fighting determination, but somewhat reduced in territory.

Prior to its organization, the territory now comprising Red Lake was a part of its present neighbor, Polk County. Polk, organized about 1858, originally spread over 7,000 square miles of the Red River and adjacent valleys, but the legislature chipped off pieces here and there to form other counties, until in 1882, Polk was left with the territory now contained in Polk, Red Lake and Pennington Counties - still 3,160 miles, equaling the States of Delaware and Rhode Island.

In the latter part of the '80's the good people of Red Lake Falls, ambitious to have their village become a county seat, organized a committee to effect that purpose through the creation of a new county of Red Lake, proposed to be carved out of the central portion of Polk County. This was strenuously opposed by the citizens of Crookston, county seat of Polk, and a series of battles ensued in legislature, courts and elections, lasting ten years, finally terminating with the general election of 1896, at which time not merely one, but five propositions to create new counties out of Polk County, were submitted to the voters, and as if this were not enough to create confusion, these proposed new counties overlapped each other, and each voter could vote only for or against one county.

At the election, three of the new counties - Red Lake, Mills and Columbia, each received a majority of the votes for its creation. But the territory of these three counties overlapped, and each provided for a different county seat, and different county commissioners. They were all winners, but which one was the real winner?

The puzzle Was solved by Governor Clough, who refused to issue a proclamation recognizing Mills and Columbia Counties, and instead, on Christmas Eve, 1896, did issue his proclamation declaring Red Lake County as a duly organized and existing county seat of the State. His decision was subsequently upheld by the courts. And to the good people of Red Lake were given the unique and exclusive distinction of having received their county as a Christmas present.

At the time of its organization, two railroads traversed the county - the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern. A few years later the Soo Line built in from south and east, cutting through the east end of that ambitious city to more than double its population, and inspired its inhabitants with the desire for a county seat of their very own. A petition was circulated and liberally signed, asking the calling of an election to change the county seat from Red Lake Falls to Thief River Falls. A hot fight ensued which lasted five years, and although Thief River Falls had the greater support, and undoubtedly the most voters, Red Lake Falls had the greater fighting experience attained through its previous battling, and managed to stall off an election, until finally just before it was to be submitted to a vote, the county seat petition itself, mysteriously disappeared from the files, and has never since been heard of. Then the Supreme Court decided it was lost and could not be acted on.

Discouraged with their failure to move the county seat, the partisans of Thief River Falls decided to take their town out of Red Lake County, and to that end instituted proceedings to divide Red Lake County, leaving the southern half with Red Lake . Falls, and organizing the north half as Pennington County, with Thief River Falls as its county seat. After a long and bitter fight, this plan succeeded, and in 1910, Red Lake was cut in two and attained its present size and proportions.

Located in the heart of the famous Red River Valley the County has fertile soil, level prairie lands varied with wooden streams. Two principal rivers cross it, the Red Lake River, flowing down from the great Red Lakes to its junction with the Red River of the North, and the Clearwater River which joins the other at Red Lake Falls. Both streams are well stocked with fish; and in past years deer, prairie chickens, grouse and pheasants were plentiful in woods and prairies.

When the Soo Line built into the County about 1905, two more villages were established on its course; Oklee in the eastern end, and Plummer, near the center. Both are growing, thriving communities, surrounded by fertile lands and enterprising farmers.

Oklee was named after O. K. Lee, a townsite promoter who donated his name. Prominent among its pioneer citizens who have helped build up the town are A. P. Toupin, Dr. W. B. Torgerson, Melby Brothers, Peter Bergeron, Emil R. Sandeen, Frank Cyr, and J. O. Melby who has served many terms in the State Legislature. It is interesting to note that members of two families who occupied nearby farms, Pat Short, and one of the Sail brothers, joined the great "Gold Rush," in Alaska in 1898, endured its hardships, and made lucky strikes. The gold they dug from the frozen earth, was subsequently brought back to help build up Red Lake County, but young Sail died in Alaska.

Plummer, located on the Soo Line, and on Trunk Highway 59, is also traversed by the Clearwater River. Indeed it received its name from Plummer Dam, a dam built many years ago on the river, by a man named Plummer, who has since disappeared, leaving only his namesake dam, and that too, has now disintegrated. The village, built at the junction of the eastbound and southbound Soo Lines, is enterprising and up-to-date. Prominent among its pioneers are J. W. Pahlen, E. B. Andrew Gunderson and James Ford.

The territory now within the county lines was originally settled in the '60's and '70"s, mostly by French Canadians from eastern Ontario. Following the old Pembina Trail, then practically the only line of communication between the fur buyers of St. Paul and the trappers of the Hudson Bay county in Canada, these hardy pioneers, with their families and scant household goods loaded on creaking slow moving wooden wheeled Red River Carts, generally drawn by oxen, wended their way through hostile Indian country to the free lands of the great northwest. No hardship was too great for them to endure. Dropping off the trail here and there as they found land suitable to their needs, many of them settled in what is now Red Lake County, and took up Government Homesteads. Some of these parties were guided to this locality by Pierre Bottineau, a famous scout of French and Indian blood, well known over the whole northwest territory. He had been the original owner of Nicollet Island, in the Mississippi River at Minneapolis, (now worth a king's ransom) but he loved the wild life and the open trail too well to settle down there, tho it is told of him that in his palmy days of scouting he frequently lit his pipe with ten dollar bills. Many times he followed the Pembina trails into Canada, but when old age slowed his activities he settled with his family at Red Lake Falls, and became, and remained, until his death there, one of its most honored citizens.

The west end of the county was originally settled largely by French Canadians, and the east end by both Scandinavians and French, but as the county developed, other nationalities came in, and many of the old settlers moved further west, where more primitive conditions appealed to these natural pioneers, so that at the present time, the French, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, English and plain American nationalities are well represented.

Noted early settlers in the territory of Red Lake County, who contributed bountifully to its future, were Carl Kretzschmar, Otto Kankel and Ernest Buse, who built the first mills on the rivers, and laid out the town-sites; Father Champagne whose clerical-business mind, not only built up the Church, but was actively engaged in planning the townsite; Pierre Bottineau, the scout mentioned elsewhere herein; Pierre Emard, who came here with earliest settlers, bringing his family and nothing else, settled down in a wilderness of brush and timber, and with only his hands and determination, turned it into a beautiful homestead; Dr. I. Lemieux, pioneer doctor in a wilderness without roads or means of transportation, who for fifty years administered aid to his people, through rain, shine or deep snow, under conditions which would appall the modern practitioner. And many others, faithfully in their way and day, who did their bit, and yet whose names are now forgotten, and whose praises are unsung.

County Courthouse

Though Red Lake Falls was the natural choice for the county seat in the 1890s, the 1905 Soo Line railroad that was built through Thief River Falls and the discussion of building a permanent courthouse led to a long a bitter fight for county headquarters. Finally, suspected arson brought the issue to a head. In April 1909, the original wooden courthouse burned to the ground as the fire brigade arrived suspiciously late. A vote on the new building was taken before an election could change the Red Lake majority on the board of commissioners. The final vote occurred in February 1910. The courthouse was completed on donated land in 1911 at a cost of $37,070.

The Beaux Arts style building was designed by Fremont D. Orff. Each of the four corner pavilions of the brick structure has its own small drum and dome. A large central dome, seen in the photo above, was removed in the 1940s leaving the square balustered platform. The only other major change since the Building's construction was the removal of the attached jail. Tri-County Community Corrections at Crookston currently serves Red Lake County.

The main entrance of the courthouse is topped by a classic pediment and entablature. Inside, a two-story central rotunda has arched openings onto the second level's circling hallway. Scenic murals once decorated the triangular spaces forming the base of the closed-off dome.

Red Lake County, Minnesota
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Red Lake County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Red Lake County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Minnesota

Red Lake County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Minnesota

Red Lake County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Red Lake County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Minnesota

Red Lake County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Minnesota Genealogical Addresses

Red Lake County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Minnesota

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Red Lake County, Minnesota History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Red Lake County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Red Lake County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Minnesota

Red Lake County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Minnesota

Red Lake County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Red Lake County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Minnesota

Red Lake County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Minnesota Genealogical Addresses

Red Lake County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Minnesota

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Red Lake County, Minnesota
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy