Manomin County was a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

that existed separately for about one year from 1857 to 1858. The land shifted hands among three other counties for the next decade. When it was formed, it was the smallest county in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at roughly 18 square miles (47 km²). This land area currently makes up the unusual southward extension of

Anoka County Anoka County ( ) is the fourth-most-populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 363,887. The county seat and namesake of the county is the city of Anoka, which is derived from the Dakota word ''an ...

between Hennepin and

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...

counties. Manomin is a variant spelling of ''manoomin'', the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

word for

wild rice Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...

, a staple of their diet. A current Minnesota county, Mahnomen, carries on the name. The old county was created when it was split from Ramsey County, on May 23, 1857.History of the Upper Mississippi Valley, Winchell, Neil, Williams, and Bryant, Minneapolis : Minnesota Historical Co 1881 The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

was Manomin (present-day

Fridley Fridley is a city in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 29,590 at the 2020 census. Fridley was incorporated in 1949 as a village, and became a city in 1957. It is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area as ...

). It was disbanded in 1858 and administratively attached to St. Louis County, Minnesota. Two years later in 1860, it was attached to

. At the time, the area's population was 136. In 1863, it was attached to

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapol ...

, but it was finally merged into Anoka County and eliminated in 1869–1870.

References

* "AniMap Plus, 2.5; County Boundary Historical Atlas;" Alamo, California: The Gold Bug; (Compact Disc) * Forstall, Richard L., ed.; "Population of States and Counties of the United States 1790 to 1900;" Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1996. * Kane, Joseph N. and Charles C. Aiken; "The American Counties, 5th edition;" Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2005.
Minnesota Place Names

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

. {{coord, 45, 4, N, 93, 15, W, display=title Former counties of Minnesota Anoka County, Minnesota Hennepin County, Minnesota Ramsey County, Minnesota St. Louis County, Minnesota 1857 establishments in Minnesota Territory