Editing Cook County, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[Ojibwe people]] were early inhabitants of this area. The first non-indigenous people to explore the area were French fur traders, a few of whom settled in the area. By the 1830s, the French population was a few dozen. In the 1830s, settlers began arriving from [[New England]] and from upstate [[New York (state)|New York]]. The completion of the [[Erie Canal]] (1825) and the settling of the [[Black Hawk War]] (1831) made migration easier.

Most of Cook County's 1830s settlers came from [[Orange County, Vermont]] and [[Down East|Down East Maine]] (modern day [[Washington County, Maine|Washington County]] and [[Hancock County, Maine|Hancock County]]). Most were fishermen and farmers. By 1845 the future Cook County contained 350 people of European descent; by 1874 there were about 2,000. They were primarily members of the [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]], [[Methodist]], and [[Baptist]] churches. By 1900 there were about 3,000 people in Cook County.

The first decade of the 20th century saw a large influx of Europeans from Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland. These waves introduced [[Lutheranism]] and [[Catholicism]] to Cook County.

The county was created on March 9, 1874.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Minnesota Place Names |url=http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/county.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620201420/http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/county.cfm |archive-date=June 20, 2012 |access-date=March 17, 2014 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}</ref> It was named for Territorial and State Senator Michael Cook.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Upham |first=Warren |url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog |title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |year=1920 |page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n154 135]}}</ref>