Editing Nobles County, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[Image:1874 map of Nobles County, MN.jpg|thumb|left|1874 map of Nobles County - Note that six townships had yet to be named]]
Nobles County was first occupied by the [[Sisseton Sioux]]. The first white man to set foot on the land was [[Joseph Nicolas Nicollet|Joseph Nicollet]] who came to map out the area in 1842. Nicollet named [[Lake Okabena]] (there were two Lake Okabenas at the time), [[Lake Ocheda, Minnesota|Lake Ocheda]], [[Graham Lakes, Minnesota|East and West Graham Lake]] and the Kanaranzi Creek.

The first settlement was near [[Graham Lakes Township, Nobles County, Minnesota|Graham Lakes]] in 1846. Nobles County was established May 23, 1857, and organized October 27, 1870.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Minnesota Place Names |url=http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/county.cfm?SendingPage=Region.cfm&county=53 |access-date=March 18, 2014 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}</ref> The county was named for [[William H. Nobles]], a member of the Minnesota territorial legislature in 1854 and 1856. In Autumn 1856 he began the construction of a wagon road for the US government, crossing southwestern Minnesota and Nobles County, to extend from [[Fort Ridgely]] to [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]] in the Rocky Mountains. This work was continued in 1857 but was not completed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Warren Upham's Minnesota Places: A Geographical Encyclopedia |url=http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070620200046/http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/index.cfm |archive-date=June 20, 2007 |access-date=October 10, 2018}}</ref> Nobles County was created by the Minnesota Territory legislature just before the full force of the [[Panic of 1857]] was felt. Settlers were further discouraged from coming by the [[Spirit Lake Massacre]] of 1857, where a band of Sioux murdered settlers in [[Spirit Lake, Iowa|Spirit Lake]] and along the Des Moines River in [[Jackson County, Minnesota|Jackson]] and [[Cottonwood County, Minnesota|Cottonwood]] Counties. The few whites in the area were understandably reluctant to stay.

[[File:ArmoryWorthingtonMN.jpg|alt=Exterior of the Nobles County Heritage Center|thumb|left|[[Nobles County Heritage Center]]]]
During the summer of 1867, a mail route was established from [[Blue Earth, Minnesota|Blue Earth]] through the [[Graham Lakes Township, Nobles County, Minnesota|Graham Lakes]] settlement to [[Yankton, South Dakota]]. In January, a Post Office was established in each settlement. The population in the spring of 1870 was 117 and nearly doubled by fall. County Government did not start until 1870. The first railroad, the St. Paul & Sioux City Railway, was built in 1871. This later became the [[Chicago and North Western Railroad|Chicago Northwestern Railroad]] and is now operated by the [[Union Pacific Railroad]].

In 1871, a group of men from [[Toledo, Ohio]] organized a company to locate a colony of settlers in some western county. After traveling 20,000 miles in the Midwest, they decided on Nobles County and by the spring of 1872, hundreds of people came in and took up land. [[Worthington, Minnesota|Worthington]] was platted in 1871,<ref name="Upham">[https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA421 Upham, Warren. ''Minnesota Geographic Names, pp. 376-79''. Accessed March 17, 2019]</ref> and became the county seat in 1873. The Worthington & Sioux Falls Railway was established in 1876. This led to rapid settlement in [[Rushmore, Minnesota|Rushmore]], [[Adrian, Minnesota|Adrian]], and the western portions of the county.

The 1860 census of Nobles County showed 11 families, 35 persons, (3 from [[Norway]], 3 from [[Bavaria]], 1 from [[Ireland]] and the rest from the eastern states).<ref>[https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/population/1860a-21.pdf?# United States Census Bureau: 1860 Census (accessed March 17, 2019)]</ref> In 1880, the population was 4,435. In 1895, the population was 11,905, and in 1970, the population was up to 23,208. In 2000, the population was 20,832, and the 2010 census showed a population of 21,378.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nobles County History - Nobles County, Minnesota |url=http://www.co.nobles.mn.us/Home/History.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110111232600/http://www.co.nobles.mn.us/Home/History.aspx |archive-date=January 11, 2011 |access-date=June 11, 2010}} Nobles County Government Website</ref>