Editing Winona County, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[Image:Maiden Rock photo 01.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Winona (legend)|Maiden's Rock]], from which legend has it the Dakota maiden named Winona leapt to her death]][[File:Winona County History Center.jpg|thumb|[[Winona County History Center]]]]
The [[Wisconsin Territory]] was established by the federal government effective July 3, 1836, and existed until its eastern portion was granted statehood (as Wisconsin) in 1848. The federal government set up the Minnesota Territory effective March 3, 1849. The newly organized territorial legislature created nine counties across the territory in October of that year. One of those counties, [[Wabasha County, Minnesota|Wabasha]], had its southern section partitioned off on March 5, 1853, into a new county, [[Fillmore County, Minnesota|Fillmore]]. On February 23, 1854, the legislature partitioned the northern part of Fillmore County, plus a small section of Wabasha, to create Winona County, with the village of [[Winona, Minnesota|Winona]] as county seat.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Minnesota Place Names |url=http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/county.cfm |access-date=March 19, 2014 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}</ref> The county name was taken from the village name, which is said to derive from a [[Dakota people|Dakota]] legend about a woman, Winona (a relative of Chief [[Wabasha]]), who was betrothed to a warrior she did not love. Rather than marry him, she jumped to her death from a rock on [[Lake Pepin]] now called "Maiden's Rock".<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 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n598 581]–4}}</ref> This is known as the [[Winona (legend)|Winona legend]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Porter |first=Cynthya |date=February 1, 2009 |title=Homecoming To Explore Roles Of American Indian Women |url=http://diversityfoundation.org/HomecomingToExploreRoles.html |access-date=October 21, 2015 |publisher=[[Winona Daily News]] (reprinted at Diversity Foundation)}}</ref>

The county boundaries have not changed since 1854.