page_title: Otter Tail County, Minnesota
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Otter Tail County, Minnesota / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Tordenskjold Monument marks the location of the community of Tordenskjold, which was named the Otter Tail County seat in 1871. The town was never platted and it never became the county seat. There is nothing left of it now.
context_page_description: Otter Tail County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 57,303. Its county seat is Fergus Falls.
  Otter Tail County comprises the Fergus Falls Micropolitan Statistical Area.
context_section_description: Native Americans used the area for hunting and fishing and had permanent dwelling sites. Two Native American tribes were in constant conflict. The Dakota (Sioux) were being pushed from their home area by the Ojibwa (Chippewa) during the late 18th century and early 19th century. Burial mounds and artifacts can still be found. Some of the oldest Native American remains were found near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. The remains, nicknamed Minnesota Girl, were dated at about 11,000 B.C.
  The first white men to enter the county were French and British fur traders. Efforts were made to set up trading posts on the Leaf Lakes and Otter Tail Lake. In the late 19th century most of the towns were built along the railroad lines. Lumber and agriculture were the major industries in the county at that time. The pine and hardwood forests, transportation system, and markets were instrumental in the development of Fergus Falls into a lumber 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 original counties, Dakota, had a section partitioned off in 1851 to create Cass County. On March 18, 1858, the outgoing territorial legislature created Otter Tail County from areas partitioned from Cass and Pembina, another of the original counties created in 1849. The county was named for Otter Tail Lake and the Otter Tail River. The county was not organized in 1858, nor was a county seat specified. On September 12, 1868, the Minnesota legislature completed the county organization, and specified Otter Tail City as county seat.
  Otter Tail City began as a waystation on a fur-trade route between Saint Paul and the Red River valley. The settlement was of sufficient size that when the Minnesota Territory established a US Land Office for this part of the territory, the office was sited at Otter Tail City. Thus the city was named as the seat when the county was organized. But people had begun settling the future Fergus Falls area in 1857, and it grew sufficiently that in fall 1872 the vote was taken to move the county seat there. The Northern Pacific Railroad had initially planned to run a line through Otter Tail City, but complications caused the line to be placed in Fergus Falls, which precipitated the county seat move. The Soo Line later made plans to run a line through Otter Tail City, but when townspeople couldn't agree on the routing, another route east of the city was constructed. Thus a new city plat was generated, with the settlement name changing to Ottertail.
  In 1870, the population of the county was about 2,000. At that time the principal languages spoken in the county were Norwegian, Swedish, German, and English.
  The people of Fergus Falls organized a new county named Holcomb. In 1872, a legislative act abolished Holcomb County, added additional townships to the west, and established Fergus Falls as Otter Tail County's seat.
caption: Historic marker for Tordenskjold, which was made the county seat in 1870 by the Minnesota legislature, a decision rescinded the following year.
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