Watonwan County, Minnesota

In 1849, the new territorial legislature of the recently organized Minnesota Territory authorized the creation of nine large counties across the Territory. Four years later, in 1853, one of those original counties of Dakota, had a large area separated and partitioned off to create Blue Earth County. Only two years later, by 1855, the western part of Blue Earth was then partitioned to create Brown County. Five years later, on February 25, 1860, the southern part of Brown was partitioned to create the county of Watanwan, with the town of Madelia as the original designated county seat. The county was named for its eponymous river (Watonwan River, which flows into the Blue Earth River, then the Minnesota River, then eventually into the "Father of Waters" - the Mississippi River, which drains the entire middle of the North American continent), whose name reflects the Dakota native word "watanwan," meaning "fish bait" or "plenty of fish."^[4] The word first appears in the modern written record on an 1843 map of the area so naming the river.

In 1869, the first European white settlers arrived in the area of the future town of Saint James, and the area began growing. In 1870, an extension of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railway was terminated at the village, and railway officials decided to name the terminus Saint James. By 1878, that town had grown to the extent that a vote was taken in the county to move the county seat and courthouse there from Madelia.^[5]

The terrain of Watonwan County consists of low, rolling hills carved by drainages and dotted with lakes and ponds. The area is completely devoted to agriculture where possible.^[7] The terrain slopes to the north and east, with its highest point near its southwest corner, at 1,293 ft (394 m) ASL.^[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 439.730 square miles (1,138.90 km²), of which 434.947 square miles (1,126.51 km²) is land and 4.783 square miles (12.39 km²), or 1.1%, is water.^[9] The county is drained by the Watonwan River and its tributaries; the river flows eastward through the northern part of the county.^[10]

More information Census, Pop. ...

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1870	2,426		—
1880	5,104		110.4%
1890	7,746		51.8%
1900	11,496		48.4%
1910	11,332		−1.4%
1920	12,457		9.9%
1930	12,802		2.8%
1940	13,902		8.6%
1950	13,881		−0.2%
1960	14,460		4.2%
1970	13,298		−8.0%
1980	12,361		−7.0%
1990	11,682		−5.5%
2000	11,876		1.7%
2010	11,211		−5.6%
2020	11,253		0.4%
2024 (est.)	11,204	[11]	−0.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[12] 1790–1960[13] 1900–1990[14] 1990–2000[15] 2010–2020[2]

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As of the third quarter of 2024, the median home value in Watonwan County was $162,740.^[16]

As of the 2023 American Community Survey, there are 4,314 estimated households in Watonwan County with an average of 2.55 persons per household. The county has a median household income of $70,593. Approximately 10.0% of the county's population lives at or below the poverty line. Watonwan County has an estimated 65.4% employment rate, with 18.2% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 88.4% holding a high school diploma.^[17]

The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (76.6%), Spanish (22.8%), Indo-European (0.3%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.3%), and Other (0.0%).

The median age in the county was 40.6 years.

Watonwan County, Minnesota – racial and ethnic composition
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.

Watonwan County has had its county seat and site of the Watonwan County Courthouse in the town of St. James since 1878, when it was moved from nearby Madelia where it had been located since the partition of the county from Brown County. Watowan's public citizenry of voters have tended to vote for the Republican Party; in two-thirds of the past 11 presidential elections years since 1980, the majority of county voters had selected the Republican Party's presidential and vice presidential nominees (as of 2020). But there are active party organizations and groups for both Republican, Democratic-Farmer-Labor and independent unaffiliated voting citizens of both conservative and liberal / progressive views.

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Watonwan County, Minnesota