Itasca County is taken from the Latin words for “truth” and ”head” as the Mississippi River passes through the county from Lake Itasca.
Surrounding County Courthouses:
S – Aitkin County
W – Cass County and Beltrami County
Created: October 27, 1849 
County Seat:
Grand Rapids 1849 – present
County Courthouse – Grand Rapids
Location: 123 NE 4th Street / NE 1st Avenue
Built: 1950 – 1951
Style: Modern
Architect: Jyring & Jurenes from Hibbing and A G Wahlberg
Contractor: H L Stavin Inc. of Hibbing
Description: The building faces south and is a block structure. The rectangular shaped building is located on landscaped grounds to the east of the center of Grand Rapids. The building is made from cream-colored Mankato stone neatly trimmed with Cold Spring rainbow granite. The building has three horizontal rows of windows. A central slightly recessed entrance is built with glass reaching three stories. In the interior are three County District Court courtrooms located on the third story. The building houses the County District Court of the 9th Judicial District. A floor was added in 1969 to the west end and two additional floors were built in 1978. Construction of a Law Enforcement Center and the remodeling of the existing jail, all connected to the courthouse, began in 1982. In 1984, the east wing was constructed. The architect was Architecture Resources, Inc. of Duluth and the contractor of Phase I was Building Constructors, Inc. of Minnetonka and Phase II was David N Volkman Construction, Inc. of Circle Pine. In 2022 to 2023, the Justice Center was constructed on the west side. The architect was Klein McCarthy Architects and the contractor was Contegrity Group Inc. The Justice Center will house three more courtrooms.
See: The architect Jyring and Jurenes of Hibbing also designed the courthouse in Saint Louis County – Hibbing.
See: The 9th Judicial District includes Aitkin County, Beltrami County, Cass County, Clearwater County, Crow Wing County, Hubbard County, Kittson County, Koochiching County, Lake of the Woods County, Mahnomen County, Marshall County, Norman County, Pennington County, Polk County, Red Lake County and Roseau County.
History: The county was created in 1849 and Grands Rapids was selected as the county seat. The county was attached to Morrison County for judicial purposes as there were few people living in the count. The first courthouse was a frame structure built in 1892. In 1894, the second courthouse was designed by Wangenstein & Baile and was built by George R King & Company at a cost of $46,704. The third and present courthouse was constructed in 1950 to 1951 at a cost of $840,000. The Justice Center was constructed in 2022 to 2023 at a cost of $75,000,000.
County Courthouse – Grand Rapids
County District Court courtroom
County Justice Center under construction 2022
Picture 1894 County Courthouse
Photos taken 2008, 2010, 2019 and 2022