Mahnomen County is named after the Ojibway word for wild rice whose root word is “mano” or “spirit”.
Surrounding County Courthouses:
N – Polk County
S – Becker County
W – Norman County
Created: December 27, 1906 
County Seat:
Mahnomen 1906 – present
County Courthouse – Mahnomen
Location: 311 North Main Street / Washington Avenue
Built: 1909 – 1910
Style: Neo-Classical
Architect: F W Kenney of Kenney & Halden of Minneapolis
Contractor: Carl Nelson and J O Schlind of Mahnomen
Description: The building faces east and is a two story red colored brick structure. The building is located on spacious landscaped grounds in the center of Mahnomen. The building is trimmed with limestone. The front side is three bays wide. The center forms a pavilion set out by brick pilasters that rise to a classic pediment. A cornice defines the top of the second story with a plain parapet rising above it. The roof line is flat. In the interior, the County District Court courtroom is located on the second story of the addition. The building houses the County District Court of the 9th Judicial District. In 1975, the building was remodeled and the original arched windows on the second floor were eliminated. An addition was also built on the west side in 1975. The architect was Genesis Architecture of Willmar.
See: National Register of Historic Places – Mahnomen County Courthouse
See: The 9th Judicial District includes Aitkin County, Beltrami County, Cass County, Clearwater County, Crow Wing County, Hubbard County, Itasca 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 1906 and Mahnomen was selected as the county seat. The first and present courthouse was constructed in 1909 to 1910 at a cost of $9,763. The cost for the construction of the addition in 1975 was $800,000.
County Courthouse – Mahnomen
County District Court courtroom
Photos taken 2007, 2008 and 2017