Talk:Polk County, Minnesota

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Is Polk county really considered to be part of the "greater Grand Forks metropolitan area"? It abuts with Grand Forks, but you are out of any kind of metropolitan area within just a few miles. It's also a wide county, and towards the east end, you're close to Bemidji than to Grand Forks.--RLent 18:52, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, Polk County and Grand Forks County make up the federal government defined "Grand Forks Metropolitan Statistical Area" (MSA). --Matth e w UND (talk) 22:50, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

the shape on the map
No mention of why Polk County looks so odd. The area's historical society once mentioned this. Briefly, per Pennington County, Minnesota: Something similar could be mentioned in Red Lake County, Minnesota. Weeb Dingle (talk) 02:12, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Polk County was created in 1858 when the "mega-county" Pembina was sliced up by the new state of Minnesota. Polk was larger than today, and mostly squared-off.
 * After ongoing squabbles about certain towns and areas having their interests underrepresented, a big chunk in the middle was gerrymandered out in 1896 and named Red Lake County.
 * Despite this secession, the malcontents remained malcontent, and in 1910 RLC was sliced horizontally, the upper portion dubbed Pennington County.
 * That Edmund Pennington was at the time president of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (later the Soo Line Railroad) should not be taken to suggest this partitioning was in any way a sellout to big commerce, of course.
 * In any case, that meant that the resultant county seat, Thief River Falls, Minnesota, has been in four counties.