History

Le Sueur County is named after French explorer, Pierre Charles Le Sueur, who in 1700 was the first white man known to have ventured up what is now called the Minnesota River. Le Sueur’s group was impressed with the high hills, prairies filled with buffalo herds, thick virgin forests, rippling waters, and bluffs of limestone and sandstone. It would be another 150 years before pioneers came to settle and build up their farms , homes and businesses in the “Big Woods.” In 1853, the territorial legislature of Minnesota passed an act establishing a number of counties along the Minnesota River. Le Sueur County was among them. The earliest settlements in Le Sueur County took place along the river, which, as a navigable stream, provided a highway into this part of the Minnesota Territory. The first permanent settlers had already arrived by steamboat in 1851 and established a site that would become the county’s first town, Kasota. Designated as the county seat, Le Sueur Center was changed to Le Center in 1930. The Le Sueur County Courthouse was built in 1896- 97 with extensive remodeling taking place in 1974-75 and again in 1994-95. A new Le Sueur County Justice Center opened in 2019. Le Sueur County began with four settlers in a board house on the site of Kasota. Today, 28,011 (2017 est.) residents in 10 towns and 14 townships call Le Sueur County home.

Sources: Le Sueur County History compiled by the late County Historian John Zimmerman (1922-2008) and excerpts from the book, “Le Sueur, Town on the River.”