This article is within the scope of WikiProject Minnesota, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Minnesota on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MinnesotaWikipedia:WikiProject MinnesotaTemplate:WikiProject MinnesotaMinnesota articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
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.--RLent18:52, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, Polk County and Grand Forks County make up the federal government defined "Grand Forks Metropolitan Statistical Area" (MSA). --MatthewUND(talk)22:50, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No mention of why Polk County looks so odd. The area's historical society once mentioned this. Briefly, per Pennington County, Minnesota:
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.