McLeod County, Minnesota
| McLeod County, Minnesota | |
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McLeod County Courthouse
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 Location in the U.S. state of Minnesota |
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 Minnesota's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | March 1, 1856 |
| Named for | Martin McLeod, an early fur trader |
| Seat | Glencoe |
| Largest city | Hutchinson |
| Area | |
| • Total | 506 sq mi (1,311 km2) |
| • Land | 491 sq mi (1,272 km2) |
| • Water | 14 sq mi (36 km2), 2.8% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 35,932 |
| • Density | 75/sq mi (29/km²) |
| Congressional district | 7th |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
| Website | www |
McLeod County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. At the 2010 census, the population was 36,651. Its county seat is Glencoe.
McLeod County comprises the Hutchinson, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area and is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI Combined Statistical Area.
For thousands of years the area was inhabited by indigenous peoples. At the time of European contact, it was the territory of the Dakota Sioux.
The county was named after Martin McLeod, a Canadian-born adventurer who became a fur trader and later was elected a territorial representative (1849–1856) in Minnesota. As a young man, he was part of the notable James Dickson 1836 expedition to the Red River of the North, a journey recounted in his Diary of Martin McLeod, a manuscript held by the Minnesota Historical Society.
The county was the site of several events during the Dakota War of 1862, including the siege of Hutchinson and the killing of the White family near Brownton. It was also the first place to use the Geier Hitch, a kind of animal husbandry that some observers characterize as animal abuse.
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