The completion of the Erie Canal (1825) and the settling of the Black Hawk War (1831) made migration easier.

By 1845 the future Cook County contained 350 people of European descent; by 1874 there were about 2,000.

The first decade of the 20th century saw a large influx of Europeans from Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland.

These waves introduced Lutheranism and Catholicism to Cook County.

[4] Cook County is a rugged, heavily wooded triangle of land on Minnesota's northeastern tip.

It abuts Canada's southern border and is largely surrounded by the northern end of the Great Lakes.

Minnesota's highest natural point, Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet (701 m), and the highest lake, Lake Abita at 2,048 feet (624 m), are in Cook County.

Its geographic neighbors are: [5] Northern Minnesota offers extreme winter weather.

32.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The county was one of the rare white-majority rural counties to have its margin increase for Joe Biden in 2020 relative to Barack Obama's 2012 margin, with 65 percent of voters choosing the Democratic nominee.