The county was named for James A. Emmons (1845–1919), a steamboat operator and early Bismarck merchant and entrepreneur.

[3][4][5] The first non-Native settlers of Emmons County came from Europe and the eastern United States.

The earliest were mostly soldiers discharged from Fort Yates, but civilians began arriving in the 1880s.

The settlers faced hardships in Emmons County, particularly the adverse climate with its extreme seasonal variations in temperature, wind, rain, and snow.

The first building in Emmons county was a log cabin built near present-day Winona (1852).

Rocks were a common sight on the prairie, but stone houses were a rarity because they took great care to build.

The most common type of dwelling was the sod house, which later became synonymous with pioneering life on the prairie.

Sod is prairie grass and dirt cut into blocks and stacked to form walls.

These crude dwellings were eventually abandoned in favor of more modern homes as soon as the necessary building materials became available.

There were no roads and the nearest railroad station was in Eureka, South Dakota (40 miles (64 km) away).

Settlers usually traveled in pairs and used both of their teams of horses to pull each wagon across a creek or stream.

The town of Williamsport was established in 1883 by a group of people from Ashland, Ohio and was the first county seat of government.

Other towns no longer in existence include Emmonsburg which was located west of Linton, in Beaver Bay, on the Missouri River.

Winchester was established in 1884 along Beaver Creek (west of Linton), but was completely abandoned by 1909.

By 1925 its population peaked to over 200, but the effects of the 1930s Great Depression and being bypassed by the construction of U.S. Highway 83 led to its downfall.

The county terrain consists of low rolling hills, mostly devoted to agriculture.