[4][5] The county was originally settled exclusively by "Yankee" settlers, meaning that they both came to Goodhue County either directly from the six New England states or from upstate New York, where they were born to parents who had moved to that region from the six New England states in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution, and that they were descended from the English Puritans who emigrated to North America during the early 1600s.

[6] When the New Englanders arrived, they laid out farms, established post routes, and built schools and government buildings out of locally available materials.

[7] The New Englanders and their descendants made up the great majority of Goodhue County's inhabitants until the late 19th and early 20th century, when immigrants from Germany and Norway began arriving in the Minnesota-Wisconsin border region in large numbers.

There were small numbers of immigrants from Germany, Norway and Sweden during the first several decades of Goodhue County's history as well.

Fires at two of Red Wing's mills in the 1880s and developing railroad routes across Minnesota encouraged farmers from neighboring counties to begin sending their wheat to Minneapolis mills, reducing the county's importance in the wheat trade around the start of the 20th century.

In October 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the county for a bridge dedication ceremony.

The Cannon River flows eastward through the northern part of the county on its way to discharge into Lake Pepin.

The North Fork of the Zumbro River flows eastward through the lower part of the county.

The county terrain consists of rolling hills, etched with drainages and gullies, and with high bluffs against the river valleys.

[10] The terrain slopes to the east and north; its highest point is near its southwest corner at 1,260 ft (380 m) ASL.