[4] The county is named after Lake Itasca, which is in turn a shortened version of the Latin words veritas caput, meaning 'truth' and 'head', a reference to the source of the Mississippi River.

The original Itasca County stretched over Cook, Lake, Saint Louis, Koochiching, eastern Lake of the Woods, eastern Beltrami, Itasca, northern Aitkin, and northern Carlton counties, today in Minnesota.

The Mississippi River flows from its small beginnings at Lake Itasca, where it can be crossed on foot.

The terrain of Itasca County is hilly, heavily wooded, and studded with lakes and ponds.

[6] It generally slopes to the east, with its highest areas on its upper west border, at 1,437 ft (438 m) ASL.

The low plains, rolling hills, and wetlands occur where there was glacial activity in the past.

In Itasca County there are many different bodies of water from big lakes, to small creeks, to major rivers.

25.6% were of German, 13.8% Norwegian, 7.7% Finnish, 7.2% Swedish, 6.2% Irish, 5.0% United States or American and 5.0% English ancestry.

However, in 2016, the county swung hard towards Donald Trump, voting Republican for the first time since 1928 and doing so by giving him a healthy majority of 54.1%.