However, that initiative was not approved by the local voters affected, so the proposed county did not come into existence.

Nine years later (March 6, 1871) the legislature authorized creation of the present Lac qui Parle County, south of the Minnesota River, and it was approved by local voters.

The county seat was established at Lac qui Parle village.

150 men and 40 teams of horses rode to Lac qui Parle village, where the town hall was at the time, and dragged the building to Madison.

[9] A March 2011 study by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked this as Minnesota's healthiest county.

However, the county seat continued its population growth until 1960, when 2,380 residents were counted.

[9] Lac qui Parle County is on the west side of Minnesota.

The county terrain consists of rolling hills, knolls and short bluffs near the west end, running to a steep bluff overlooking the Minnesota River valley on its east border.

[13] The terrain slopes to the north and east, with its highest point near its SW corner, at 1,404 ft (428 m) ASL.

From the county's founding until 1956, Lac qui Parle County voted Republican, typically by large margins, in all but four elections, in 1912 when former Republican Theodore Roosevelt won as the Progressive candidate, in the two landslide victories for Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, and for Democrat Harry S. Truman in the close 1948 election.

From 1960 to 2012, however, Lac qui Parle County voted Democrat in every election except for the two landslide wins for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.