[2] The county was organized in 1849 and named for Sergeant Alexander McDonald, a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.

The plan for the Pineville–Anderson consolidation was approved and the state offered a $50,000 matching grant for the building of a new high school.

The Noel patrons wanted a site more close to the center of the county which would be just north of the Indian River Bridge at the city of Lanagan.

The Noel School Board sent a letter to the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education calling for a vote of the people of McDonald County on the site but this didn't happen.

The reasoning for there not being a countywide vote couldn't be found, but the proposed new high school site had already been approved by the Missouri Department of Education.

This led to many of the hard feelings that last even today in McDonald County about the school consolidation.

With the addition of Noel to the reorganization there were only the high schools of Goodman, Rocky Comfort and Southwest City left.

Southwest City, located only miles from the Arkansas and Oklahoma borders, had no other choice.

Rocky Comfort ended up joining the reorganization of the McDonald County schools.

The Republican Party predominantly controls politics at the local level in McDonald County.

Like most areas throughout the Bible Belt in Southwest Missouri, voters in McDonald County traditionally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles which tend to strongly influence their Republican leanings.

The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 78.99 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state.

During the same election, voters in five other states also strongly approved increases in the minimum wage.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas) received more votes, a total of 1,285, than any candidate from either party in McDonald County during the 2008 Missouri Presidential Primaries.