[5] The land is mainly alluvial soils, primarily clay, washed seaward from the streams and rivers of the interior valleys.

[5] In the lowlands on the coast grow palm trees, mangrove woods, and savanna grasslands with tropical forest covering the interior hills and valleys.

[5] During the dry season winds from the Sahara Desert called the Harmattan create wild temperature fluctuations from December to the beginning of March.

Administration varies by subunit with a governor running the borough, mayors in charge of cities, commissioners administering townships, and superintendents controlling districts.

[3] The main ethnic groups are Kpelle, Bassa, Mano, Kissi, Loma, and Gola.

[5] Both the White Plains Water Treatment Plant and the Mount Coffee Hydropower Project are in the district.

[3] The district is run by chiefdoms and clan systems, as the county contains a large number of native African communities.

[6] Kpelle speaking groups represent 52% of the population while Bassa speakers comprise 21%, followed by Lorma with 6%, Kru with 4%, and all others with 3% or less each.

[9] Other executive office include commissioners for districts and townships, line ministries, and an assistant superintendent that focuses on development.

[5] The county is divided into five districts, seven cities, one borough, twenty-one townships, seven clans, and two chiefdoms.

[5] Additionally, the National Police Training Academy is in Montserrado County in Paynesville City.

[10] Other national government employees assigned to the county include tax collectors, revenue agents, and customs officials.

[5] Red is on the bottom and represents the bloodshed from wars between tribal members and the African-American settlers.

[11] One of these is the Red Light market in Paynesville where a variety of consumer goods are sold out of wheelbarrows and old intermodal containers.

[11] As of October 2006, employment in the county is primarily self-employment with only 17% of households having members that were salaried employees.

[5] Commercial crops grown include cocoa, coconuts, sugarcane, pineapple, kola nuts, palm oil, and rubber.

[5] These include the Morris American Rubber Company in Todee which employs 600 and the Liberia Resources Corporation in Careysburg with 300 employees.

Passenger and freight rail service is available from the private company Geoservices between Monrovia and the Bong mines.

[14] In 1948, the missionaries from the Pentecostal faith opened a school in Mein Clan in Todee District.

[5] Additional primary schools were built in the 1970s, while in 1976 the University of Liberia opened the Fendall branch campus in Louisiana.

[5] Thirty-three percent of county residents had no formal education, while 27% had attended some elementary school.

[17] Media include STAR radio, The Daily Talk news boards, and The Analyst newspaper.

On December 11, 1821, officials from the United States arrived aboard the vessel Alligator under the command of Captain Robert F. Stockton at Mesurado Bay.

[21] Stockton and Dr. Eli Ayers negotiated to acquire the land in and around the bay from the native chiefs for a settlement by free people of color before sailing to Sierra Leone to pick up these colonists.

[21] On January 7, 1822, free people of color arrived and settled on Providence Island on the Mesurado River under the auspices of the American Colonization Society (ACS), and by April they had moved to the mainland.

[23] There was one battle, with the colonists from Monrovia defeating the Dey and Golah (Gola) combined group.

[25] Rubber and palm oil plantations were started in the 1960s and 1970s, while a factory for producing clothing was built in 1979 in Bentol City.