Mountain View County is a member of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, along with numerous local boards, commissions and committees.

In 1890, the Calgary and Edmonton Railway was chartered, and construction began, with the line reaching the area now comprising the county by the end of that year.

After 1891, homesteaders began to arrive in the region from across Europe and North America, with settlements sprouting up around the fourth (Carstairs), fifth (Didsbury) and sixth (Olds) sidings.

Settlement in the early days was typified by ethnic and usually religious groups living in close-knit communities or colonies.

Notable among them were a group of Mennonite families who homesteaded in the Didsbury area from Europe via Ontario around the turn of the 19th century.

A large number of German settlers from the American Midwest also settled around Olds; and a group of Norwegian pioneers blazed a trail westward towards Sundre and Bergen.

In December 1911 the Alberta government brought forward new legislation designed to introduce greater self-government into rural areas of the province.

310 would be created out of four improvement districts around Olds and Didsbury, making it one of 55 rural municipalities to come into existence province-wide on December 9, 1912.

[5] Oil and gas is the main economic driver of Mountain View County, along with agriculture, forestry and tourism.

With the introduction of the County system of government in 1961, joint administration of municipalities and the school boards was initiated, and would continue until 1994.