County Overviews 3# - Haakon County, SD

Hello everybody, welcome back, and a happy new year! Of course, it's 19:00 as I'm writing this down, quite late. But, we can continue our series with my favorite county, Haakon County in South Dakota. What's makes this county my favorite you may ask? Probably its name. Anyways, lets go in depth in this interesting county!

Haakon County is a county located in the central-west area of South Dakota. Its county seat is Philip. Haakon County is named after King Haakon VII of Norway. The county was created in 1914 and was organized the next year.

As of 2022, the population stands at 1,826 with a total area of 1,827 mi^2, making the population density about 1/mi^2. Most residents in Haakon County are over the age of 65, comprising of 27% of the population. The median household income is $53,109. The poverty rate is 10.7% 100% of Haakon County residents are citizens.

Long ago for centuries, the land was conquered by numerous Native American tribes, one being the Lakota Sioux.

European settlers arrived and moved westward. The Homestead Act of 1862 granted land from the natives for settling, Haakon County being in the vicinity. Haakon County was created in 1914 and was named that to attract Norwegian settlers to the county. The land was created from parts of Stanley County (east of Haakon County).

Haakon County is predominantly republican, the last time it went democratic being in 1936. Haakon County is the only county in the U.S. to have an 'aa' contained in the name. It is also the only county in South Dakota to be named after a non-American (excluding geographic-named counties). While you're in the county seat of Philip, check out the Bad River and the Livestock Auction.

I hope you enjoyed and learned something for the third blog of the series! Of course, because Haakon County is so empty, not much is really known about it! But, in the end, I hope you learned something today, improved on your U.S. counties quiz, and have a Happy New Years!

Here's the currently list of upcoming counties:

4# - Multnomah County, OR

5# - Osceola County, FL (KiloNova)

6# - King County, TX (Capybarra)

7# - Kalawao County, HI (Xtrordinary)

8# - Summit County, OH (cathlete)

9# - Alpine County, CA (FlabberBapper)

10# - Oakland County, MI (Noivern)

11# - Santa Clara County, CA (Gekko0923)

Again, you can recommend a county and you'll be on the list! See you next time!