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This Day in Minnesota History

September 1, 1851

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Cass and Chisago Counties are created. Cass is named for Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, who explored the upper Mississippi in 1820 and negotiated several treaties with Native American nations. Chisago is named using a contracted, incorrect version of the Ojibwe name for Lake Chisago: Gichi-zaaga'igan, meaning "large and lovely lake."

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