410 S. Fifth Street Hallock , MN - View Map: The first court
proceedings in Kittson County were held in 1881 in Hotel
Hallock, which was offered for use by the county without charge.
However, a bill for four dollars was submitted for use of a jury
room and the breaking of window lights. The first case involved
the theft of a yoke of oxen for which the defendant was
sentenced to three years in the state prison. The term of court
was completed in 2.5 days, and the court and attorneys spent the
rest of the last day fishing while they waited for a southbound
train. Other locations in Hallock were rented as a courthouse
until a formal courthouse was completed in 1896 at a cost of
$20,000. The three-story brick building was built on a high
battered-stone basement and included a Romanesque tower. Large
chimneys rose on each side above the medieval corbelled brick of
the cornice. The building was torn down when the new courthouse
was completed 70 years later in 1965. The current courthouse is
a low horizontal one-sto