Clearwater County is a county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,524. Its county seat is Bagley.
Clearwater County is home to Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River. Parts of the Red Lake and White Earth Indian reservations extend into the county.
Lake Itasca (/aɪˈtæskə/ eye-TASS-kə) is a small glacial lake, approximately 4.7 square kilometres (470 hectares; 1,200 acres) in area. It is located in Itasca State Park, in south-eastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north-central Minnesota, and is notable for being the headwater of the Mississippi River. It has an average depth of 20 to 35 feet (5 to 10 m) and is 1,475 feet (450 m) above sea level.
The Ojibwe name for the lake is Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake). The first European explorers in the area were French Canadian and they named the lake Lac Labiche (Doe Lake, often mistranslated as Elk Lake). The name was later changed by Henry Schoolcraft to "Itasca", coined from a combination of the Latin phrase veritas caput ("true head [of the Mississippi]"). It is one of several examples of pseudo-Native American place names created by Schoolcraft.
Itasca State Park (/aɪˈtæskə/) is a state park of Minnesota, United States, and contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The park spans 32,690 acres (132.3 km) of northern Minnesota, and is located about 21 miles (34 km) north of Park Rapids, Minnesota and 25 miles (40 km) from Bagley, Minnesota. The park is part of Minnesota's Pine Moraines and Outwash Plains Ecological Subsection and is contained within Clearwater, Hubbard, and Becker counties.
Itasca State Park was established by the Minnesota Legislature on April 20, 1891, making it the first of Minnesota's state parks and second oldest in the United States, behind Niagara Falls State Park. Henry Schoolcraft determined Lake Itasca as the river's source in 1832. It was named as a National Natural Landmark in 1965, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. About 500,000 people visit Itasca State Park annually.