Nicollet, MN

Nicollet is a Nicollet County city named for French explorer Joseph Nicollet, who mapped the nearby Swan Lake area in 1838. The lake country here has a much older human history too, including Sisseton Sioux camps and burial mounds recorded around Swan Lake. Today Swan Lake Wildlife Management Area forms a major piece of the county’s water-and-wetland map, while U.S. 14 and Minnesota 99 and 111 carry traffic through town. Nicollet is south-central Minnesota where an explorer’s name sits beside a working wildlife landscape.