Discover Minnesota: Otter Tail County

"Halo Effect" Keeps Bringing People Back To Otter Tail County

Our final Discover Minnesota virtual road trip heads to the county that claims to have more lakes than any other county in the country.

Otter Tail County will be hosting the Governor’s Fishing Opener on some of those lakes from May 13th through the 15th.
There are one 1,048 lakes in the county, along with 22 communities, numerous resorts, restaurants and shopping destinations.
Nick Leonard with Otter Tail County says all of that, combined with the people in the area, creates a “halo effect” that keeps people coming back, sometimes permanently.

He explains, “The halo effect is what we describe as, you know, tourism is the front door to economic development. What we’re seeing, especially during the pandemic, is visitors are increasingly becoming residents. So we see more and more people visit here that are starting to move here to live and work.”

Otter Tail County also features an impressive array of roadside statues. Click here to learn about some of those crazy statues from our segment in March.

Click here to learn more about Otter Tail County