CLAYTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE
Elkader, Iowa

Clayton County, (796 square miles) was named for John Middleton Clayton (1796-1856), a U.S. senator and cabinet member from Delaware, who assisted in the passage of the Wisconsin Territorial bill.

According to some accounts, the first white man first set foot on Iowa soil in Clayton County on June 17, 1673, when the French missionary Father Jacques Marquette and trapper-explorer Louis Joliet, on their way down the Wisconsin River from Green Bay, are said to have crossed to the west bank of the Mississippi River and beached their canoe at a point just below McGregor now known as Pike’s Peak. However, most historians now believe that Marquette and Joliet did not touch Iowa soil until eight days later, on June 25, 1673, when they landed at a point near the mouth of the Iowa River in Louisa County, and were met by friendly Indians.