The Joseph R. Brown Minnesota River Center is housed in the restored 1879 Sibley County Courthouse and is devoted to the many stories of the Minnesota River valley, from the South Dakota hills to Fort Snelling, and of the people who have called the valley home for thousands of years. It presents the career of Joseph R. Brown, founder of Henderson, alongside the valley's earliest inhabitants and Dakota life, the transformation brought by steamboats, an attempt by a steam wagon to cross the roadless prairies, and the development of 19th century frontier settlements. Its exhibits introduce the 46-county river basin through which the Minnesota River flows, its places and people, and its library holds research and reading materials.