The brick LaMoure County Courthouse has stood since 1910, but its place in the county followed a long fight over the county seat between Grand Rapids and LaMoure. Grand Rapids had been the only town in LaMoure County and served as county seat, but after LaMoure was platted it quickly outgrew Grand Rapids. In the summer of 1884, LaMoure residents petitioned for a decision on the county seat, while Grand Rapids argued that most county residents lived nearer to it and that it already had a courthouse. Although the petition failed for lack of signatures, a law passed in 1885 allowed county residents to vote in 1886, and LaMoure won by 86 votes. Four days later, county commissioners ordered the county records moved from Grand Rapids to LaMoure's town hall, which was leased as a courthouse. Residents of Grand Rapids sought an injunction from a judge in Jamestown, North Dakota, to stop the transfer, and Al Franks set out with the papers to serve it. Before he could arrive, 18 men from LaMoure traveled at night to Grand Rapids with drays, lumber wagons, and buggies to retrieve the records. They found the courthouse lit and guarded by about 20 armed men, were denied entry, and broke down the door with a scantling used as a battering ram. Franks became lost on the trail in the dark, the Grand Rapids defenders gradually left, and by morning the records were loaded and taken to LaMoure. Franks arrived too late to stop the move. Afterward, the county's first official courthouse in LaMoure was the city hall, then an old bank building, until that building and the town's business district were destroyed by fire in 1894. County offices then leased space in the Lloyd Bank building. In 1907, the county set aside funds for a new courthouse, E.P. Wells donated the site, a company from Aberdeen, South Dakota, received the $100,000 contract, and county offices moved into the new courthouse in 1910, where they have remained ever since.