 The final effort was an act passed on March 6, 1873, dividing Lyon County into approximately equal halves, with the western half to be named Lincoln.The county voters approved this act in the November 1873 election, and Governor Horace Austin proclaimed the county's existence on December 5, 1873, with Lake Benton as county seat.In 1900 a new town closer to the county's center was platted, and in 1902 the county seat was moved to that settlement, Ivanhoe.