Social Squares · South Dakota · Under God the People Rule
South Dakota, town by town
One calm page for each South Dakota town: what’s on this weekend from the library, the schools, the churches and the city or town hall, its history, and every local shop on one hand-drawn map. Free, no ads, kept by neighbors. The pheasant opener, the county fair and the high school game, all in one place.
Tap a pin to step into that town’s Square.
Open now
Every South Dakota Square, A to Z
Made in South Dakota
South Dakota firsts
- 1876The dead man’s hand Deadwood
Wild Bill Hickok was shot from behind while playing poker in a Deadwood saloon on August 2, 1876. He held black aces and black eights, ever since called the dead man’s hand. He is buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery. Source
- 1877The Homestake Mine Lead
Mining began at the Homestake in Lead in 1877. It grew into the largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere, 8,000 feet down. Deep inside, Raymond Davis’s experiment was the first to catch neutrinos from the sun, and it is a science lab today. Source
- 1879The Little Town on the Prairie De Smet
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family settled in De Smet in 1879. Her books The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years tell of those years and the town holds a pageant every year. Source
- 1892The Corn Palace Mitchell
Mitchell built its first Corn Palace in 1892. Its murals are made of corn and other grains and are redone with a new theme every year. It calls itself the world’s only corn palace: dozens were built across the Midwest, and only Mitchell’s still stands. Source
- 1901Ernest Lawrence Canton
Physicist Ernest Lawrence was born in Canton in 1901. He invented the cyclotron, won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics, and element 103, lawrencium, is named for him. Source
- 1927Mount Rushmore Keystone
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began carving Mount Rushmore, just outside Keystone, in 1927. His son Lincoln finished the work in 1941, and each face is 60 feet tall. Source
- 1931Free ice water at Wall Drug Wall
Ted Hustead bought the drugstore in Wall in 1931. Business was slow until his wife Dorothy thought of offering free ice water to travelers on their way to Mount Rushmore. Source
- 1948Crazy Horse Memorial Custer
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski set off the first blast on Thunderhead Mountain, near Custer, in 1948, asked by Lakota elder Henry Standing Bear. Crazy Horse’s face was finished in 1998, and the work goes on. Source
- 1974The Mammoth Site Hot Springs
A construction worker leveling ground for new houses in Hot Springs turned up mammoth bones in 1974. The old sinkhole has since given up the remains of 61 mammoths. Source
- 1990Sue the T. rex Faith
On a stop for a flat tire near Faith in 1990, fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson found one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever. Sue now stands in Chicago’s Field Museum. Source
Your town next?
Each Square opens with its own history, photos and calendar, and a neighbor to keep it. If your South Dakota town isn’t here yet, tell us, or add your church’s, school’s or club’s calendar and help it open.