Home of roving Indians until 1862. The exploring party of Nicollet, scientist, and Fremont,
‘Pathfinder of the West,’ visited Oakwood Lakes July 1838, leaving the first reliable record.
The region East of the Big Sioux was ceded by the Santee . . . — — Map (db m181268) HM
Brookings: The county seat of Brookings County was platted October 3-4, 1879, when the Northwestern Railroad reached here. Some of the early store buildings were moved overland from Fountain and Medary, which soon became ghost towns. In November . . . — — Map (db m179949) HM
A memorable landmark for South Dakota State University and the city of Brookings, the Coughlin Campanile is the state’s tallest chimes tower. It was built in 1929-30.
Described in the campus newspaper as the most striking structure in South . . . — — Map (db m147593) HM
Downtown Brookings located its commercial, public, and civic buildings in proximity to the railroad depot, creating the main street. As in many towns of that era, Brookings' main street and railroad line formed a "T" shape. The Chicago and North . . . — — Map (db m213617) HM
Created 1862; Organized 1871; Convention 1877
The County, created on paper in 1862, was organized July 3, 1871 and by 1877, there were communities at Lake Hendricks, Oakwood, Lake Village and Medary, and all had delegates to the nominating . . . — — Map (db m179959) HM
Brookings County Courthouse
The Renaissance Revival-style courthouse was built in 1911 for $100,000 to replace the original 1885 two-story $7,000 wooden courthouse. Oscar Lee, an amateur artist from Volga, South Dakota, painted . . . — — Map (db m118947) HM
The Dakota Land Company of St. Paul, hoping to make this site the capital of a proposed
Dakota Territory, started a town here, naming it for Samuel Medary, Governor of Minnesota
Territory. Towns were also begun at Flandreau and Sioux Falls, the . . . — — Map (db m179957) HM
Paul Zantow, successful McPherson County farmer, was born in Germany March 23, 1883, and emigrated to America in 1902 and settled near Leola where he purchased land in 1907. He steadily increased his holdings, farming there almost to the time of his . . . — — Map (db m148215) HM
Originally owned by Jacob Olson Dahl, who was issued a land patent for eighty acres in 1884, the land that became Pioneer Park was the home of the Brookings County Fair from 1907 until 1922. The city purchased the land for $10,000 in 1923 and for a . . . — — Map (db m213618) HM
Legend of the Separation of the Lakes
See the narrow waterway between two peninsulas? How do you think it was formed?
A poem written by Professor A.B. Crane offers one explanation. He tells of an American Indian chief who pledged his . . . — — Map (db m179792) HM
Oakwood, called Tetonkaha, Lakes, when visited in 1838 by Nicollet & Fremont, was site of a small Fort, N of Little Round Lake in 1857 and again occupied in 1863-64. The township was surveyed by Richard F. Pettigrew in September 1871 and James . . . — — Map (db m179799) HM
The mounds found in Oakwood Lakes are typical of numerous such mounds in eastern South Dakota. Ten mounds have been located at Oakwood lakes and have been dated about A. D. 300 to A.D. 1400. Probably the remanents of late Woodland or Middle Missouri . . . — — Map (db m179695) HM
Breastworks
Probably built by two companies of the 2nd Infantry, under command of Capt. D. Davidson, in June-July, 1859. Parapets were then about 5 ft. high. A log house once stood in the center, but was razed long ago for firewood. Cannon . . . — — Map (db m179795) HM
This log cabin stands on the original site where it was constructed in 1869 by Samuel "Ol Spot" Mortimer.
Mortimer, a shoemaker from New York, came to Dakota Territory after hearing stories of the rich fur trade in the Big Sioux Valley. In . . . — — Map (db m179782) HM
Settlers arriving in the Oakwood area in the late 1870s desired a place to worship and hold prayer meetings. Lake Oakwood proved to be an ideal location for baptisms and to pitch a tent to shelter worshippers from the weather. As time and finances . . . — — Map (db m179777) HM
Millennium ago, migrating bison herds grazed the tall grass. Ducks, geese and other birds nested in the sloughs, and fish were found in abundance in the lakes and streams in this area known as the Coteau des Prairies.
With all this . . . — — Map (db m179698) HM
C. Z. Sutton came to the Oakwood Village in 1872 and in 1878 built a home on this site. It was dug into the hill so that the back and much of the sides were dirt. The front was field rock with mortar made himself by burning local limestone. The roof . . . — — Map (db m179935) HM
You are about to enter
Brookings County
home of roving Indians until 1862. The exploring party of Nicollet, scientist, and Fremont, "Pathfinder of the West," visited Oakwood Lakes, July 1838, leaving the first reliable record.
The . . . — — Map (db m181265) HM
All early maps (1838-1879) showed the Hole-in-The-Mountain or Mountain Pass where Coteau Perce creek drained SW from Lake Benton to the Big Sioux. It is 8 miles SE. Nicollet & Fremont, first explorers, visited the "Hole" on July 6, 1838 and . . . — — Map (db m177443) HM
Created with its Twin North Dakota, 2 November 1889. Its 77,047 square miles ranks 15th in size. Those square miles include: exceptional corn land in the SE, grass land in the W, wheat land in the N and productive land all over. Its lowest . . . — — Map (db m179809) HM
The Lake Campbell Lutheran Church was originally the Medary Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Brookings County, Dakota Territory. The congregation was organized June 13, 1870 at the John Thompson home in Sverdrup Township Minnehaha . . . — — Map (db m179962) HM
Oakwood Lakes, called by the Sioux, Te-tonka-ha, meaning the place of the Great Summer Lodge, lie in a scenic state park 7 miles N and 3 W. First visitors of record were Nicollet & Fremont. July 8, 1838.
During the Indian Disturbances of . . . — — Map (db m179802) HM
Lake Hendricks Norwegian Colony of 1873
The first settlers at Lake Hendricks were 31 Norwegians, arriving July 14, 1873, with 11 covered wagons and 30 cattle. On May 14, 1873 they left Houston County, Minn., and Allamakee and Winneshiek . . . — — Map (db m179811) HM
Lake Hendricks State Park
This lake was named for Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-1885), Commissioner of the General Land Office, 1855-59, at which time the state boundary was surveyed and the lake named. Hendricks was a Member of Congress, 1851-55; . . . — — Map (db m184234) HM
