Historical Markers and War Memorials in Brookings, South Dakota
Brookings is the county seat for Brookings County
Brookings is in Brookings County
Brookings County(44) ► ADJACENT TO BROOKINGS COUNTY Deuel County(3) ► Hamlin County(7) ► Kingsbury County(37) ► Lake County(21) ► Moody County(17) ► Lincoln County, Minnesota(3) ► Pipestone County, Minnesota(12) ►
Touch name on this list to highlight map location. Touch blue arrow, or on map, to go there.
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
Today, a grassland mound rises above the nature park, providing a natural setting for people to enjoy. But this has not always been a pretty sight.
In 1960, the City bought this property, a former gravel pit, for the city landfill. For the . . . — — Map (db m237169) HM
These structures were part of an installation called Tangle Town at the Children's Museum of South Dakota. Artist Patrick Dougherty worked with more than 70 volunteers over a three week period to harvest willow saplings and construct this work of . . . — — Map (db m237166) HM
domain of the Dakota (Sioux) Indians, with a trading post, traditionally, at the Great Bend as
early as 1763 and Joseph LaFramboise in 1822 and Philander Prescott, 1832-33, certainly had
posts there. That portion east of the Big Sioux was ceded by . . . — — Map (db m181270) HM
