Brule County, South Dakota

Brule County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Chamberlain
Year Organized: 1875
Square Miles: 819

Court House:

300 South Courtland
County Courthouse
Chamberlain, SD 57325-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Brule may be named for the Brule Sioux Native American people.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Brule County was organized in 1879. In September of 1879 Governor Howard appointed county Commissioners, who then held their first meeting at Brule City, September 20, 1879. A general election held on November 4, 1879 named Brule City as the county seat. The railroad reached Chamberlain in the spring of 1881 and at the election in the fall of that year, the county seat was moved from Brule City to Chamberlain.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 846 square miles (2,192 km²), of which, 819 square miles (2,121 km²) of it is land and 28 square miles (71 km²) of it (3.25%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Buffalo County, South Dakota - north
Jerauld County, South Dakota - northeast
Aurora County, South Dakota - east
Charles Mix County, South Dakota - south
Lyman County, South Dakota - west

Cities and Towns:

- America	township
- Brule	township
- Chamberlain (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Cleveland	township
- Grandview	UT
- Highland	township
- Kimball	city	Incorporated Area
- Lyon	township
- Ola	township
- Plainfield	township
- Pleasant Grove	township
- Plummer	township
- Pukwana	town	Incorporated Area
- Red Lake	township
- Shelby	township
- Smith	township
- Torrey Lake	township
- Union	township
- Waldro	township
- West Point	township
- Wilbur	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."