Buffalo County, South Dakota: History and Information

Buffalo County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Gann Valley
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 471

Court House:

P. O. Box 146
County Courthouse
Gann Valley, SD 57341-0146

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Buffalo is probably named for the buffalo (properly American Bison) that once roamed the Great Plains.

Demographics:

History

Buffalo County was created in 1864 and organized in 1871. It was among the first counties to receive a name and place on the map of the old Territory of Dakota, and was, at one time, the largest county within the limits of the present State of South Dakota. In 1868 it included the present counties of Buffalo, Brule, Jerauld, Aurora, Sanborn, Davison, Hanson, Miner, McCook and part of Lake. Governor Pierce appointed county Commissioners in October of 1884 and Duncan was designated as the temporary county seat. Several county seat propositions were considered at a meeting in January 1885, and Gann Valley was declared the county seat. As was the case in many counties, a fight to move the county seat ensued. The site for the new county seat was known as Buffalo Center. After the protests and legal battles were over, Gann Valley was again named the county seat in April of 1888.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 487 square miles (1,262 km²), of which, 471 square miles (1,219 km²) of it is land and 17 square miles (44 km²) of it is water. The total area is 3.45% water

Neighboring Counties:

Hand County, South Dakota - northeast

Jerauld County, South Dakota - east

Brule County, South Dakota - south

Lyman County, South Dakota - west

Hyde County, South Dakota - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Bailey

township

- Crow Creek

- Elvira

township

- Gann Valley (County Seat)

- North Buffalo

- Southeast Buffalo

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our 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."

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