Butte County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Belle Fourche
Year Organized: 1883
Square Miles: 2,249

Court House:

839 Fifth Ave
County Courthouse
Belle Fourche, SD 57717-1729

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Butte is named for the local geographical features known as buttes.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Butte County was established in 1883. The county was formed as an outgrowth of a fight over the location of the capital of the Dakota Territory. In January 1883 a session of the Territorial Council was held to determine if Yankton would remain the capital of the Dakota Territory. The session created 59 new counties and a bill passed to divide Lawrence County into two counties, Lawrence and Butte. Governor Ordway designated Minnesela as the county seat. By 1894 Minnesela was a defunct community. Belle Fourche had built a 2-story building and offered it to Butte County if they would move the county seat to Belle Fourche. Following a brief fight, Belle Fourche won by a landslide.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,266 square miles (5,870 km²), of which, 2,249 square miles (5,824 km²) of it is land and 18 square miles (46 km²) of it (0.79%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Harding County, South Dakota - north
Perkins County, South Dakota - northeast
Meade County, South Dakota - southeast
Lawrence County, South Dakota - southwest
Crook County, Wyoming - west
Carter County, Montana - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Belle Fourche (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- East Butte	UT
- Fruitdale	town	Incorporated Area
- Newell	city	Incorporated Area
- Nisland	town	Incorporated Area
- Union	township
- Vale	township
- West Butte	UT

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."