Clark County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Clark
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 958

Court House:

P.O. Box 294
County Courthouse
Clark, SD 57225-0294

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Clark is named after Clark House, a local inn that was the county's first headquarters.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Clark County is located in the northeastern part of the state, and was created from Hanson County in 1873.

The first settlement in Clark County was in June 1879. In May of 1881, the governor appointed county Commissioners who then met and organized the county. They passed a resolution declaring that the Clark House, owned and kept by Mrs. M. E. Greenslet, be designated as the official headquarters. This house was 1/2 mile north of where the present county seat of Clark County now stands. The Chicago and Northwestern railway reached the townsite of Clark in June 1882. Clark, the county seat, is the largest town and is located in almost the exact center of the county. It was settled in the fall of 1882.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 968 square miles (2,507 km²), of which, 958 square miles (2,481 km²) of it is land and 10 square miles (26 km²) of it (1.02%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Day County, South Dakota - north
Codington County, South Dakota - east
Hamlin County, South Dakota - southeast
Kingsbury County, South Dakota - south
Beadle County, South Dakota - southwest
Spink County, South Dakota - west

Cities and Towns:

- Ash	township
- Blaine	township
- Bradley	town	Incorporated Area
- Clark (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Collins	township
- Darlington	township
- Day	township
- Elrod	township
- Fordham	township
- Foxton	township
- Garden City	town	Incorporated Area
- Garfield	township
- Hague	township
- Lake	township
- Lincoln	township
- Logan	township
- Maydell	township
- Merton	township
- Mount Pleasant	township
- Naples	town	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant	township
- Raymond	town	Incorporated Area
- Rosedale	township
- Spring Valley	township
- Thorp	township
- Vienna	town	Incorporated Area
- Warren	township
- Washington	township
- Willow Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- Woodland	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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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