Deuel County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Clear Lake
Year Organized: 1862
Square Miles: 624

Court House:

P.O. Box 616
County Courthouse
Clear Lake, SD 57226-0616

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Deuel is named for early settler Jacob S. Deuel.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Deuel County was created in 1862 and organized in 1874. A sawmill gave Jacob S. Deuel, for whom the county was named, a start in Dakota Territory in 1860. Gary was made the county seat and remained so until Clear Lake became a town of importance, when it was moved to Clear Lake. Clear Lake takes its name from a near-by lake. The town was settled in 1884 and incorporated in 1900.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 637 square miles (1,649 km²), of which, 624 square miles (1,615 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (34 km²) of it (2.07%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Grant County, South Dakota - north
Lac Qui Parle County, Minnesota - northeast
Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota - east
Lincoln County, Minnesota - southeast
Brookings County, South Dakota - south
Hamlin County, South Dakota - southwest
Codington County, South Dakota - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Altamont	town	Incorporated Area
- Antelope Valley	township
- Astoria	town	Incorporated Area
- Blom	township
- Brandt	town	Incorporated Area
- Clear Lake (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Gary	city	Incorporated Area
- Glenwood	township
- Goodwin	town	Incorporated Area
- Grange	township
- Havana	township
- Hidewood	township
- Lowe	township
- Norden	township
- Portland	township
- Rome	township
- Scandinavia	township
- Toronto	town	Incorporated Area

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."