Kingsbury County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: De Smet
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 838

Court House:

PO Box 196
County Courthouse
De Smet, SD 57231-0196

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Kingsbury is named for territorial legislators and brothers George W. Kingsbury and T.A. Kingsbury.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Kingsbury, which is located in the east central part of the state was created from Hanson County in 1873. The county seat is De Smet. The population of Kingsbury County, in 2000, was 5815.

Kingsbury County was named after two brothers, George W. and T. A. Kingsbury, who were prominent in the affairs of the territory and members of several territorial legislatures. In December, 1879, Governor Howard, territorial Governor for Dakota, appointed county Commissioners. After a bitter struggle between DeSmet and Lake Preston, the voters chose De Smet as the county seat.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 864 square miles (2,237 km²), of which, 838 square miles (2,171 km²) of it is land and 25 square miles (66 km²) of it (2.93%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Hamlin County, South Dakota - northeast
Brookings County, South Dakota - east
Lake County, South Dakota - southeast
Miner County, South Dakota - south
Beadle County, South Dakota - west
Clark County, South Dakota - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Arlington	city	Incorporated Area
- Badger	town	Incorporated Area
- Baker	township
- Bancroft	town	Incorporated Area
- De Smet (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Denver	township
- Erwin	town	Incorporated Area
- Esmond	township
- Hartland	township
- Hetland	town	Incorporated Area
- Iroquois	city	Incorporated Area
- Lake Preston	city	Incorporated Area
- Le Sueur	township
- Manchester	township
- Mathews	township
- Oldham	city	Incorporated Area
- Spirit Lake	township
- Spring Lake	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."