Moody County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Flandreau
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 520

Court House:

101 E Pipestone Avenue, Suite D
County Courthouse
Flandreau, SD 57028-1753

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Moody is named for territorial legislator and later U.S. Senator Gideon C. Moody.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Moody County, created and organized in 1873, was named for Col. Gideon C. Moody, Speaker of the House in the Territorial Legislature of 1874-75, associate justice of the Territorial Supreme Court from 1878 to 1883, and one of South Dakota's first two U.S. Senators from 1889-1891. The first county commission meeting was held in August, 1873. The county seat issue was referred to the voters in November 1881 and Flandreau was favored over Egan.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 521 square miles (1,350 km²), of which, 520 square miles (1,346 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.27%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Brookings County, South Dakota - north
Pipestone County, Minnesota - east
Minnehaha County, South Dakota - south
Lake County, South Dakota - west

Cities and Towns:

- Alliance	township
- Blinsmon	township
- Clare	township
- Colman	city	Incorporated Area
- Egan	city	Incorporated Area
- Enterprise	township
- Flandreau (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Fremont	township
- Grovena	township
- Lone Rock	township
- Lynn	township
- Riverview	township
- Trent	town	Incorporated Area
- Union	township
- Ward	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."