Potter County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Gettysburg
Year Organized: 1875
Square Miles: 866

Court House:

201 South Exene
County Courthouse
Gettysburg, SD 57442-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Potter is named for territorial legislator Joel A. Potter.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Potter County, created in 1875 and organized in 1883, was created as Ashmore County, in honor of Samuel Ashmore of Elk Point, a member of the Legislature of 1872-3. Later the name was changed to Potter in 1877 to honor Dr. Joel A. Potter, a member of the Legislature of that year. The first county commission meeting was held at Forest City on December 27, 1883 to locate a county seat. In January 1885, after a court fight the town of Gettysburg was named county seat and the records were moved to that location.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 898 square miles (2,327 km²), of which, 866 square miles (2,244 km²) of it is land and 32 square miles (83 km²) of it (3.56%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Walworth County, South Dakota - north
Edmunds County, South Dakota - northeast
Faulk County, South Dakota - east
Hyde County, South Dakota - southeast
Sully County, South Dakota - south
Dewey County, South Dakota - west

Cities and Towns:

- Gettysburg (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Hoven	town	Incorporated Area
- Lebanon	town	Incorporated Area
- Tolstoy	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."