Spink County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Redfield
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 1,504

Court House:

210 East 7th Avenue
County Courthouse
Redfield, SD 57469-1283

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Spink is named for secretary of the Dakota Territory S.L. Spink.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Spink County was created in 1873 and organized in 1879. It was named for S. L. Spink, who was a secretary of the Dakota Territory from 1865 to 1869. The county seat was first located at Old Ashton in 1879. The county seat issue was an issue at subsequent elections but none of the other towns could come up with a majority vote. Despite the rivalry among the towns, court battles and injunctions, the seat remained at Old Ashton, until 1885 when an act of the legislature located the seat at Ashton. In the fall of 1886 another election was held and Redfield became the permanent location of the county seat.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,510 square miles (3,911 km²), of which, 1,504 square miles (3,895 km²) of it is land and 6 square miles (16 km²) of it (0.41%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Brown County, South Dakota - north
Day County, South Dakota - northeast
Clark County, South Dakota - east
Beadle County, South Dakota - south
Hand County, South Dakota - southwest
Faulk County, South Dakota - west

Cities and Towns:

- Antelope	township
- Ashton	city	Incorporated Area
- Athol	township
- Belle Plaine	township
- Belmont	township
- Benton	township
- Beotia	township
- Brentford	town	Incorporated Area
- Capitola	township
- Chelsea	town	Incorporated Area
- Clifton	township
- Conde	city	Incorporated Area
- Cornwall	township
- Crandon	township
- Doland	city	Incorporated Area
- Exline	township
- Frankfort	city	Incorporated Area
- Garfield	township
- Great Bend	township
- Groveland	township
- Harmony	township
- La Prairie	township
- Lake	township
- Lincoln	township
- Lodi	township
- Mellette	city	Incorporated Area
- Northville	town	Incorporated Area
- Olean	township
- Prairie Center	township
- Redfield (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Richfield	township
- Spring	township
- Sumner	township
- Tetonka	township
- Three Rivers	township
- Tulare	town	Incorporated Area
- Turton	town	Incorporated Area
- Union	township
- Verdon	town	Incorporated Area
- Zell	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."