Turner County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Parker
Year Organized: 1871
Square Miles: 617

Court House:

P.O. Box 370
County Courthouse
Parker, SD 57053-0370

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Turner is named for territorial legislator John W. Turner.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Turner County, created and organized in 1871, was named for John W. Tuner, a member of the Dakota Territory Legislature of 1865-66 and 1872, and Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1870-1871. Swan Lake City was named the county seat. With the arrival of the railroad, the question of removing the county seat from Swan Lake City started and what is known as the "county seat war" followed. After a long and bitter fight, the county seat was moved to Parker in 1885.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 617 square miles (1,599 km²), of which, 617 square miles (1,598 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.10%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Minnehaha County, South Dakota - northeast
Lincoln County, South Dakota - east
Clay County, South Dakota - southeast
Yankton County, South Dakota - southwest
Hutchinson County, South Dakota - west
McCook County, South Dakota - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Brothersfield	township
- Centerville	city	Incorporated Area
- Chancellor	town	Incorporated Area
- Childstown	township
- Daneville	township
- Davis	town	Incorporated Area
- Germantown	township
- Home	township
- Hurley	city	Incorporated Area
- Marion	city	Incorporated Area
- Middleton	township
- Monroe	town	Incorporated Area
- Norway	township
- Parker (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Rosefield	township
- Spring Valley	township
- Swan Lake	township
- Turner	township
- Viborg	city	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."