Walworth County, South Dakota

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

County Seat: Selby
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 708

Court House:

P.O. Box 199
County Courthouse
Selby, SD 57472-0199

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Walworth is named for Walworth County, Wisconsin.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Walworth County, created in 1852, organized in 1883, was named for Walworth County, Wisconsin by settlers from that area. The first county seat was Scranton, which was later added to and called South LeBeau. The voters decided in November of 1884 that the county seat should be moved to Bangor, the center of the county. The long struggle for the county seat began in the summer of 1900 between Selby and Bangor. This battle continued until early in 1908 when the court gave the seat to Selby.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 744 square miles (1,928 km²), of which, 708 square miles (1,833 km²) of it is land and 36 square miles (94 km²) of it (4.89%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Campbell County, South Dakota - north
Edmunds County, South Dakota - east
Potter County, South Dakota - south
Dewey County, South Dakota - southwest
Corson County, South Dakota - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Akaska	town	Incorporated Area
- Foster	township
- Glenham	town	Incorporated Area
- Java	town	Incorporated Area
- Lowry	town	Incorporated Area
- Mobridge	city	Incorporated Area
- Selby (County Seat)	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."