South Dakota Fast Facts and Key Resources

• Statehood: 1889

• US territory status: part of Michigan Territory in 1834, Wisconsin Territory in 1836, Iowa Territory in 1838, Minnesota Territory in 1849 and Dakota Territory in 1861

• First federal census: 1900

• Available territorial and state censuses: 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, 1945

• Statewide birth, death and marriage records begin: 1905

• Counties: 66

• Public-land state

• Contact for vital records:
Department of Health
Vital Records Office
207 E. Missouri, Suite 1-A
Pierre, SD 57501
(605) 773-4961
doh.sd.gov/vitalrecords

Web Sites

Resources

• Grave Records of Minnehaha County Cemeteries (Sioux Valley Genealogical Society)

• History of South Dakota by Doane Robinson (B.F. Bowen & Co.)

• History of South Dakota by Herbert Samuel Schell and John E. Miller (South Dakota State Historical Society Press)

• A New South Dakota History edited by Harry F. Thompson (Center for Western Studies)

• The Sioux in South Dakota History: A Twentieth-Century Reader edited by Richmond L. Clow (South Dakota State Historical Society)

• South Dakota History: An Annotated Bibliography by Herbert T. Hoover and Karen P. Zimmerman (Greenwood Press)

Organizations and Archives

• Augustana College Center for Western Studies
2001 S. Summit Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57197, (800) 727-2844

• NARA Central Plains Region

2312 E. Bannister Road, Kansas City, MO 64131, (816) 268-8000