Images of the Past

A granite slab featuring the state seal of South Dakota was dedicated at the Washington Monument on June 22, 1922.

Exploration of what would become eastern Dakota Territory 

Union County, South Dakota was one of the first counties established in Dakota Territory.

A small-town movie theater built in 1913 has opened and closed several times but continues to serve Flandreau's performing arts community.

Four escaped SD State Penitentiary led law enforcement on a multi-day manhunt. It all came to an end on a sideroad west of Murdo.

A log home built by a Norwegian immigrant family in 1869 is the oldest still-standing dwelling in Clay County, South Dakota.

A stone obelisk at the top of a hill in northern Sioux Falls commemorates the lives of Minnehaha County's pioneers. A separate marker tells the story of the Amidon Affair.

A tramway that took tourists from downtown to a park overlooking the City of Custer was short-lived.

Clarence “Shorty“ Harold set up a vendor's booth at the South Dakota State Fair in 1927. After he died in 1966, his far-flung children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren held family reunions at the State Fair every year until 2021.

When fire destroyed most of Murdo, South Dakota's business district in 1910, residents vowed to rebuild bigger and better.