History of Brookings

With its lush green river valleys, rich soil, and plentiful wildlife, it is no wonder that history dating back to 1500 BC shows artifacts of many different groups of people that lived prosperously in the Brookings area. The Big Sioux River winds its way southward through Brookings County; its waters having been a great attraction to wandering peoples and settlers. Brookings' many lakes, including the Oakwood Lakes and Lake Campbell, also served as attractive settlement areas in early times. Rich wildlife habitats, which sustained buffalo, deer, elk, and many others, supported the needs of many Native Americans and white settlers that found their way through the Brookings area.

W. W. Brookings - Pioneer Promoter

The county and the city got their names from one of South Dakota's greatest pioneer promoters, Wilmot W. Brookings. Brookings set out for the Dakota Territory in June of 1857. He arrived at Sioux Falls on August 27, 1857, and became one of the first settlers there. He and his group represented the Western Town Company. After a time in Sioux Falls, Brookings and a companion set out for the Yankton area to locate a town in an area that was soon to be ceded by the Native Americans. This trip was begun in January of 1858, and the two soon encountered a blizzard that froze Brookings' feet which both had to be amputated.

Though such a plight would have scared many men from the unsettled Dakota Territory, Brookings was never to be scared away. He rose to a high position in the Territory, once being a member of the Squatter Territorial Legislature and later being elected Squatter Governor. Brookings was a highly respected man with huge amounts of courage, energy, and ability. These traits led Brookings to be appointed superintendent of a road that was to be built from the Minnesota state line west to the Missouri River about 30 miles north of Ft. Pierre. It was during the construction of this road that Brookings came into contact with land that was part of this county at the time. Because of his drive to settle the Dakota Territory, Brookings County and city were named for a spirited pioneer promoter. Wilmot W. Brookings made settlement of this area a real possibility for many people.

The First People in the Brookings Area

The first people to inhabit the Brookings area were the Native Americans. These people are evidenced by mounds found around the Oakwood Lakes area where early inhabitants buried their dead. The Mound Builders have left their legacy to us in the mounds, stone hammers, and stone implements that later Indians and white settlers found as they traversed the area. Many of the Sioux Indians and branches of the Sioux tribe made the area their home, also. Their presence has been accounted by white settlers.

The first white men assumed to have ventured into the Brookings area were fur traders as early as 1750. However, the first white man definitely known to have trekked the Brookings County area was a fur-trader named Joseph LaFramboise. LaFramboise established a trading post near what is now Flandreau. He operated the trading post from 1822 to 1827. It is likely that during the time of his operating the trading post that LaFramboise made his way into the southeastern part of Brookings County.

Medary - The First Town in the Brookings Area

The first actual town that was organized in Brookings County was Medary in 1857. Up to this point, the area had been traveled and utilized by only Native Americans, with a few indistinct traces left showing the penetration of the area by explorers, missionaries, trappers, and traders. Along with Sioux Falls and Flandreau, Medary was one of the first three European settlements to be established in South Dakota.

The first actual site of Medary was located by the Dakota Land Company out of Minnesota which was led by Alpheus G. Fuller and Major Franklin J. DeWitt and accompanied by engineer Samuel A. Medary, Jr. In 1857, the men put up quarters in preparation to live out the winter in Medary. Many other settlers moved into the area in 1858. But in the spring of that year, a large group of Yankton and Yanktonnia Indians drove the settlers from the area, and Medary remained nearly abandoned for the next 11 years.

In 1869, a group of 10 Norwegian pioneers moved west into the Dakota Territory and resettled the area of Medary, which was located about four and one half miles south of present-day Brookings. The county of Brookings was formally organized in Medary in the cabin of Martin Trygstad on July 3, 1871. The original boundaries of the county extended to two miles south of Flandreau, until the territorial legislature relocated the boundaries of the county to the current location on January 8, 1873. Two other small settlements, Oakwood and Fountain, appeared in the Brookings County area around this time. All three settlements hoped that they would be the lucky town by which the railroad would decide to lay tracks through as it moved westward.

The Coming of the Railroad

As it turned out, none of the three towns were chosen to be passed through by the railroad. When the businessmen of Medary and Fountain found out that the railroad had no plans of laying tracks through the two towns, they began a push to find a central location. In a sense, their attitude was 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!' Many private meetings and much effort on the part of the men of Medary and Fountain led to the railroad deciding to lay its tracks through what would become the city of Brookings.

In a letter sent to Chicago on September 30, 1879, Land Commissioner Charles E. Simmons communicated the layout of the series of towns in Brookings County to be passed through by the railroad. These towns were to be Aurora, Brookings, and Volga. Many merchants of Medary and Fountain packed up their businesses and belongings and moved to Brookings, which was surveyed and platted on October 3 and 4, 1879. Fountain ceased to exist after this turn of events, while Medary and Oakwood continued to exist for a while but eventually faded away. A monument still stands at the site of the old Medary as a reminder of the people who once lived there.

The railroad crossed the Minnesota state line and into Brookings County on October 2, 1879. With tracks being built at about one mile per day, the track and first train reached Brookings' Main Street on October 18, 1879. The railroad station was opened a month later.