Historical Marker · No. 258

Roberts County / Day County

Roberts County · South Dakota
Erected by Roberts County Commissioners Hull, Christofferson, Helgeson, Dybdahl and Dickenson; State Bank of Waubay, 1959

Both faces treat the Reservation Line as a survey from the past; the nation it bounded governs here still. The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate is seated at Agency Village, south of Sisseton, under a constitution approved on October 16, 1946, with an elected council, chairman, vice chairman and secretary serving two-year terms. The state counts about 12,400 enrolled members and a trust land base of 108,589 acres across five counties of the old reservation. Sisseton Wahpeton College, founded in 1979, began as a vocational school and now grants bachelor's degrees.

What the plaque says

You are entering Roberts County South Dakota Long the home of Sisseton, Wahpeton & Cuthead Yanktonaise Sioux, it became part of Deuel & Cheyenne Counties in 1862; Deuel ex- tending N to 46th parallel (4 miles N) in 1872. The Reservation extending S to Lake Kampeska in a giant flatiron was established in 1867. Grant County included the part SE of the Reservation from 1873 to 1883, when Roberts County, named for S. G. Roberts, Territorial Councilman of Fargo, was created. Org. Aug. 6, 1883 by Frederick Dittes, Charles Crissey, Indian Agent and Reuben R. Hall, at Dittes' Residence, Travare 2 miles SW of Browns Valley was named county seat. In 1884 Wilmot won the election but, losing two court actions, stole the records and it was named by 1885 Legislature as county seat. It in turn lost an election in 1898 to Sisseton, who, fearing court action, in turn stole the records to again win approval in the 1900 election. White settlement on the Reservation came in 1892 and the railroad to Sisseton in 1893. Post offices were: Sisseton Agency, 1872; Wilmot, 1881; White Rock, 1885; Corona, 1886; Summit, Sisseton and Effington, 1892. Rosholt, Victor, Hammer, Claire City, 1914, when the Soo Line entered the county. With great historic background (see giant map at Sisseton) many lakes, wonderful vistas from its high coteau, a pictur- esque and fruitful countryside, Roberts County welcomes you. Erected 1959 by Roberts County Commissioners Hull, Christofferson, Helgeson, Dybdahl and Dickenson You are entering Day County South Dakota Created west of the Sisseton Reservation Line, surveyed in 1869; from Greeley (South) and Stone (North) so named in 1873; by the Legislature of 1879; it was named for Merritt H. Day of Turner County, a member. Before that, its area had been in a Gigantic Hanson County (1870). Its first white resident was Francis Rondelle, a trader, in the area as early as 1868 and who was located by Horace J. Austin, surveyor, living 2 miles west of the present Waubay in October, 1877. Earl P. Owen settled near Minnewaste Lake in April 1877 and was Postmaster at Wahbay, at the east end of Waubay Lake on November 3rd, 1879. In 1880, the Milwaukee, pushing in from the east, had its first train into Webster City, on J. P. Webster's homestead, on October 27th. The Reporter & Farmer started in September, 1881 and on January 2nd, 1882, Charles Warner, Lansing Sykes and George Bryant, as County Commissioners, organized Day County and named Webster county seat. The present area east of the Reservation Line was added in 1883 and its southern tier of townships taken from Clark and became part of Day in 1885. Located, in the main, on the High Coteau, its Lakes Pickerel, long and deep, Enemy Swim, Blue Dog, Waubay and 13 lesser but sizeable lakes abound in fish and waterfowl; and its richly grassed uplands supply cover for other game birds, making the county a Sportsman's paradise. Erected 1959 by State Bank of Waubay

Where it stands

45.33549, -97.22175 · Directions

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