Our Genealogy Helper
Introduction ...
We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:
- That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
- We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
- On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.
By learning about Fort Pierre (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.
As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Fort Pierre. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.
Name Variations for Fort Pierre ...
When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.
Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.
For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Pierre: Ft. Pierre
If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.
Neighboring Counties ...
When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.
For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.
So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived: their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.
If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.
Fort Pierre is located in Stanley County and is the County Seat.
To see how the shape of South Dakota's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Stanley County: Dewey, Haakon, Hughes, Jones, Lyman, Sully & Ziebach.
Below are the counties that are near Fort Pierre. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Fort Pierre:
- Stanley County (The home county of Fort Pierre)
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierre, with the one closest to Fort Pierre listed first.
- Verendrye Hill
(Less than 2 miles to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verendrye Hill
- Verendrye Hill is located in Stanley County
- Estimated population in 2014: 5 people
- Teton
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest) - Lacy
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Hughes County
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierre, with the one closest to Fort Pierre listed first.
- Pierre
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pierre have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pierre
- Pierre is located in Hughes County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 13,708 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pierre <2>
- Oahe
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest) - Alto
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alto
- Alto is located in Hughes County
- Canning
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east) - Blunt
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blunt
- Blunt is located in Hughes County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 352 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Blunt <2>
- Jones County
- Draper
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Draper have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draper
- Draper is located in Jones County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 69 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Draper <2>
- Draper
- Lyman County
- Vivian
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vivian have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vivian
- Vivian is located in Lyman County
- Estimated population in 2014: 149 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vivian <2>
- Vivian
- Sully County
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierre, with the one closest to Fort Pierre listed first.
- Okobojo
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the north) - Onida
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Onida
- Onida is located in Sully County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 628 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Onida <2>
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Fort Pierre, see our County-by-County Page for Fort Pierre.
Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Fort Pierre ...
An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.
Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 75 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Pierre.
We have organized these newspapers into two lists:
- A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Fort Pierre. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Fort Pierre and those printed in the larger area surrounding Fort Pierre.
- An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Fort Pierre.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.
To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Fort Pierre:
- Websites specific to South Dakota
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Website for the South Dakota State Archives
- Pages specific to Stanley County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Hughes County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Jones County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Lyman County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Sully County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Hughes County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for South Dakota
- Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of South Dakota
- Cyndi's List
- Cemeteries of South Dakota
- Cemeteries of Stanley County
- FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of South Dakota
- Find-A-Grave: Home Page
- Interment.net
- Cemeteries of South Dakota
- Cemeteries of Stanley County
Cemeteries Near Fort Pierre ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Pierre.
This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.
If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Fort Pierre covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fort Pierre, with the one closest to Fort Pierre listed first.
- Cedar Hill Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cedar Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cedar Hill Cemetery
- Scotty Philip Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)- To give a relative sense of its location, the Scotty Philip Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<3> to the southeast of Fort Pierre.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Scotty Philip Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97680 <4>
- Riverside Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverside Cemetery
- Calvary Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Cemetery
- Lone Grave Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lone Grave Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lone Grave Cemetery
- Blunt Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blunt Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blunt Cemetery
- Okobojo Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Okobojo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Okobojo Cemetery
- Holy Faith Cemetery
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Faith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Faith Cemetery
- Chapelle Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chapelle Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #96870 <4>
Nearby Communities in 1895 ...
We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<5>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Fort Pierre had a population of 360 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Fort Pierre had a population of 2,236 people.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Fort Pierre, with the one closest to Fort Pierre listed first.
- Oahe
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest) - Rousseau
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the east) - Canning
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east) - Okobojo
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the north) - Blunt
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blunt
- Blunt is located in Hughes County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 352 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Blunt <2>
- De Grey
(23 miles [37 km] to the east) - Onida
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Onida
- Onida is located in Sully County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 628 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Onida <2>
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Fort Pierre. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fort Pierre.
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Fort Pierre. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of South Dakota: sd.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <2> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Fort Pierre) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Pierre. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.3549, Longitude: -100.3740 |
| <4> | The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com. |
| <5> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Fort Pierre, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |