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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Heppner (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 Heppner. 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.

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 doctors and 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.

Heppner is located in Fall River County.

To see how the shape of South Dakota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Fall River County: Dawes (NE), Sioux (NE), Custer, Oglala Lakota & Niobrara (WY).

Below are the counties that are near Heppner. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Heppner:

  • Fall River County     (The home county of Heppner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Heppner, with the one closest to Heppner listed first.
    • Rocky Ford
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Rocky Ford is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Ford
      • Estimated population in 2014: 6 people
    • Cascade Springs
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Cascade Springs is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cascade Springs
    • Rumford
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Rumford is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rumford
    • Erskine
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Erskine is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erskine
    • Hot Springs
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Edgemont
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Provo
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Oelrichs
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Ardmore ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Ardmore is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ardmore
    • Smithwick
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Oral
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Oral is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oral
      • Estimated population in 2014: 206 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Oral <1>
    • Marietta
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Marietta is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marietta
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Heppner, with the one closest to Heppner listed first.
    • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
      • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
    • Buffalo Gap
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Pringle
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Sioux County (NE)
    • Montrose ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Montrose is located in Sioux County (NE)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montrose

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Heppner, see our County-by-County Page for Heppner.

Cemeteries Near Heppner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Heppner.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Heppner - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Heppner covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Heppner, with the one closest to Heppner listed first.

  • Highland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Horsehead Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Duck Creek Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Hot Springs National Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Smithwick Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Edgemont Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Hillside Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Hines Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Buffalo Gap Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Montrose Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Pringle Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)

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.<3>

While we didn't find Heppner in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Heppner.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Heppner, with the one closest to Heppner listed first.

  • Rumford
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Rumford is located in Fall River County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rumford
  • Erskine
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Erskine is located in Fall River County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erskine
  • Hot Springs
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Provo
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Minnekahta
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Minnekahta is located in Fall River County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minnekahta
  • Edgemont
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Ardmore ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Ardmore is located in Fall River County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ardmore
  • Oelrichs
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
    • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
  • Smithwick
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Argyle
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Argyle is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argyle
  • Buffalo Gap
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Marietta
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Marietta is located in Fall River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marietta
    • Montrose ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Montrose is located in Sioux County (NE)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montrose
    • Pringle
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Heppner. See our List of 1890's Communities around Heppner.

Newspapers Published in Heppner ...

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 29 newspapers that have been published in the area around Heppner.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Heppner, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Heppner.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Heppner:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>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 Heppner, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Heppner) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.