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The Commemorative Quarter for South Dakota





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 Quinn (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 Quinn. 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.

Quinn is located in Pennington County.

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 Pennington County: Custer, Haakon, Jackson, Lawrence, Meade, Oglala Lakota & Weston (WY).

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

  • Pennington County     (The home county of Quinn)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Quinn, with the one closest to Quinn listed first.
    • Wall
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wall have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wall
      • Wall is located in Pennington County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 885 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wall <2>
    • Wasta
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wasta have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wasta
      • Wasta is located in Pennington County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wasta <2>
    • Creighton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Imlay
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Imlay have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Imlay
      • Imlay is located in Pennington County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 7 people
    • Owanka
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Wicksville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wicksville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wicksville
      • Wicksville is located in Pennington County
    • Scenic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Creston ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creston
      • Creston is located in Pennington County
  • Haakon County
    • Philip
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Quinn, with the one closest to Quinn listed first.
    • Cottonwood
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cottonwood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
      • Cottonwood is located in Jackson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10 people
    • Interior
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Weta
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Weta. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weta
      • Weta is located in Jackson County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 5 people
  • Meade County
    • Elm Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Quinn ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Quinn.

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 Quinn covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Mt. Hope Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Hope Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Hope Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cottonwood Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cottonwood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cottonwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Paul Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Paul Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Creighton Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Creighton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Creighton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Owanka Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Owanka Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Owanka Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hilland Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hilland Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hilland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Scenic Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Scenic Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Scenic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dowling Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dowling Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dowling Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<4>

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

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

  • Grindstone
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grindstone have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grindstone
    • Grindstone is located in Haakon County
  • Philip
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Creston ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creston
    • Creston is located in Pennington County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Quinn ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Quinn.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Quinn. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Quinn and those printed in the larger area surrounding Quinn.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 23 miles [37 km]<5> of Quinn.

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 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 Quinn:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Quinn. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Pennington County: www.co.pennington.sd.us/

The official website for State of South Dakota: https://www.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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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 Quinn, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 from Point A (ie- Quinn) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Quinn. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.9886, Longitude: -102.1285       In this case, the coordinates for Quinn have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025