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 Spearfish (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 Spearfish. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.
Spearfish is located in Lawrence 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 Lawrence County: Butte, Meade, Pennington, Crook (WY) & Weston (WY).
Below are the counties that are near Spearfish. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Spearfish:
- Lawrence County (The home county of Spearfish)
- The following are listed by their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- North Spearfish
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
- North Spearfish is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Spearfish
- Population from the 2010 Census: 2,221 people
- Carbonate ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate
- Maurice
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Maurice is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurice
- Saint Onge
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
- Lancaster City ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Lancaster City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster City
- Estimated population in 2014: 419 people
- Preston
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- Preston is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Preston
- Estimated population in 2014: 185 people
- Ragged Top ‑ Historic
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- Ragged Top is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ragged Top
- Estimated population in 2014: 73 people
- Central City
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Central City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
- Deadwood
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Crook City
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Crook City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
- Trojan
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Trojan is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trojan
- Estimated population in 2014: 627 people
- Lead
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Savoy
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Butte County
- The following are listed by their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Belle Fourche
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Fruitdale
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Nisland
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
- Vale
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Newell
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
- Meade County
- The following are listed by their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Sturgis
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Tilford
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
- Tilford is located in Meade County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilford
- Piedmont
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
- Pennington County
- The following are listed by their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Rochford
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Myersville
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
- Myersville is located in Pennington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Myersville
- Estimated population in 2014: 10 people
- Fairview ‑ Historic
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
- Fairview is located in Pennington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
- Estimated population in 2014: 65 people
- Mystic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
- Mystic is located in Pennington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mystic
- Canyon City ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
- Canyon City is located in Pennington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canyon City
- Crook County (WY)
- The following are listed by their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Beulah
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Aladdin
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
- Moskee ‑ Historic
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
- Moskee is located in Crook County (WY)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moskee
- Sundance
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
- Weston County (WY)
- Horton ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
- Horton is located in Weston County (WY)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horton
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Spearfish, see our County-by-County Page for Spearfish.
Cemeteries Near Spearfish ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spearfish.
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 Spearfish - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Spearfish covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Rose Hill Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the south)
- Carbonate Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- St. Onge Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
- Anderson Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Preston Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- Mt. Moran Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Mt. Moriah Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Seth Bullock Grave
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- St. Ambrose Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Little Dane Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
- Terry Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- West Lead Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Lead Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the West Lead Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Lead.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1967595 <2>
- Continue List (29 more) ...
- South Lead Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Lead Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the South Lead Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Lead.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2180695 <2>
- Oak Ridge Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Pine Slope Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 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>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Spearfish had a population of 678 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Spearfish had a population of 11,900 people.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Spearfish, with the one closest to Spearfish listed first.
- Carbonate ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate
- Saint Onge
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
- Central City
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Central City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
- Terraville
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Terraville is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terraville
- Deadwood
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Lead
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Pluma
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Pluma is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pluma
- Crook City
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Crook City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
- Whitewood
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Belle Fourche
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Beulah
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Englewood
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
- Englewood is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englewood
- Estimated population in 2014: 25 people
- Continue List (15 more) ...
- Snoma ‑ Historic
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
- Snoma is located in Butte County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snoma
- Woodville
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
- Woodville is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodville
- Galena
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Galena is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Spearfish. See our List of 1890's Communities around Spearfish.
Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Spearfish ...
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 116 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spearfish.
We have organized these newspapers into two lists:
- A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Spearfish. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Spearfish and those printed in the larger area surrounding Spearfish.
- An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Spearfish.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Spearfish:
- Websites specific to South Dakota
- Pages specific to Lawrence County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Butte County
- Meade County
- Pennington County
- Crook County
- Weston County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for South Dakota
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 Spearfish, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Spearfish) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |