.Shannon County is located in the southern part of South Dakota along the Nebraska state line. It is between Bennett County to the east and Fall River County to the west. Shannon County was one of the original counties, organized on 11 Jan 1875 from unorganized territory and named for Peter Shannon (born 1821), chief Justice of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court from 1873 to 1882. Shannon County is attached to Fall River County, and the county seat is located Hot Springs, Fall River County. Within the borders of Shannon County is the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota Sioux Nation. The reservation has its own Tribal Council as its form of government, and its own school district.
If you are looking for information prior to the organizing of the state and county you must look in other places. French explorers entered the area of South Dakota in 1742, but their interest waned after the French and Indian War. The US gained the region with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Lewis and Clark made their explorations between 1804-1806. In 1854 Nebraska Territory was created and this area was part of that territory. In 1861 the Dakotas were made into one territory. The Dakota Territory covered all of North and South Dakota, Montana, and northern Wyoming. Montana was taken away in 1864, Wyoming in 1868, and the territory divided into North and South in 1867. South Dakota became a state in 1889.
According to the US Census Bureau Shannon county has a total area of 2,097 square miles and there are 12,466 people, 2,785 households, and 2,353 families residing in the county (as of 2000). Ninety-four percent of the population is Native American.
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Shannon County Genealogy
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Shannon County Neighbors.
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Rootsweb the oldest and largest FREE genealogy site! with useful search engines, online trees, and more
1895 US Atlas maps for every state and county in the US, and links to more than 60,000 more maps!
BLM General Land Office Records online access to original land transfers in public lands states
US Geological Survey Maps query form for locating features (such as cemeteries)
NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) America's national recordkeeper
Internet Public Library the first public library of and for the Internet community
Union Pacific RR History current and historical information
Family Search Family History Library catalog, research guides, 1880 Census, How-to, and more
Special Projects
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At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. Your hosts for this county are John and Susan Malone. Please contact us if you have a desire to add your data to the database.
Special Thanks to Melanie Cox, the former hostess for this site. Her excellent
work in laying this website foundation has been fun and easy to build upon. We wish you the best Melanie!
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