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Harding County, South Dakota

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

56historic places

—earliest paper

1881formed

1,311pop. 2020

23cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 56 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1982. Most listings are in or near Ludlow, Ralph, Buffalo.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for South Dakota is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Harding titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

12 of 56 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

56 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Archeological Site No. 39HN1	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN121	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN150	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN155	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN159	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN160	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN162	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN165	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN167	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN168	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN17	Ludlow	Site	1993
Archeological Site No. 39HN171	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN174	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN177	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN18	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN198	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN199	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN205	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN207	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN208	Ludlow	Site	1993
Archeological Site No. 39HN209	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN21	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN210	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN213	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN217	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN218	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN219	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN22	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN227	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN228	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN232	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN234	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN26	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN30	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN484	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN485	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN486	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN487	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN5	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN50	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN53	Ludlow	Site	1994
Archeological Site No. 39HN54	Ludlow	Site	1994
Ashcroft, Thomas, Ranch	Buffalo	Building	1987
Blake Ranch House	Gustave	Building	1987
Emmanuel Lutheran Church and Cemetery	Ralph	Building	1987
Fowler Hotel	Buffalo	Building	2008
Giannonatti Ranch	Ludlow	Building	1987
Golden Valley Norwegian Lutheran Church	Ralph	Building	1987
Johnson, Axel, Ranch	Reva	Building	1987
Lightning Spring (39HN204)	Ludlow	Site	1982
Little Missouri Bank Building	Camp Crook	Building	1987
Livingston, John and Daisy May, Ranch	Sorum	Building	1987
Peace Valley Evangelical Church and Cemetery	Ralph	Building	1987
Shevling, L. W., Ranch	Harding	Building	1987
Stokes, Oliver O., House	Harding	Building	1987
Vessey School	Haley	Building	1987

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Harding was formed in 1881 (1881-03-05) from unknown / original county.

HARDING created by Dakota Territory in present South Dakota, plus part of present North Dakota, from Non-County Area 1.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Harding County population from 1890 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1890	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
167	3,953	3,010	2,289	2,371	1,700	1,353	1,311

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

23 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 23 of 23 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Alma Cemetery	45.64692	-103.84831
Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery	45.83755	-103.37622
Bringa Cemetery	45.79141	-103.75676
Buffalo Cemetery	45.57416	-103.54907
Cave Hills Lutheran Cemetery	45.68901	-103.56662
Emanuel Lutheran Cemetery	45.83488	-103.19162
Fairview Cemetery	45.54471	-103.9977
Golden Valley Cemetery	45.88504	-102.9431
Grand River Cemetery	45.51193	-103.69352
Gustave Cemetery	45.27248	-103.95548
Ladner Cemetery	45.82388	-103.76991
Lady of Victory Cemetery	45.89157	-103.12937
Lodgepole Butte Baptist Cemetery	45.86022	-103.14905
Nathanel Lutheran Cemetery	45.93523	-103.45858
Old Grand River Cemetery	45.61943	-103.46285
Peace Valley Cemetery	45.83742	-102.9835
Ralph Lutheran Cemetery	45.77684	-103.06571
Redig Cemetery	45.27137	-103.50184
Saint Isidore Cemetery	45.71772	-103.06367
Saint Johns Lutheran Cemetery	45.89325	-103.01513
Short Pine Cemetery	45.41443	-103.8088
Slim Buttes Battlefield Monument Cemetery	45.54342	-103.12482
Slim Buttes Cemetery	45.54523	-103.03367

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Harding County, South Dakota

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