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Posts under ‘A Jerauld County history’

Old map shows Wessington Springs received the name earlier than previously thought

Jul 21st, 2009
by Craig Wenzel.
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THE NOBLES TRAIL MAP of 1858 shows “Wessington Springs” along the banks of what was then called Plateau du Coteau du Missouri, and now known as the Wessington Hills. Could it be that Wessington Springs could have been named first and the Hills for them? It looks like a good possibility. It appears like the Nobles Trail team named the place before the name was printed. The group did name features along the way, for example, Col. Nobles named Lake Thompson after Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior under President Buchanan. Did either Col Nobles or engineer Samual A. Medary name Wessington Springs. Was it named after the town of the same name (Wessington) in Berbyshire, England? Or another prominent person named Wessington? Maybe our readers can help solve the mystery once and for all with a search on the Internet. The superintendent of the project was William H. Nobles, born in New York in 1816. He came to Minnesota in 1841, died at St. Paul in 1876. Samual A. Medary was the engineer on the project and was the son of Minnesota Governor Samuel A. Medary. The project’s official name was the fort Ridgely and south pass wagon road, also known as Noble’s Trail.
THE NOBLES TRAIL MAP of 1858 shows “Wessington Springs” along the banks of what was then called Plateau du Coteau du Missouri, and now known as the Wessington Hills. Could it be that Wessington Springs could have been named first and the Hills for them? It looks like a good possibility.
The information for the Fort Ridgely Pass Road is shown above as it appears in the lower right hand corner of a map put on loan to the Jerauld County Heritage Center. The map was loaned to the Heritage Center by the 12-county Heartland Historical Society.
The information for the Fort Ridgely Pass Road is shown above as it appears in the lower right hand corner of a map put on loan to the Jerauld County Heritage Center.

Like the old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

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History

Dec 2nd, 2008
by Craig Wenzel.
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History

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A brief history of Jerauld County

Jerauld County straddles the moraine between the James and Missouri River. The moraine is often called the Wessington Hills. The eastern part is flat, rich land which once lay at the bottom of the glacial Lake Dakota. The county was named for H.A. Jerauld, a territorial legislator from Canton, SD.

Wessington Springs, the county seat, was named for an early explorer who found a natural way to scale the heights of the moraine. Wessington Springs has many natural springs.

Read the rest here (1:18 mins left)