Lake

Formed January 8, 1873 (25^th county)

Lake County (11,057), Madison (6,192)                

The brown brick and masonry Art Deco building was built in 1934.  There was an 1884 courthouse earlier in Madison, the only county seat.  The courthouse is located at the intersection of Center Street and Harth Avenue.  The building designers were Hugill and Blatherwick.  South Dakota State Highway 34 passes one block east of the facility.  The structure is on a hill with veteran memorials on the grounds.  The county was established on January 8, 1873 as the 25^th county.  Lake County is named for local lakes.  The county seat is named for Madison, Wisconsin. 

Lake County government consists of a sheriff and 5 Commissioners.  Five Circuit Court Judges and One Magistrate Court Judge serve Lake, Beadle, Brookings, Clark, Codington, Deuel, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Miner, Moody, and Sanborn counties.  Lake County is in the southeast part of the state.  Sioux Falls, South Dakota is directly southeast of the county and Pierre, South Dakota is west.  The county center is in Madison 1.4 miles Northeast of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Brookings, Moody, Minnehaha, McCook, Miner, and Kingsbury counties. 

The area of the county is 563 square miles.  It is 56 out of 66 in the state.  It ranks 16 out of 66 in population in the state.  It has a density of 19.6 persons per square mile making it 13 out of 66 in the state.  Lake County has 62.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 81 enters the county from the north, Kingsbury/Brookings counties and exits to the west, Miner County.  The county is a rectangle.  Madison is located slightly south of center in the county.  Madison is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 56.0% of the county population.

Wentworth