Map of De Smet city, South Dakota

De Smet is a city in and the county seat of Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,089 at the 2010 census.

De Smet city overview:
Name:	De Smet city
LSAD Code:	25
LSAD Description:	city (suffix)
State:	South Dakota
County:	Kingsbury County
Founded:	1880
Incorporated:	1883
Elevation:	1,726 ft (526 m)
Total Area:	1.16 sq mi (3.00 km²)
Land Area:	1.16 sq mi (3.00 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	1,056
Population Density:	911.92/sq mi (351.97/km²)
ZIP code:	57231
Area code:	605
FIPS code:	4616260
GNISfeature ID:	1265178

Online Interactive Map

Click on to view map in "full screen" mode.

De Smet online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

De Smet location map. Where is De Smet city?

De Smet location on the U.S. Map. Where is De Smet city. — De Smet location on the U.S. Map.

De Smet location on the South Dakota map. Where is De Smet city. — Location of De Smet in South Dakota.

History

Located in the area of South Dakota known as “East River” (east of the Missouri River, which diagonally divides the state), De Smet was platted by European Americans in 1880. It was named for Belgian Father Pierre De Smet, a 19th-century Jesuit missionary who worked with Native Americans in the United States and its territories for most of his life. In the mid 1880s, prairie fires and failures of crops after a three-year period of drought caused many settlers to relocate their farms and homesteads to easier areas. By 1917, De Smet was a cow town, with many trains passing through every day carrying cattle to market.

The Charles Ingalls family, originally of Wisconsin, arrived in De Smet in 1879. Their travels and pioneer life in Minnesota, Kansas, Dakota Territory, and Iowa would be later chronicled in the Little House series of books written by the Ingallses’ second oldest daughter, Laura Elizabeth – later known as Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura Ingalls and her husband Almanzo Wilder would first settle in De Smet along with Wilder’s parents and brother. There the Wilders lived just outside of De Smet on farmland, while the Ingallses stayed in the town of De Smet. After building a home and starting a business there, Charles Ingalls helped to found the First Congregational Church of De Smet, later helping to build the church building, with the first service being held there on August 30, 1882. Ingalls and his wife, along with oldest daughter Mary, were among the church’s eight original charter members.

De Smet Road Map

De Smet city Satellite Map

Geography

De Smet is located in central Kingsbury County at 44°23′9″N 97°33′6″W / 44.38583°N 97.55167°W / 44.38583; -97.55167 (44.385871, -97.551703). It is 33 miles (53 km) east of Huron and 41 miles (66 km) west of Brookings.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.16 square miles (3.00 km), all land.

De Smet has been assigned the ZIP code 57231 and the FIPS place code 16260.