Editing Kingsbury County, South Dakota (section)

==History==
[[John C. Frémont|John C. Fremont]] surveyed the area in 1838, naming lakes Preston and Albert.<ref name="HistorySD">History of Southeastern Dakota, Its Settlement and Growth (Sioux City, Iowa: Western Publishing Company, 1881), 270–272.</ref> The 1851 [[Treaty of Mendota]] with the [[Santee Sioux]] and the [[Yankton Treaty|1858 Yankton Treaty]] ceded the region for American settlement.<ref name="Robinson">Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota (B.F. Bowen & Co., 1904), 136.</ref> American presence was minimal until the [[Dakota Boom]], with the notable exception of Jacob Hanson's settlement at [[Lake Albert (Kingsbury County, South Dakota)|Lake Albert]] in 1873.<ref name="Robinson" />

Settlement surged in 1879 with the [[Chicago and North Western Railway|Chicago & North Western Railroad’s]] extension to De Smet.<ref name="HistorySD" /> Kingsbury County was created in 1873, named for territorial legislators George W. and T. A. Kingsbury and was organized on December 13, 1879 with De Smet as the county seat.<ref name="HistorySD" /> Settlements at Lake Preston, Arlington, and Iroquois grew rapidly, driven by the railroad and fertile prairie lands. By 1880, the county’s population reached 1,234.<ref name="HistorySD" />

Agriculture, particularly corn and wheat, anchored early economic growth, with towns like Lake Preston boasting mills and newspapers by 1881.<ref name="HistorySD" /> De Smet gained fame as the setting for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s [[Little House on the Prairie|Little House]] series, including [[The Long Winter (novel)|The Long Winter]] and [[Little Town on the Prairie]], chronicling her family’s life there from 1879.<ref>Robinson, 137.</ref>