Sanborn County

Sanborn County was first visited by permanent settlers in 1873, according to a publication on file at the Dakotaland Museum.  A claim was taken by George Walker, W.E. Tait, and G.W.Hunter.

It is stated that Hunter made an entry and constructed a side hill dugout as protection against any Indian attack.  There were no roads or trails and a mound of sod, every half mile between Firesteel, down two miles east of Mitchell, was their link with the outside world.

Their nearest neighbor was the Rev. John Morris, just over the Davison County line on Dry Creek, nearly 16 miles away.  In July, 1874, Cyrus B. Ingham, editor of the newspaper at Beloit, Iowa and Canton, Dakota, with W.G. Santee overtook the W.R. Belcher family of Sibley, Iowa and this party came to Sanborn County together.

On July 4, Belcher and Ingham flew a U.S. Flag at the Mound and this was certainly the first flag flown in the county on the Fourth to denote a celebration.  Belcher was a trapper and made two trips a year to Yankton, the market for his furs.

The first year's furs brought $300, not a small amount in that day and tradable for a great quantity of lumber and provisions.

W.G. Santee brought his family, the first in the county, in November, 1874.  It was a severe winter and it was fortunate that several lean steers from the Fort Sully Indian Reservation, perhaps wintering in the Big Bend country, drifted in after a blizzard and afforded the newcomers plenty of not very choice beef.

On April 12, 1875, Glen Santee was born, the first white child born in the county.  That spring William McFarland, who was to make a small fortune in cattle, came and settled in the neighborhood.  Ingham moved his printing office to Firesteel that year and began spasmodic publication of the James Valley News.

He bought a farm there and his family was divided between the farm at Firesteel and his place at the Big Mound.  It was July 12, 1875, when W.G. Santee received his commission as postmaster and the town was called Forestburg.  Ambrose J. Curtis carried the first mail in.  A postal route, semi-weekly, was commenced in 1876, with R.T. Allerton as the contractor.

The route was from Firesteel and the surveying outfits, then active within a 100-mile radius, used Forestburg as their address.  On July Fourth that year a real celebration found 12 whites and many Indians at the Mound.  The next winter was mild and the ice went out on Feb. 20.

The year 1876 saw J.R. Richardson of Dell Rapids making frequent trips into the area in search of antelope and it was through his efforts a route was laid out through Wessington Springs.