![]() ![]() Rainbow Play Systems is also headquartered in Brookings. The project added 250 new jobs in Brookings by the end of 2014. Employment Īccording to the City's 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, its largest employers are:īrookings's unemployment rate is 2.7%, well below the national average of 4.7%.īel Brands USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Paris-based multinational Fromageries BEL or Bel Group, began commercial construction of a 170,000-square-foot Babybel cheese production plant in 2014 in the city's Foster Addition north of the Swiftel Center. The railroad station opened a month later.īrookings was laid out in 1880. With tracks being built at about one mile per day, the track and first train reached Brookings's Main Street on October 18, 1879. The railroad crossed the Minnesota state line into Brookings County on October 2, 1879. A monument still stands at the site of the old Medary as a reminder of the people who once lived there. Fountain ceased to exist Medary and Oakwood remained for a while but eventually faded away. Many merchants of Medary and Fountain packed up their businesses and belongings and moved to Brookings, which was surveyed and platted on October 3 and 4, 1879. Simmons communicated the layout of the series of towns in Brookings County for the railroad to pass through: Aurora, Brookings, and Volga. In a letter sent to Chicago on September 30, 1879, Land Commissioner Charles E. Many private meetings and much effort on the part of the men of Medary and Fountain led the railroad to lay its tracks through what became the city of Brookings. When the businessmen of Medary and Fountain found out that the railroad had no plans to run through the two towns, they began a push to find a central location. In fact, the railroad bypassed all three towns. The railroad bypassed Medary, so it became a ghost town. All three hoped to be the town the railroad would decide to run through as it moved westward. Two other small settlements, Oakwood and Fountain, appeared in the Brookings County area around this time. The territorial legislature established the current boundaries on January 8, 1873. The county's original boundaries extended to two miles south of Flandreau. The county of Brookings was formally organized in Medary in Martin Trygstad's cabin on July 3, 1871. In 1869, a group of 10 Norwegian pioneers moved west into the Dakota Territory and resettled the area of Medary, about four and a half miles south of present-day Brookings. But in the spring of that year, a large group of Yankton and Yanktonnia Indians drove the settlers from the area, and Medary remained nearly abandoned for the next 11 years. Many other settlers moved into the area in 1858. ![]() In 1857, the men put up quarters in preparation to live out the winter in Medary. DeWitt and accompanied by engineer Samuel A. The first site of Medary was located by the Dakota Land Company of Minnesota, led by Alpheus G. Along with Sioux Falls and Flandreau, Medary was one of the first three European settlements established in South Dakota. Before that, the area had been traveled and utilized only by Native Americans, with a few indistinct traces left showing the penetration of the area by explorers, missionaries, trappers, and traders. The first real town organized in Brookings County was Medary, in 1857. He made settlement of this area possible for many people. It was during this road's construction that Brookings came into contact with land that was part of this county at the time. He then was appointed superintendent of a road that was to be built from the Minnesota state line west to the Missouri River about 30 miles north of Ft. This trip began in January 1858, and the two soon encountered a blizzard that froze Brookings's feet, which both had to be amputated.īrookings rose to a high position in the Territory, becoming a member of the Squatter Territorial Legislature and later elected Squatter Governor. After a time in Sioux Falls, Brookings and a companion set out for the Yankton area to locate a town in an area that was soon to be ceded by the Native Americans. He and his group represented the Western Town Company. He arrived at Sioux Falls on August 27, 1857, and became one of the first settlers there. Brookings set out for the Dakota Territory in June 1857. The county and city were both named after one of South Dakota's pioneer promoters, Wilmot Brookings. Also in Brookings are the South Dakota Art Museum, the Children's Museum of South Dakota, the annual Brookings Summer Arts Festival, and the headquarters of several manufacturing companies and agricultural operations. It is the county seat of Brookings County, and home to South Dakota State University, the state's largest institution of higher education. Brookings is South Dakota's fourth largest city, with a population of 23,377 at the 2020 census. Brookings is a city in Brookings County, South Dakota, United States. ![]()
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