Indians from the Lake Region in what is now northeastern South Dakota visited this area frequently in the early 1800's, and white traders also traveled this way while buying furs. Horace J. Austin's government survey party arrived on June 21, 1879, and began work. On October 15, 1880, the Hastings & Dakota Division of the Milwaukee Railroad reached Siding No. 70 near this site, and the Railway Townsite Company laid out a townsite that C. P. Prior, the townsite agent, named for Bristol, England. The first building was a hotel built by R. P. Brokaw to serve railroad workers. When the railroad crews moved westward, Brokaw remained and was joined in 1882 by a small band of people who established homes and formed the nucleus of the new town. F. W. Lowell became the first postmaster on 4 October 1881. Matt Evans erected the first general store in 1882, and the first school, with Kate Northrup as teacher for a salary of $25 per month and board, was built in 1883. Bristol was incorporated as a village in 1889 and as a city in 1921. Near the western edge of the Coteau Hills at an altitude of 1775 feet, it is surrounded by fertile farming country and is the third largest city of Day County.