The valley land in the Hidewood Creek drainage looks much as it did before pioneers came. Hidewood Creek lies one and one-half miles south, and its name reflects the prairie past of this territory: after the War of the Outbreak, also called the Great Sioux Uprising, in Minnesota in 1862, many Sioux fled into this area and took refuge in clumps of timber along the creek, giving rise to the name Hidewood. The surrounding area contains many of the threads woven into the settlement of Dakota Territory. Deuel County was created in 1862 by the first Territorial Legislature. In 1872, one of the first railroads entered Dakota Territory at present-day Gary, twenty miles northeast, before much of this region was settled. In contests over county seat status, Clear Lake competed with Gary until 1890, when Clear Lake gained that position, while Castlewood in Hamlin County, twelve miles west, served as county seat from 1884 to 1914 before losing that honor to Hayti. Religion also figured prominently in settlers' lives, as shown by the Tabor Evangelical Church about two miles northeast, founded in 1888 and used until 1959, and by the nearby cemetery where many area pioneers are buried.