Brookings/Hillcrest Park

Brookings, the county seat of Brookings County, was platted on October 3-4, 1879, when the Northwestern Railroad reached the site. Some early store buildings were moved overland from Fountain and Medary, which soon became ghost towns. After an election contest with Aurora and Volga in November 1879, Brookings replaced Medary as county seat. Residents voted to incorporate the village on May 2, 1881, and a city charter was approved on May 9, 1883. Severe winters in 1880-1881 and 1887-1888 brought storms, blizzards, and deep snow that halted rail communication for many weeks. A college was established there by the territorial legislature on February 21, 1881, after residents donated 80 acres, and Old Central was erected in 1884; classes began in September 1884 with 35 students, and the first degree was granted in 1886. Old Central remained in use until 1962, when it and Old North were razed. The town grew steadily, with county and town populations rising through 1960, and for several decades the county ranked sixth in the state's population. The town, township, and county were named for Judge Wilmot Wood Brookings, a pioneer squatter governor and promoter of Dakota Territory, and in its early decades Brookings was known as the city of trees because residents took great interest in planting trees and beautifying the city. Hillcrest Park occupies the original tree claim of Marthin Christianson, a native of Gjovik, Norway, who emigrated in 1850 with a large colony of which only 12 survived the cholera plague. He came to Medary Township from Coon Valley, Wisconsin, in 1878. As a spotter in the Wisconsin woods at age 30, he once led a lost logging party back to safety by reasoning that moss grew only on the north side of trees and that heading north would lead them to a clearing. Later injured by a tree and forced to spend much of his savings to recover, he homesteaded the quarter section north of this site, planted ash, cottonwood, and maple trees, and claimed the land that became Hillcrest Park under the Timber Culture Act, which required a homesteader to plant and grow 10 acres of trees on 160 acres of land, or 5 acres on 80 acres, over 8 years to claim the full tract. Christianson was among the first settlers within what became Brookings city limits. Brookings also has Pioneer Park, Sexauer Park, Conservation Park, Oakwood State Park, and Lake Hendricks State Park.

Brookings, South Dakota · United States