Webster was founded in 1881 and named for J.P. Webster, who homesteaded the townsite. It served as a railroad supply point for Fort Sisseton, also called Fort Wadsworth, a frontier outpost established 20 miles north in 1864. As the gateway to northeastern South Dakota's lake region, an abundance of game led the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux to settle there and attracted hunters and fur traders from afar in the pre-settlement era. Once nicknamed "The Buffalo Republic," it stands on a site where vast herds of shaggy bison roamed and Indian trails zig-zagged from the lakes to the Missouri. Indian mounds still yield artifacts, and stagecoach ruts remain visible on the prairies. The region became one of diversified farming, extensive dairying, livestock growing, and modern farmsteads, while fine homes, schools, and churches replaced the sod shanties of the early pioneers and power machinery displaced the ox team of the last century. Webster is home to the Day County Hospital, the Prairie States Saline Water Conversion Plant, the Bethesda Nursing Home, the Lake Region Electric Association, and the Day County Museum.