This project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
and based at the South Dakota State Archives in Pierre, SD

The South Dakota Newspaper Project

The Gary Inter State office, 1885. Gary was the first railhead in the part of Dakota Territory that became South Dakota, according to Robert Karolevitz, author of With a Shirt Tail Full of Type: The Story of Newspapering in South Dakota.

Newspapers Tell the South Dakota Story
Red Cloud, Wild Bill Hickok, Crazy Horse and Calamity Jane are more than American legends. In South Dakota, they are yesterday's news. Their lives and deaths run in typeset lines down the columns of the state's historic newspapers. Obituaries and articles stretching back to 1859 record the lives of European immigrants who settled the grasslands, of Indians who fought to keep ancestral hunting grounds, of Old West characters who swarmed to the Black Hills seeking the sparkle of gold. Notable South Dakotans who wrote the news include L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Carrie Ingalls Swanzey, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame.

Who Uses These Old Newspapers?
The 1,000 South Dakota newspaper titles on 12,000 microfilm reels are the most heavily used historical records at the State Archives in Pierre, SD. People with South Dakota roots read obituaries published in newspapers to learn about their family histories. Scholars research newpaper stories for articles and books. Even Hollywood needs South Dakota newspapers: creators of the movie Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer and Graham Greene, did research in the State Archives collection of newspapers before filming. Documentaries such as HBO's Paha Sapa: The Struggle for the Black Hills, have also drawn on this collection.

How Are These Newspapers Preserved?
The South Dakota State Historical Society, of which the Archives is part, began collecting newspapers for microfilming in the late 1950s. The Society has preserved older newspaper collections while filming currently published titles. The Archives now owns more than 12,000 reels of microfilmed newspapers--the largest known collection of South Dakota newspapers. But many titles and issues are missing. Some of the older microfilm is illegible, damaged or disorganized. The South Dakota Newspaper Project is a Historical Society and National Endowment for the Humanities effort to resolve as many of these problems as possible. Finding the old newspapers that fill the gaps in the collection is also an urgent matter. They were published on acidic paper that quickly yellows and crumbles.

What Does the South Dakota Newspaper Project Do?
We borrow newspapers from their owners and microfilm them. Only in rare instances does the State Archives preserve fragile newsprint. Papers are returned to their owners, if requested. Produced and handled properly, the microfilm will last several hundred years. By making additional copies of the master negative over time, these newspapers can be preserved practically forever. Public accessibility to information about these newspapers is the second major goal of the South Dakota Newspaper Project. A catalog record is created for each South Dakota newspaper name. This database record includes basic information gathered from an issue-by-issue inventory, such as name of the paper, places it was published, name of publisher, frequency of publication, year founded, the year it ceased publication, and its relationship to other newspapers through mergers.

The records are available for searching on the South Dakota State Archives catalog available through the South Dakota Library Network (SDLN), the electronic library catalog at many local libraries.

Microfilm reels are available through inter-library loan from the State Archives.  Researchers may also purchase microfilm copies of most titles that are in the collection. See the current fee schedule for prices.

Cataloging Progress

Cataloging of all titles is virtually complete. The records of each title are available to the public via the South Dakota Library Network.  New titles will be added as they are received.

Anyone with information about missing newspapers should contact, archref@state.sd.us

Help Us Preserve the South Dakota Story

Contact us if you know of unique collections of South Dakota newspapers held by individuals, publishers or institutions. Our e-mail address is: archref@state.sd.us

You can also write the project at:

South Dakota Newpaper Project
State Historical Society
900 Governors Drive
Pierre, SD 57501-2217

Or call: (605) 773-3804

This couple put out The Caton Advertiser in Meade County, possibly at the turn of the century. The federal government required homesteaders to advertise their intention to secure title to land in such "final-proof" newspapers. Photograph from South Dakota State Archives.

SD State Archives,  605-773-3804, fax 605-773-6041; email archref@state.sd.us