Land for Sale in South Dakota

Even since the first explorers came to the region, land for sale in South Dakota has been highly desirable. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the French sent explorers and Jesuits to settle the area. In 1743, Francois and Joseph La Verendrye claimed the area near present-day Fort Pierre, South Dakota for the French king, Louis XV.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson paid France three cents per acre for 800,000 square miles of land known as the Louisiana Purchase—which contained all or part of 13 current states, including South Dakota. Shortly thereafter, President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map the region. Lewis and Clark’s expedition was to make land for sale in South Dakota even more sought-after.

As the white man pressed further and further west, armed conflict with the Indians soon broke out. Eventually, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, a peace pact between the U.S. government and the Lakota Tribe, temporarily ended the conflict. Under terms of this treaty, the Lakota Tribe was given the Black Hills as a permanent location to live and hunt.

However, one big event upset the peace. In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills—and hordes of white settlers and gold miners invaded the region owned by the Lakota Tribe. War broke out, as the Indians fought back to retain their lands, and the U.S. Cavalry, under Lt. Col. George Custer, was dispatched to protect the settlers and miners. In essence, the U.S. government reneged on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

In 1876, Custer was killed in the battle of the Little Big Horn, but a few short years later, the Indians were defeated and moved to a new reservation. South Dakota became a state in 1889, and since that time, land for sale in South Dakota has been a highly desired asset that has steadily increased in value through the years.

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