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Lower Brule, South Dakota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Lower Brule unorganized territory. It lies in ZIP code area 57548. It lies near Brule Island (historical). The Survey maps it on the Lower Brule quadrangle. 703 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,444 feet above sea level.

Lower Brule within Lyman County

On record in Lower Brule

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Lower Brule grew from 613 to 703 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010613
2020703+90 (+15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 8 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

767 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 767 fires within 5 miles of Lower Brule between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,792 acres in total. 21 started naturally. 70 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Fireworks258
Misuse of fire by a minor183
Debris and open burning96
Arson/incendiarism70
Equipment and vehicle use58
Smoking32
Natural21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined21
Recreation and ceremony12
Power generation/transmission/distribution10
Other causes6

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 1998Smoking2.0 acresLower Brule AgencyLOOKOUT
8 September 2002Smoking1.0 acresLower Brule AgencyBARN
7 September 2002Fireworksunder an acreLower Brule AgencySUE
7 September 2002Fireworksunder an acreLower Brule AgencySANDY
7 September 2002Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreLower Brule AgencyBRANCH
7 September 1998Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresLower Brule AgencyCOURT
6 September 2008Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreLower Brule AgencyTIRES
6 September 1993Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreLower Brule AgencyPOND

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lyman County

Storms near this place

45 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lower Brule in 45 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 21 hail, 20 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 2 deaths. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2011Flash FloodLower Brule2 killedVery heavy rainfall of 5 to 7 inches brought flash flooding to mainly eastern Lyman county. Many roads were flooded with some washed out. Two women died in two separate vehicles after driving into a washed out portion of a road. One woman was found 100 yards downstream while the other woman was found 4 miles downstream. The accidents were believed to happen between 930 and 10 am. The location was 9 miles north of Reliance on BIA 10 just north of the intersection with Highway 47.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-A trained spotter estimated the winds at 75 mph.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-A peak wind gust of 80 mph was observed by the South Dakota State University mesonet station near Lower Brule. West Central Electric Cooperative reported multiple power outages due to broken poles and wires in and around Lower Brule.
August 2025Flash FloodLower Brule-A trained spotter reported water flowing over the roads in West Brule.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-A South Dakota Mesonet weather station recorded a wind gust of 82 mph.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-A trained spotter estimated 70 mph winds, which caused tree damage and downed powerlines. Solar panels were also damaged.
June 2022Tornado (EFU)Lower Brule-A tornado was observed to be moving east-northeasterly for a short time before becoming rain-wrapped.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty mph winds were estimated.
August 2019HailLower Brule-Tennis to baseball size hail damaged homes and vehicle windows.
August 2019Tornado (EF0)Lower Brule-A tornado touched down briefly in an open area west of Lower Brule with no damage reported.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty mph winds were estimated.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Estimated seventy mph winds overturned several center pivots and flattened corn and beans.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty-five mph winds were estimated.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Ninety mph winds flipped over a pickup truck, removed a large area of shingles on a roof, along with downing many large tree branches.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-One-hundred mph winds or higher caused severe damage in Lower Brule to several buildings along with downing many trees. The roof of the courthouse also sustained damage along with pieces of art destroyed, like tepees at the tribal hall. Light poles at the football field were also bent over. The red cross set up shelter for displaced people.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty mph winds downed an old weakened tree.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty-five mph winds brought down several tree branches.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Seventy mph winds brought down many branches.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-Sixty mph winds were esimated in Lower Brule.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
July 2025HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 2023HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
August 2019HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2018HailLower Brule-no account filed
August 2018HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2017HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2017HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2017HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2017HailLower Brule-no account filed
May 2016HailLower Brule-no account filed
June 2015HailLower Brule-no account filed
September 2005HailLower Brule-no account filed
September 2005HailLower Brule-no account filed
May 2004HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 2004HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 2004Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
August 2004HailLower Brule-no account filed
August 2004HailLower Brule-no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindLower Brule-no account filed
June 2000HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 1999HailLower Brule-no account filed
July 1996HailLower Brule-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lyman County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Council House0.4 miles8
Reliance13.8 miles8
Lyman16.0 miles8
Kennebec19.2 miles8
Oacoma21.9 miles11
Presho27.9 miles6
Iona37.9 miles11
Vivian39.1 miles6

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Lower BruleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2340613The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1256261. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.