Watertown, South Dakota

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Codington County

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 12 of 32 shown

• Carnegie Free Public Librarylisted 1976
• Codington County Courthouselisted 1978
• Amy A. Davis Houselisted 1989
• Curt E. DeGraff Houselisted 1989
• Corson Emminger Round Barnlisted 1978
• Evangelical United Brethren Churchlisted 1989
• James W. Ferris Houselisted 1989
• C.E. and Bertha Fowler Houselisted 2001
• Dr. H. M. Freeburg Houselisted 1989
• A. C. Gilruth Houselisted 1989
• John B. Hanten Houselisted 1990
• Dr. Harry Henningson Houselisted 1989

Every listing in Codington County

Watertown grew from 21,482 to 22,655 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.

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.

• 1953 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
• 1958 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1969 USGS Watertown East quadrangle1:24000
• 1985 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Watertown between 1999 and 2012, burning about 135 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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.

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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Foley
• Appleby
• Rauville
• Green Trees Subdivision
• Grover
• Kampeska

Every fire recorded in Codington County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Watertown: 6 producers, 3 past producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Codington County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Watertown in 95 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 55 hail, 24 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 4 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

Every storm recorded in Codington County

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

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1258841. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.