Custer County was created in 1875 shortly after the discovery of gold in French Creek ignited a gold rush to the area and the Black Hills. In 2010, the County's population was 8,216 with nearly a quarter of those residents (2,067) living in the city of Custer.

The first meeting of Custer County Commissioners took place in April 1877. For most of the 20th century, Custer thrived as a mixed economy of small ranches on the eastern slope of the Black Hills. Tourism in the heart of the Hills has also been important for more than a century. The two largest ranch communities are Buffalo Gap and Hermosa.

Buffalo Gap was a primary railroad depot at the end of the 19th century. In the 1880s and 90s, it was one of the largest towns on the eastern slope of the Black Hills, but twice it was destroyed by fire. Today the town has a population of 125.

With the completion of the Heartland Express along South Dakota Highway 79, Hermosa has grown as a bedroom community for Rapid City, 15 miles away. The town has a growing population of 398.

Custer County is home to Wind Cave National Park, created by Congress in 1903; Jewel Cave National Monument, created by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908; Custer State Park, created in 1913; Crazy Horse Memorial, which was initiated in 1948 by the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and remains a work in progress. The tourism economy of Custer County is also heavily influenced by nearby Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, which receives three million visitors a year.

The per capita income of Custer County residents is $24,156, well above the state average. The median household income is $46,441. In 2010, 10.9 percent of residents lived below the poverty line.

For helpful information on the Custer County area visit the Custer Chamber of Commerce.  Other helpful Community links can be found by clicking here.  The Custer Counservation District has developed a guide full of useful information on Custer County Living.

 In the summer of 1874, the first expedition of Americans entered the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, the heart of the Lakota homeland. The expedition was led by Colonel George Armstrong Custer. A prospector with the expedition discovered trace quantities of gold in French Creek in July, and launched a gold rush. Within months hundreds of prospectors had invaded the Black Hills, and set up illegal mining camps to pan for gold. The Gordon Party from Sioux City, Iowa, built a stockade and wintered into the Spring of 1875. The city of Custer was staked out in 1875. But when gold was discovered in Deadwood Gulch, 56 miles to the north, the gold boom busted, and Custer city became a ghost town overnight.

Arts & Culture

Custer is home to the internationally known Native American artist, Arthur Amiotte. However, he is not the only artist to make his home in the community. Custer’s only commercial gallery, A Walk in the Woods, sells local as well as regional art. It showcases the work of Custer artists Dave Lampert, Robert Fischer, Peg Freitag, and Ronald Reiner, as well as stained glass artist Lynne Kline and photographer Paul Horsted.

Other Custer artists participate in the annual Custer Stampede Buffalo Art Auction each fall. Among them are Isa Kirk, Bonnie Hartpence and Nancy Cambier. Craft artists include potter Pat Lindemann, and wood lathe artist Jerry Green. Artists of the Black Hills, a regional artists marketing cooperative, includes Custer County artists.

Music is an important part of the cultural climate of the Custer County community, with free concerts throughout the summer. Businesses like the Naked Winery host regular entertainment. Local groups include the French Creek Folk and the Pleasant Valley Sunday band.

Throughout the summer, the historic Black Hills Playhouse, located in Custer State Park, offers professional performances of the highest caliber. Popular musicals and delightful comedies attract audiences from a wide area. Every summer the Playhouse attracts theatre professionals, faculty and students from all over the country. With a national reputation for excellence, the Playhouse consistently produces a season of high quality entertainment with something for everyone. 

The most well-known Custer County writer is Linda Hasselstrom, an award-winning poet and essayist from Hermosa. Also living in and around Custer, Lilah Pengra is recognized locally for her historical worksand J.E. Terrall has published a variety of books. Other writers include those who blog regularly such as Pat Lindemann and Mary Gales Askren.

The Custer Area Arts Council serves all of Custer County with four initiatives: Custer Stampede Buffalo Art Auction, Custer Characters Community Theater, Student Art Programming and the Theater Seat Plaque Program. You can keep up with the latest on the Custer Stamped Buffalo Art Auction by following them on Facebook here.

Some of the goals of the Arts Council include:

• Fostering artistic talent and public art
• Supporting economic growth in our community
• Providing art scholarships and funding to Custer County Schools
• Promoting local musical and theatrical talent
• Raising needed funds for the High School Theater

Museums, Libraries & Archives

Located at the Crazy Horse Memorial, The Indian Museum of North America houses “an extraordinary collection of art and artifacts reflecting the diverse histories and cultures of the American Indian people." The museum has a unique design that strives to educate and enlighten present and future generations about American Indian life. Special collections in the museum include the tribal flag collection; the Robert Big Elk exhibit, featuring the work of a Sioux potter whose work is in numerous museum collections, including the Smithsonian; the Standing Soldier – Keith exhibit, featuring artwork by these two men which depicts Native American life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and the Dancey collection, a collection of photographs showing Native American life in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The memorial itself is a mountain which is being carved in the image of a Native American astride a horse. Begun by Korczak Ziolkowski more than 60 years ago, the work is being continued by his family. The Crazy Horse Memorial is located on U.S. Highway 16 north of Custer.

The Custer County Library is located on Crook Street ½ block west of U.S. Highway 16 in Custer. The conveniently located library offers books, movies, sound recordings and reference materials. In addition, the library has computers for use by the public, including one exclusively for genealogical research, and regularly displays works by local artists and photographers. Services through the South Dakota State Library, such as South Dakota Titles to Go, which enables patrons to download ebooks  and audiobooks, are also available. A branch library is also available in Hermosa for patrons who live in the eastern portion of the county.

The Badger Clark Historical Site in Custer State Park, also known as the Badger Hole, was the residence of South Dakota’s first poet laureate, Badger Clark. Built on Legion Lake, the cabin was his residence until his death in 1957. The cabin, south of U.S. Highway 16A on Badger Clark Road, remains the same as it was when he lived there. It is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Also found in Custer State Park are the Peter Norbeck Visitor Center and the Wildlife Station Visitor Center. Both were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp and exhibit displays and information about the Black Hills, including life-sized animal mounts. The Peter Norbeck Visitor Center is located on U.S. Highway 16A and named for the former governor who was instrumental in establishing the park. The Wildlife Station Visitor Center is located on the Wildlife Loop and was constructed as  the buffalo herdsman’s house.

The Custer County 1881 Courthouse Museum in downtown Custer provides both a dynamic snapshot of life in the region, especially during pioneer days, and a host of activities to invite community members and visitors into a living relationship with history. Exhibits in the historic structure contain items of historical value arranged thematically. Among the themes developed are the Gen. George Custer expedition, mining, forestry and family life. The annual country fair, summer concerts and youth activities allow people to share the kinds of experiences their ancestors would have enjoyed.

The Four Mile Old West Town, located four miles west of Custer, is a living history town where people in costume greet visitors from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Visitors can not only walk through a variety of buildings and look at historical photos and memorabilia, but also listen to recorded messages of how people lived in Four Mile during its heyday.

The National Museum of Woodcarving two miles west of Custer offers displays by nationally recognized woodcarvers, scenes created by a Disneyland animator, a wooden nickel theater and a carving studio. Classes are also offered through the museum.

Media and Information

Custer County is the home of a weekly newspaper that is published every Wednesday. The Custer County Chronicle was established in Custer City, Dakota Territory, September 11, 1880. The Chronicle is the official newspaper for the City of Custer; the towns of Buffalo Gap, Fairburn, Hermosa, and Pringle; the County of Custer; and the Custer and Elk Mountain School Districts. A yearly subscription to the Chronicle is $40 for Black Hills residents and $50 elsewhere.

Custer County receives its televised news from KOTA and KEVN out of Rapid City. 

Historical Photos & Documents Online

A number of historic photographs of Custer County are available from the Prints and Photographs Department, Library of Congress including Depression-era works by Arthur Rothstein and an 1890 image of Custer City by John Grabill. To see Grabil's photograph of Custer City in 1890, click here.

Religion

A 2000 survey of religious denominations in the United States provides a limited profile of religious affiliation in Custer County. While the largest group of those surveyed (4,284) did not list a specific institution or denomination, 1,604 residents were identified with Mainline Protestant churches, 678 were listed as belonging to Catholic congregations and 542 were affiliated with Evangelical Protestant churches. We have created a chart of this data.

For a list of Custer County Community Churches along with contact information and service times and locations, please see the attachment below.

Custer County's population was 8,338 as of July 1, 2011 according to estimates by the U.S. Census. This total represented a 1 percent increase over the previous year. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the county grew at a rapid rate of 12 percent between 2000 and the 2010, largely as a product of elderly retirees moving into the county. In 2010, one in five residents was over the age of 65.

The Custer School District includes the Custer High School, Custer Middle School, and Custer Elementary School as well as 3 rural elementary schools: Hermosa, Fairburn, and Spring Creek. To find out more about the Custer School District click here. To receive regular updates on the latest school events including game schedule changes, contact Jennie.Anderson@k12.sd.us to sign up for the CSD Tidbits e-mail newsletter 

Students in the Custer School District take the annual Dakota STEP test to ensure that the district is making adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading and math. According the State of South Dakota's report card, Custer students achieved AYP in all categories in all grades tested in elementary, middle and high schools in the spring of 2011, except for middle school students with disabilities. Custer's high school graduation rate was 95.7 percent in 2011, slightly higher than the 95.3 percent rate posted in 2010 and just below the statewide average of 95.9 percent.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Custer School District's fall enrollment was 890 in grades K-12. With a 1.3 percent dropout rate, the district graduated 72 students. Thirty-six students took the ACT exam. The average composite score was 22.3. To compare Custer School District ACT scores with other Black Hills districts, click here. To view a statistical profile of funding, student and staff data, see the South Dakota Department of Education's 2010-2011 Profile of Custer School District.

Adult education courses such as GED Preparation and Testing and Adult Basic Education are offered at the Career Learning Center based out of the Custer Administrative Office at 527 Montgomery Street.  For more information on services offered by the Career Learning Center, click here.

Custer County School District Budgets

Declining enrollment, decreasing state aid and less impact aid are taking a toll on the Custer school district. To balance the budget for the 2011-2012 school year, the district needed to shave over $900,000 from the previous year’s budget, which resulted in staff and program cuts. However, due to the tax structure, the capital outlay fund remains strong, enabling the school district to build a new elementary school which opened in the fall of 2011.

Although the school’s budget is not available online, posted minutes from a special meeting in May 2011 indicate general fund revenue and expenditures for 2011-2012 to be $6,098,479; capital outlay revenue and expenditure to be $2,468,863, special education to be $41,500,301, and impact aid to be $650,000. News articles related to the school’s budget, monthly school board meetings, school activities and other school-related issues can be found at the website of the Custer County Chronicle at www.custercountynews.com.

Custer County ranked 36th among 59 South Dakota counties scored on the basis of health outcome in 2012, which is up from 2011 primarily because the number of premature deaths per  100,000 dropped below the state and national averages.  The county ranked 22nd when health factors were reviewed. Data does not indicate health behaviors deviate significantly from state averages, though the percentage of the adults who smoke or drink excessively exceeds national averages, and the incidence of sexually transmitted infections is also high when compared to national statistics. Clinical care indicators note that more than one-fifth of the population is uninsured. Approximately one in five children live in poverty and one in four live in single-parent homes. This information was compiled by the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To compare Custer County to other counties, go to: County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health.

The Custer County Office of Community Health Services and Public Health Alliance provides public health services to all ages. The office manages various primary and preventive programs that help residents develop and maintain a healthier lifestyle and higher quality of life. Professional nursing and nutrition staff provide advice to individuals, families and communities. The office also provides a wide range of services to infants, children, pregnant and postpartum women and adults.

County-level health statistics are also available from the U.S. Deparment of Health & Human Services. Compare Custer County to similar counties in the United States and to the national median.

Fitness & Recreation

Fitness opportunities abound in Custer County. The Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park provide a backyard playground for Custer residents and visitors. The 109-mile Mickelson Trail, billed as the "best rails to trails in the west," is a favorite of bike enthusiasts . For information about the annual 3-day Trail Trek based out of Custer, click here. When the weather is not cooperative, there are several options for indoor fitness activities at the YMCA, Curves, and the Custer Ftiness Center.

Custer County is governed by a five-member board of commissioners. Commission agendas and meeting minutes are available here. Current county commissioners' names and contact information is available here.

County Budget

Tourists and retirees have contributed to a substantial growth in Custer County's median income over the last decade, from $36,303 in 2000 to $46,441 in 2009. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the county's total labor force in October 2011 was 4,913, with 184 people or 3.7 percent listed as unemployed. Approximately one in four workers are employed in the leisure or hospitality industries. Another one in three work for various federal, state or local government agencies. Nearly a third of the county's employed residents commute to another county to work with nearly three in ten commuting more than 30 minutes to get to their jobs. For an in-depth economic profile of Custer County, visit the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development.

Business Activity & Taxable Sales

Taxable sales in Custer County exceeded $5.828 million in January, 2012, according to the South Dakota Department of Revenue. Leading business sectors included: retail trade ($2.6 million), transportation & public utilities ($1.8 million) and services ($1.16 million).