Located on the northwestern slope of the Black Hills, along South Dakota’s western border with Wyoming, Lawrence County is widely recognized as the economic center of the northern Black Hills.

The local economy has benefited from a century of gold mining, logging, gambling, tourism and education. Lawrence County has also shown a dramatic ability to reinvent itself with each passing decade.

The Laramie Treaty of 1868 established the region as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, but the first expedition of American soldiers explored the Black Hills only six years later, in 1874. What came to be known as the Black Hills Expedition was commanded by Colonel George Armstrong Custer. It was organized to search for gold, inventory natural resources, and scout sites for future forts. The 1,000-man expedition entered the Black Hills through the prairie foothills and alpine forests of what would later become Lawrence County.

Lawrence County was formally organized by the Dakota Territorial legislature in 1877. With the discovery of gold, the population of Deadwood mining camps quickly exploded, and the county grew to13,218 in 1880. Lawrence has maintained a slow but steady growth for 130 years to its present population of 24,218. 

Museums, Libraries & Archives

The Lawrence County Historical Society offers oldtimers and newcomers alike an opportunity to learn more about the people and events that have shaped the county. The historical society publishes an online newsletter called Historical Marker.

The High Plains Western Heritage Center in Spearfish explores the history of the five-state high plains region that includes portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska. 

Historical Photos and Documents Online

The Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress has more than 40 images related to Lawrence County available online. They include images made by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration during the 1930s. Other pictures document historic buildings in the county including the Anderson Dairy Ranch in Centennial Valley.

The Denver Public Library has images of Deadwood, Lead and the Homestake Mine from the late 1800s. 

The National Archives and Records Administration makes a number of images and digital documents related to 1940 Census enumeration records for Lawrence County available online. 

Religion

The Association of Religion Data Archives provides county-by-county statistics on membership in churches, synagogues and other religious organizations across the country. For a graph showing religious affiliation in Lawrence County in 2000, click here.

Lawrence County is the smallest in the region with only 800.04 square miles. As of July 1, 2011, the county's population was 24,312, according to estimates by the U.S. Census. This total represented a 0.5 percent increase over the previous year. Lawrence County has the second highest population density in the region, about 30.1 people per square mile. Nearly half of the population lives in the county seat of Spearfish.

Lawrence County has the best-educated population in the region: 92.7 percent of its citizens have graduated from high school and 33.3 percent from college. This may be due to Black Hills State University in Spearfish, with an undergraduate student body of nearly 5,000.

The University and relatively young population may also account for Lawrence County having the second lowest home ownership rate it the region, about 66.8 percent.

Race

Lawrence County has the least diverse population in the region with 94.4 percent of its residents claiming Caucasian background in the 2010 Census. The remainder is primarily Hispanic and Native American.

Poverty

According to the South Dakota Kids Count project, the estimated percentage of children under the age of 18 in poverty in Lawrence County hovered around 18 percent between 2005 and 2009.

Higher Education

Lawrence County’s historical commitment to education has had an impact far beyond county borders. In 1883 the territorial legislature established Spearfish Normal School for the purpose of training teachers. The school evolved into Black Hills State University, today South Dakota’s number one producer of teachers. With an enrollment of 4,415, BHSU is a four-year institution that ranks as South Dakota’s third largest university. In addition to preparing teachers in its College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, BHSU offers degrees through its College of Business and Natural Sciences, and College of Liberal Arts.

K-12

There are two public school systems in Lawrence County: Spearfish School District and Lead-Deadwood School District. Spearfish serves about 2,000 students at four attendance centers within city limits. In 2011 Spearfish’s public schools all met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards as measured by Dakota STEP Testing.

The towns of Lead and Deadwood consolidated separate public school systems in 1971. Today there is one attendance center in Deadwood and two in Lead. About 775 students K-12 are enrolled. Lead-Deadwood School District also administers a high school at Box Elder Job Corps near the town of Nemo. The Lawrence County community of Whitewood has an elementary school with about 125 students but it is actually part of neighboring Meade County’s public school system. All Lead-Deadwood and Whitewood attendance centers measured up to AYP standards in 2011 except for the Job Corps high school, found in need of improvement in math.

Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, a consortium of 12 Black Hills school districts, operates two secondary alternative schools at Spearfish.  Lawrence County is home to small, private academies for students of all ages, and the state’s department of education supports home schooling.

Preschool

SpearfishSchool District and Lead-Deadwood School District offer preschool programs, and the county is home to private preschools.  Black Hills Special Services Cooperative coordinates state-funded Birth-To-Three Connections, an early intervention program for infants and toddlers with possible development delays.

Lifelong Learning

Black Hills Special Services Cooperative coordinates community education classes in Lead-Deadwood and Spearfish.

Northern Hills Training Center

Since 1976 Northern Hills Training Center in Spearfish has provided vocational and residential education for adults with developmental disabilities.  Currently about 130 men and women are served.

Lawrence County, South Dakota, covers 800 square miles of the northern Black Hills and foothills, bordering Wyoming to the west. Deadwood has been county seat since territorial days. The Lawrence County Courthouse complex, along Sherman Street, is the main site for county offices and for South Dakota’s Fourth Judicial Circuit.

Lawrence County ranked 18th among 59 South Dakota counties scored on the basis of health outcomes in 2012. Residents reported rates of poor physical and mental health on a par with statewide averages and the rate of adult obesity was well below the state. Teen births and motor vehicle crash deaths were also less frequent than for the state as a whole. Sixteen percent of the adults in the county did not have health insurance, a slightly higher rate than for the state. To compare Lawrence County data to other counties, visit the site created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin.

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

Lawrence County's median income rose from $31,755 in 2000 to $41,227 in 2009. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the county's total labor force in October 2011 was 13,360, with 532 people or 4.0 percent listed as unemployed. The leisure and hospitality industries accounted for the largest number of jobs in 2009 (3,474).  For an in-depth economic profile of Lawrence County, visit the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development.