Located along U.S. Interstate 90, eight miles east of the South Dakota-Wyoming state line, Spearfish was home to 10,494 residents as counted by the 2010 Census. The area’s total population was 12,715 when people living in the immediately adjacent “Census-Designated Place” called North Spearfish were added to the count. No one locally uses the name North Spearfish.

The community is set in a wide valley descending from the northern Black Hills. A swift stream, flowing reliably in all seasons, feeds the valley and for centuries made the future townsite a frequent campsite for native peoples. During the 1876 Black Hills gold rush European settlers first arrived, in violation of the federal 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty with the Lakota people. These settlers quickly devised a system for channeling the stream’s water across the valley, making irrigated farming possible. Spearfish took root and grew. Within a decade it claimed well established flour mills, sawmills, hotels, and suppliers of goods and services for surrounding farms, ranches, lumber camps, and mining operations. A territorial normal school for preparing teachers opened in 1883.

The normal school grew to become Black Hills State University, a four-year institution that is today western South Dakota’s only liberal arts university. Both the university and Spearfish continue to grow. The community attracts a mix of university students and faculty, retired people, and business people who telecommute to distant offices. Education, health care, retail, and light industry are key employers. According to Spearfish Development, the community has enjoyed success in recent years in attracting businesses to its industrial park, adjacent to Interstate 90 on the town’s east side.  The community promotes itself as a destination for outdoor sports, from trout fishing to rock climbing.

Spearfish settlers’ first community task, in 1876, was construction of a log stockade described by period journalist Richard Hughes as big enough “to accommodate a large number of horses or cattle, as well as all the people who might resort to it in time of danger.” It stood where Spearfish’s downtown business district is today. The so-called “era of stockade protection” was already history by 1877. Soon after Spearfish people began working aggressively to bring about longer lasting community assets. Successes included the territorial normal school in 1883, a railroad spur through Spearfish Canyon in 1893, and a federal trout hatchery in 1899.

Meanwhile, Spearfish prospered thanks to a diverse range of private enterprises: irrigated farming, cattle ranching, logging, retail, milling, dairy processing, and mining. Permanent structures of locally quarried sandstone rose, including the downtown Matthews Block, developed by cattleman Thomas Matthews and housing an ornate operate house.

Early 20th century Spearfish residents launched a successful campaign to build a highway through scenic Spearfish Canyon. With an eye on tourism, the community struck an arrangement with a passion play from Germany, making Spearfish the production’s summer home. From 1938 through 2008 more than six million visitors traveled to Spearfish to see the story of Christ’s last seven days staged in an amphitheater. Professional actors played principal roles while Spearfish churches earned a portion of ticket revenue by supplying actors for nonspeaking parts.

In the spirit of earlier generations, contemporary Spearfish people—usually as volunteers—have enhanced civic life by restoring Matthews Opera House, initiating a summer arts festival, preserving the trout hatchery and creating the High Plains Western Heritage Center. They’ve worked with city government to develop creekside parks and a cycling path, as well as the Spearfish Rec and Acquatics Center.

Arts & Culture

The Spearfish Center for the Arts and Humanities  is responsible for the Matthews Opera House, Art Gallery and the annual Festival in the Park.  To find out more  and to see what events are coming up click here.

Spearfish is also home to a number of literary and visual artists. Novelist Kent Meyers' nationally acclaimed books include Twisted Tree, The Work of Wolves, Light in the Crossing, The River Warren and The Witness of Combines. Dick Termes paints "Termespheres," globes influenced by the work of M.C. Escher and Buckminster Fuller.

Museums, Libraries & Archives

The High Plains Western Heritage Center contains a 5-State regional museum that honors the Old West pioneers and American Indians of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska.  It's located off I-90 south of exit 14 on Heritage Drive.

With a median age of 33, the population of Spearfish is growing rapidly. Since the 2000 Census, it has posted a growth of 21.9 percent.  In the City of Spearfish, there are 643.8 people per square mile.

The majority (93.5 percent) of people in Spearfish are white.  American Indians constitute 2.0 percent of Spearfish’s population and 2.7 percent are Hispanic. In 2010, 2.3 percent of the population reported belonging to more than one race.

Rebecca Pettigrew first taught 14 Spearfish students in 1877, in a cabin donated by a citizen. In 1880 Spearfish’s first school building was constructed. Today Spearfish School District serves about 2,000 students, preschool through high school, at four attendance centers and an alternative high school operated by Black Hills Special Services Cooperative.

The district works with an annual budget of about $11 million. Five school board members are elected for three year terms, and school board meetings are scheduled the second Tuesday of each month, 5:30 p.m., at district administration offices, 525 E. Illinois Street. Agendas and minutes can be found online or in the Black Hills Pioneer. The public is invited to attend meetings and many citizens serve on district-wide advisory meetings, or on advisory committees for each attendance center. Working closely with the district is the Spearfish Foundation for Public Education. It invites individuals, businesses, and community organizations to enhance hometown education through gifts of time or resources.

No Child Left Behind - DSTEP Testing

Students in the Spearfish 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, Spearfish students achieved AYP in all categories in all grades tested in elementary, middle and high schools in the spring of 2011. Spearfish's high school graduation rate was 90.6 percent in 2011, slightly higher than the 88.2 percent rate posted in 2010 and higher than the statewide average of 88.3 percent.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Spearfish School District's fall enrollment was 1,960 in grades K-12. With a 0.5 percent dropout rate, the district graduated 147 students. One hundred and five students took the ACT exam. The average composite score was 22.8. To view a statistical profile of funding, student and staff data, see the South Dakota Department of Education's 2010-2011 Profile of Spearfish School District.

Twelve years after its founding, Spearfish was incorporated as a city in 1888. Its form of municipal government is aldermanic, with a mayor and a city council of six. Spearfish is divided into three wards and each ward elects two council members. The mayor and council members are elected for three-year terms. A city supervisor, working directly under the mayor and council, is the municipal government’s chief administrative officer. The city’s work is handled by public works, police, fire, library, and finance departments.

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.

Unemployment in Spearfish was 4.7 percent in August 2011, according to the South Dakota Deparment of Labor. The total labor force was 5,465, which meant 255 people were actively looking for work.  The jobs situation was considerably improved compared to August, 2010 when unemployment was 5.5 percent. In part, however, the improvement resulted from a loss of 555 people from the labor market as workers moved or became discouraged. The total number of employed persons declined slightly from 5,215 in August, 2010 to 5,210 in August, 2011. 

The Spearfish economy generated nearly $31.1 million in business activity subject to state sales tax in July and August 2011. This represented a 4.4 percent increase over the same period in 2010. Retail sales showed the greatest strength, rising 8.8 percent compared to the prior year. Construction suffered the biggest decline with revenues down nearly 35.5 percent. For more details, see the full report from the South Dakota Department of Revenue.

For information on the Spearfish economy, check out the resources provided by Spearfish Economic Development. The Spearfish Chamber of Commerce provides a community overview that includes data on population, climate, air transportation, taxes and more.