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South Dakota County
Bon Homme County, South Dakota
Bon Homme's Czech heritage and the Missouri River - from Bon Homme County's significant Czech immigrant community (the Czech settlers who arrived in Bon Homme County in the 1870s-1880s established one of the most enduring Bohemian communities in South Dakota - the kolache festivals, Czech names on mailboxes, and Catholic parish traditions of the county's small towns reflect 150 years of cultural continuity) to the Lewis and Clark Lake shoreline (the Missouri River reservoir's Bon Homme County shoreline provides recreation and wildlife habitat in the southeast South Dakota river country).
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Office: Bon Homme County Emergency Management – 300 W. 18th Avenue, Tyndall, SD 57066 | (605) 589-4214 | Hours: Mon–Fri 8 AM–4:30 PM (CT)
Services: Coordinates public, private, and non-governmental agencies to protect life and property during natural disasters, technological events, or man-made emergencies; maintains the county emergency plan; liaises with volunteer fire departments countywide
Related: Bon Homme County 911/Dispatch – (605) 589-3942; Bon Homme County Sheriff’s Office – PO Box 1, Tyndall, SD 57066, (605) 589-3942, Fax: (605) 589-4209, operates a 6-bed county jail and full-time dispatch center.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: SD Highway 50 and SD Highway 37 serve Tyndall, the county seat, in southeastern South Dakota along the Missouri River
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Bon Homme County Clerk – PO Box 6, Tyndall, SD 57066 | (605) 589-4215
Services: Building, land use, access, utility, and special event permits for the county; also verifies permit validity and provides application guidance
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Bon Homme County Veterans Service Officer – Bon Homme County Courthouse, Tyndall, SD
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Carnegie Public Library of Tyndall – 110 W. 17th Ave, Tyndall, SD 57066
Notes: A genuine Carnegie library, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Bon Homme County is genuinely home to one of the most remarkable communal-living stories in American history – the BON HOMME HUTTERITE COLONY, located along the Missouri River near Tabor, which holds the distinction of being both the “mother colony” of all Schmiedeleut Hutterite colonies in North America and the oldest Hutterite colony anywhere in the world still in continuous existence today; the colony was founded in 1874 by Hutterite immigrants who had fled religious persecution in what is present-day Ukraine, under the leadership of Michael Waldner, who had personally reestablished the historic Hutterite tradition of communal living years earlier in the village of Hutterdorf; remarkably, Bon Homme was the only Hutterite colony in North America that chose not to relocate to Canada during the upheaval of World War I, when many Hutterite communities elsewhere faced intense pressure and persecution over their pacifist beliefs – making its unbroken continuity through more than 150 years genuinely exceptional; a 25-acre portion of the colony grounds was formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982; the county itself carries an equally storied and much older history – Bon Homme County was formally organized on April 5, 1862, making it the very first county established in the entire Dakota Territory, and it takes its name from Bon Homme Island, a roughly 2,000-acre island in the Missouri River first documented under that name by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804; “Bon Homme” is French for “good man,” an honorary name that local history traces to a respected French fur trader active in the area during the late 1700s, whose actual first name has been lost to history; long before the Dakota Territory’s 1858 treaty formally opened the region to broader settlement, non-Indigenous traders including Zephyr Rencontre had already lived and worked in the Bon Homme area for decades, with Rencontre himself, a man of both French and Yankton Sioux Dakota heritage, playing a documented and significant role in the transfer of the original townsite
Notes: Bon Homme’s genuine, extensively documented status as both the first county in Dakota Territory and home to the world’s oldest continuously operating Hutterite colony is one of the most historically layered communities found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Bon Homme County GIS – accessible via bonhomme.sdcounties.org
Parcel Search: Bon Homme County Director of Equalization
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Bon Homme County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Notes: No dedicated county-run animal shelter or animal control department was confirmed in available sources for Bon Homme County. For strays or animal concerns, contact the Bon Homme County Sheriff’s Office, (605) 589-3942. The nearest confirmed regional shelters are in larger South Dakota cities (e.g., Yankton, Sioux Falls) – contact directly to confirm whether they accept intake from Bon Homme County residents.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) – danr.sd.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details. Springfield Recreation Area, on Lewis and Clark Lake about 30 miles west of Yankton, offers a 20-site campground and boat launch managed by SD Game, Fish and Parks.
NOTES
Bon Homme County was genuinely the first county established in Dakota Territory (1862) and is home to the world’s oldest continuously operating Hutterite colony, founded in 1874. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and courthouse pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Bon Homme County
Bon Homme County is southeast South Dakota’s Czech heritage and Missouri River county – the Bohemian farming families who arrived in the 1870s maintained cultural continuity for 150 years, and the Lewis and Clark Lake shoreline provides Missouri River recreation.
Tyndall (the county seat, population ~1,100) serves the county’s Czech-heritage agricultural communities near the Missouri River.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Bon Homme County Director of Equalization at 300 W. 18th Avenue, Tyndall, SD 57066, phone 605-589-3681. SD residential owner-occupied exemptions apply.
Courts & Legal
Bon Homme County Circuit Court at 300 W. 18th Avenue, Tyndall, SD 57066, phone 605-589-3751, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS
300 South Main St, Tyndall, SD 57066
(605) 589-3231
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Bon Homme County Clerk of Courts, Tyndall (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Bon Homme County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Clerk of Courts, Bon Homme County 300 West Cherry Street / PO Box 3, Tyndall, SD 57066 (605) 589-4215 Bon Homme County is in southeastern South Dakota along the Missouri River, seated in Tyndall.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
South Dakota HAS adopted the Uniform Probate Code (Articles I, II, III, IV, and VIII, effective July 1, 1995). Probate proceedings are handled by the Circuit Court in the county where the decedent lived, generally administered under the supervision of the Clerk of Courts.
Small Estate Affidavit – Collection of Personal Property (SDCL § 29A-3-1201) – available when the total gross value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $50,000. At least 30 days must have passed since death, no petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted anywhere, and the decedent had no outstanding debts to the Department of Social Services for medical assistance or institutional/nursing home care. A separate affidavit exists for South Dakota real estate under $50,000, which must also be filed with the Register of Deeds where the property sits.
Informal Probate – the most common track in South Dakota, used when heirs and beneficiaries are getting along and no disputes are expected.
Unsupervised Formal Probate and Supervised Formal Probate – for more complex or contested situations.
Step 2: filing for administration
The personal representative (or an interested party) files an application or petition with the Clerk of Courts in Bon Homme County, along with the original will if one exists.
For informal probate, the clerk reviews the application administratively and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration without a hearing in most cases.
Formal proceedings require notice to interested parties and, if contested, a hearing before the circuit judge.
The personal representative gathers and inventories assets, notifies creditors, and pays valid debts and expenses.
After debts and taxes are satisfied, remaining assets are distributed according to the will or South Dakota’s intestacy statutes (SDCL Chapter 29A-2).
The estate is formally closed by filing a sworn closing statement or a petition for formal order of discharge (SDCL § 29A-3-1003).
What it costs
Court costs are set by law and paid to the Clerk of Courts; confirm current fees with Bon Homme County directly.
South Dakota has NO state estate tax and NO state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax may apply, and only to very large estates.
A surviving spouse cannot be disinherited in South Dakota unless the spouse agrees.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
300 South Main St, Tyndall, SD 57066
(605) 589-4118
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
AUDITOR (ELECTIONS)
300 South Main St, Tyndall, SD 57066
(605) 589-4207
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
300 South Main St, Tyndall, SD 57066
(605) 589-4212
Department of Social Services
300 South Main St, Tyndall, SD 57066
(605) 589-4212
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Bon Homme County Public Health Nursing Service – Tyndall, SD
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Tyndall
Population: 7,000
Established: 1862
Tier: 3
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Bon Homme County residents.
