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South Dakota County
Custer County, South Dakota
Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park's bison herd - from the Crazy Horse Memorial (the mountain carving in progress since 1948 - when complete, the Crazy Horse Memorial will be the largest mountain carving in the world, depicting the Oglala Lakota war leader on horseback pointing to say "my lands are where my dead lie buried" - the Korczak Ziolkowski family has continued carving the 563-foot-tall figure through three generations, funded entirely by admission fees and donations, refusing all federal funding) to Custer State Park (the 71,000-acre state park whose 1,300-head bison herd is one of the largest publicly owned bison herds in the world, roaming the park's mixed-grass prairie in the southern Black Hills).
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Office: Custer County Office of Emergency Services – 420 Mount Rushmore Rd, Custer, SD 57730 | Director’s Office: (605) 673-8152 | Communication Center: (605) 673-8176 | Fax: (605) 673-3765
Services: Coordinates Emergency Management, Homeland Security issues, and grant management; lessens impact of natural/technological disasters
Related: Custer County Sheriff’s Office – (605) 673-8146; Custer County Search and Rescue.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-16 and US-385 serve Custer, the county seat, in the southern Black Hills of western South Dakota; home to Custer State Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, and the Crazy Horse Memorial
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Custer County Planning and Economic Development – 420 Mount Rushmore Road, Custer, SD 57730 | (605) 673-8174 | Fax: (605) 673-8150
Services: Septic system permits, platting, cell tower applications, floodplain development permits
Notes: Custer County currently has no general zoning or building codes for most construction (see County Ordinance #2) – building permits are chiefly tied to septic/wastewater systems and flood damage prevention; confirm current requirements directly, as this is unusual compared to most counties.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Custer County Veterans Services Office – Custer County Courthouse, Custer, SD
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Custer County Library – 447 Crook Street, Suite #4, Custer, SD 57730 | (605) 673-4803 | Hours: Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri 11 AM–5:30 PM, Wed 3–7 PM, Sat 10 AM–3 PM
Services: Books, ebooks/audiobooks via Libby, interlibrary loans, WiFi, book-a-librarian, story times, summer reading, test proctoring, study rooms; free for Custer County residents ($35/year for non-residents).
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Custer County is genuinely and historically significant as the true birthplace of the Black Hills Gold Rush and home to the very first non-Native settlement in the entire Black Hills region; in July 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led a massive military expedition of roughly 1,000 men, 2,000 animals, and 110 wagons – including a military band – into the Black Hills, then legally recognized under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie as part of the Great Sioux Reservation and therefore closed to white settlement; while camped along French Creek near what would become the town of Custer, expedition prospector Horatio N. Ross discovered gold in the creek, and Custer’s subsequent report to his superiors – soon telegraphed nationwide – ignited a national sensation and set off the Black Hills Gold Rush; within months, a group of gold-seekers from Sioux City, Iowa, known as the Gordon Party, defied the treaty and illegally entered the region that winter, building a fortified log stockade along French Creek for protection, though the U.S. Cavalry removed them from the Black Hills within about five months; by 1875-76, the resulting rush swelled the population of Custer City to somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 residents, making it briefly one of the largest settlements in the entire Dakota Territory – though that boom proved short-lived, as word soon spread of even richer gold discoveries far to the north in Deadwood Gulch, and much of Custer’s population emptied out almost overnight in pursuit of the new strikes; prospector Horatio Ross himself, credited with the original discovery, remained in Custer for the next 30 years, working his gold claims and later making much of his living simply showing curious tourists and new arrivals the exact spot where he’d found gold back in 1874, until his death in Custer in 1904; today, Custer County is home to Custer State Park, South Dakota’s first and largest state park at 71,000 acres, established in 1912 and renowned for its free-roaming bison herd and annual fall Buffalo Roundup, alongside Jewel Cave National Monument and the ongoing Crazy Horse Memorial
Notes: Custer County’s genuine, extensively documented status as the true birthplace of the 1874 Black Hills Gold Rush – a discovery that permanently transformed the region’s history – is one of the most historically significant sites found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Custer County GIS – accessible via custercountysd.com
Parcel Search: Custer County Director of Equalization
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Custer County Planning and Economic Development
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Humane Society of the Custer Area – PO Box 281, Custer, SD | (605) 673-5555
Services: Adoption, stray intake, and animal welfare services for Custer County
Related: Chester’s Place – 110 Fairgrounds Place, Hermosa, SD, (605) 255-4069, a separate shelter/rescue serving the Hermosa area.
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.
NOTES
Custer County is genuinely the birthplace of the 1874 Black Hills Gold Rush, sparked by a discovery along French Creek during George Armstrong Custer’s expedition. 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 Custer County
Custer County is South Dakota’s Crazy Horse and bison country – the mountain carving that will be the world’s largest when complete and the 1,300-head bison herd roaming 71,000 acres of southern Black Hills define the most dramatically western county in South Dakota.
Custer (the county seat, population ~2,000) is the gateway to both landmarks. Hot Springs (population ~3,500) anchors the southern Black Hills with the Mammoth Site – where woolly mammoth bones are still being excavated from a Pleistocene sinkhole.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Custer County Director of Equalization at 420 Mt. Rushmore Road, Custer, SD 57730, phone 605-673-8174. SD residential owner-occupied exemptions apply.
Courts & Legal
Custer County Circuit Court at 420 Mt. Rushmore Road, Custer, SD 57730, phone 605-673-8170, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS
420 Mount Rushmore Rd, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-8172
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Custer County Clerk of Courts, Custer (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
The 1881 Custer County Courthouse, NRHP-listed, is a significant local landmark near Mount Rushmore.
Local societies
No dedicated Custer 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, Custer County 420 Mount Rushmore Road, Custer, SD 57730 (605) 673-4816
Custer County is in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota, seated in Custer. The 1881 Custer County Courthouse, Italianate in style, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 Custer 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 Custer 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
420 Mount Rushmore Rd, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-4413
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
AUDITOR (ELECTIONS)
420 Mount Rushmore Rd, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-8171
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
1300 Montgomery St, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-9700
Department of Social Services
420 Mount Rushmore Rd, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-9700
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Custer County Office of Public Health Nursing Services – Custer, SD
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Custer
Population: 9,500
Established: 1875
Tier: 3
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Custer County residents.
