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South Dakota County
Fall River County, South Dakota
Hot Springs' Mammoth Site and the Battle of Slim Buttes - from the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs (the active paleontological excavation site where 61 woolly mammoths and other Pleistocene megafauna have been unearthed from a Pleistocene sinkhole - the Mammoth Site is the largest in-situ mammoth excavation in the world, with bones still being uncovered each season in a climate-controlled building built over the original discovery site) to the Fall River (the natural warm-water stream whose constant temperature attracted both prehistoric mammals and 19th-century settlers - the Evans Plunge natural warm-water pool has been a Hot Springs landmark since 1890).
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Office: Fall River County Emergency Management – 906 N. River Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747
Services: Coordinates disaster response countywide; alerts sent via the Everbridge notification system (recently switched from CodeRED)
Related: Fall River County Dispatch (non-emergency) – (605) 745-5155; Sheriff’s Office; Fire Departments in Ardmore, Cascade, Edgemont, Hot Springs, Minnekahta, Oelrichs, Oral, and Smithwick.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-18 and US-385 serve Hot Springs, the county seat, in South Dakota’s southwestern corner along the Wyoming and Nebraska borders
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Fall River County – no county-wide zoning ordinance is in place; the county publishes a “Code of the West” guide for rural landowners on driveway/emergency-access standards, plat requirements, and related expectations
Notes: City of Hot Springs handles its own building permits – (605) 745-3135; City of Edgemont handles its own – (605) 662-7422. For addresses outside incorporated areas, 911 addresses must be assigned through the county GIS department – do not self-assign a number.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Fall River County Veterans Service Officer – Fall River County Courthouse, 906 N. River Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Hot Springs Public Library – Hot Springs, SD
Services: Books, ebooks/audiobooks via Libby, summer reading program, and the Helen Magee Heritage Room – a digitized local history collection covering South Dakota, Fall River County, and Hot Springs.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Fall River County is genuinely and internationally home to THE MAMMOTH SITE of Hot Springs, an active paleontological excavation and accredited museum that holds the largest concentration of mammoth fossils found anywhere in the world; the discovery happened purely by chance on June 4, 1974, when construction worker George Hanson was leveling ground for a new housing development and noticed something white gleaming in the sunlight – what he’d struck was a seven-foot-long mammoth tusk, sliced lengthwise by his own excavating equipment; his son Dan, who had studied geology and archaeology, immediately recognized the find’s significance, and just ten days of exploratory digging with a professional crew turned up an extraordinary volume of bones, teeth, tusks, and skull fragments; rather than proceed with the housing development, the landowner made the remarkable decision to pause construction entirely, and after two more summers of continued fossil discoveries, he ultimately sold the land to a newly formed non-profit organization at his own cost, with one condition: that all bone material remain on-site permanently, dedicated to education and research; the site itself turns out to be an ancient karst sinkhole, formed within the region’s underlying limestone, that once held a warm spring-fed pond – the same warm water that likely drew unsuspecting mammoths to its grassy edges, where the pond’s slippery sediment trapped them, unable to climb back out; to date, researchers have identified the remains of 61 individual mammoths at the site (58 Columbian mammoths and 3 woolly mammoths), along with at least 87 additional specimens of other Ice Age animals including a rare giant short-faced bear, ancient camels, llamas, wolves, coyotes, and shrub oxen; unlike a traditional museum, The Mammoth Site remains a genuinely active, ongoing excavation – visitors can walk an elevated walkway directly above the dig pit and watch real paleontologists and volunteers continuing to uncover new fossils in the exact spot where they died more than 140,000 years ago, with excavation work estimated to continue for decades to come
Notes: The Mammoth Site’s genuine, world-record status as the largest concentration of mammoth fossils anywhere on Earth – discovered entirely by accident during routine construction – is one of the most extraordinary scientific landmarks found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Fall River County GIS – accessible via fallrivercountysd.gov
Parcel Search: Fall River County Director of Equalization – (605) 745-5136
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Fall River County GIS Department
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Battle Mountain Humane Society – 27254 Wind Cave Rd, Hot Springs, SD 57747 | (605) 745-7283 | Email: [email protected]
Services: Comprehensive care and adoption services for animals in need throughout Fall River County and surrounding areas; a rebuilt shelter facility supported by community donations
Related: County Animal Control Officer – contact through Fall River County Dispatch, (605) 745-5155.
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. Angostura Recreation Area, on Angostura Reservoir about 10 miles south of Hot Springs, offers 1,125 acres of camping, beaches, and paved bike trails.
NOTES
Fall River County’s seat, Hot Springs, is genuinely home to The Mammoth Site, the largest known concentration of mammoth fossils in the world, discovered by accident during a 1974 housing development. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Fall River County
Fall River County is South Dakota’s Mammoth Site county – the world’s largest in-situ mammoth excavation in Hot Springs has yielded 61 woolly mammoths from a Pleistocene sinkhole, and the warm Fall River that attracted them still flows through one of the Black Hills’ most charming sandstone communities.
Hot Springs (the county seat, population ~3,700) is anchored by the Mammoth Site and the Veterans Administration’s Black Hills Health Care System – the warm sandstone buildings and natural warm water give it a character unlike any other Black Hills town.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Fall River County Director of Equalization at 906 N. River Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747, phone 605-745-5145. SD residential owner-occupied exemptions apply.
Courts & Legal
Fall River County Circuit Court at 906 N. River Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747, phone 605-745-5131, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS
906 North River St, Hot Springs, SD 57747
(605) 745-5133
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Fall River County Clerk of Courts, Hot Springs (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Battle Mountain Sanitarium, Hot Springs – a notable local historic landmark.
Local societies
No dedicated Fall River 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, Fall River County 906 North River Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747 (605) 745-5131
Fall River County was founded April 3, 1883, named for the Fall River, in the southwestern corner of South Dakota (Black Hills region), seated in Hot Springs – home to the historic Battle Mountain Sanitarium. This clerk’s office also serves the neighboring Oglala Lakota County (formerly Shannon County) court functions.
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 Fall River 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 Fall River 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
906 North River St, Hot Springs, SD 57747
(605) 745-4444
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
AUDITOR (ELECTIONS)
906 North River St, Hot Springs, SD 57747
(605) 745-5130
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Public Health
906 North River St, Hot Springs, SD 57747
(605) 745-5140
Social Services
906 North River St, Hot Springs, SD 57747
(605) 745-5140
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Fall River County Community Health Nurse – (605) 910-4575
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Hot Springs
Population: 6,900
Established: 1883
Tier: 3
Public Records
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