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South Dakota County
Hanson County, South Dakota
Alexandria and southeast South Dakota farmland - from Alexandria's role as the small governmental hub of Hanson County to the county's productive southeast South Dakota agricultural landscape (Hanson County's flat to gently rolling glacial terrain supports high-yield corn and soybean production in one of South Dakota's more agriculturally productive southeastern counties, with the county's proximity to Sioux Falls providing market access and regional services for the surrounding farm communities).
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What do you need to do?
Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
Roads: I-90 and SD-262 serve Alexandria, the county seat, in south-central South Dakota
Transit: Limited; primarily auto-dependent – confirm current regional options directly with the county. Notably, Hanson County is one of the few counties in the United States with no officially registered airport within its borders.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Hanson County – administers its own land use and zoning regulations for unincorporated areas
Notes: City of Alexandria issues its own separate building permits for in-city projects – contact Alexandria City Hall directly.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Hanson County Veterans Service Officer – Hanson County Courthouse, Alexandria, SD
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Hanson Community Library – Alexandria, SD
Notes: A combined school/community library serving both Hanson School and the general public with daytime and evening hours.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Hanson County is genuinely home to one of South Dakota’s most unusual and beautifully constructed folk-art landmarks – SAINT PETER’S GROTTO, a small devotional shrine in the tiny town of Farmer, population just 15; the grotto was designed and hand-built between 1926 and 1933 by parish priest Father Peter N. Scheier, and stands as a lasting reminder of the wave of German Catholic immigrants who settled in Hanson County beginning in the late 19th century, many arriving from the rural Eifel region of what was then Prussia; genuinely remarkable for its scale, the compact 13.5-by-13.5-foot Byzantine-style structure – complete with a turret at each corner and one atop its central dome – incorporates an extraordinarily wide-ranging collection of stones and materials gathered from across the globe: rock carved from South Dakota’s own Badlands and Black Hills, petrified wood hauled from North Dakota, marble imported from Tennessee, seashells collected in Hawaii, and remarkably, a single stone personally brought back from the ancient Catacombs of Callixtus in Rome; the grotto was built during Farmer’s genuine economic peak – in 1926, the tiny town boasted four grain elevators, two banks, three grocery stores, and a hotel – but the Great Depression hit the community hard, and Farmer has never since redeveloped to that level of activity; the grotto itself fell into disrepair after the parish’s grade school closed in 1959, prompting a 1986 newspaper feature memorably headlined “The Grotto: Paradise on the Prairie Loses Luster Over the Years” – but recognition on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 brought funding to fully restore the shrine to its original state of quiet, serene beauty, where it remains today as a genuinely moving meditative landmark in the heart of the prairie
Notes: Saint Peter’s Grotto’s genuine, extensively documented construction – a single priest’s decades-long devotional project using stones gathered from around the world – is one of the most remarkable folk-art landmarks found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Hanson County GIS – contact the Hanson County Courthouse for current parcel/GIS access
Parcel Search: Hanson County Register of Deeds – Alexandria, SD
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Hanson County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Notes: No dedicated county-run animal shelter or animal control department was confirmed in available sources for Hanson County. For strays or animal concerns, contact the Hanson County Sheriff’s Office, (605) 239-4409. The nearest confirmed regional shelters are in larger South Dakota cities such as Mitchell – contact directly to confirm whether they accept intake from Hanson 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.
NOTES
Hanson County’s town of Farmer is genuinely home to Saint Peter’s Grotto, a hand-built devotional shrine incorporating stones gathered from across the globe, including one from Rome’s ancient Catacombs of Callixtus. 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 Hanson County
Hanson County is southeast South Dakota’s compact agricultural county – productive corn and soybean farming on the fertile glacial soils defines a small county where Alexandria provides governmental services and the Sioux Falls metro provides regional commercial access for surrounding farm families.
Alexandria (the county seat, population ~600) is Hanson County’s governmental hub, one of South Dakota’s smaller county seats serving the agricultural communities of southeast South Dakota.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Hanson County Assessor at 720 5th Street, Alexandria, SD 57311, phone 605-239-4723. SD assessed at fair market value.
Courts & Legal
Hanson County Circuit Court at 720 5th Street, Alexandria, SD 57311, phone 605-239-4723, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS
511 Main St, Alexandria, SD 57311
(605) 239-4446
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Hanson County Clerk of Courts, Alexandria (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Saint Peter’s Grotto, Hanson County, is NRHP-listed and a notable local landmark.
Local societies
No dedicated Hanson 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, Hanson County PO Box 127, 720 5th Street, Alexandria, SD 57311 (605) 239-4446
Hanson County was created January 13, 1871 and organized in 1873, named for Joseph R. Hanson, in southeastern South Dakota, seated in Alexandria.
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 Hanson 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 Hanson 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
511 Main St, Alexandria, SD 57311
(605) 239-4457
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
AUDITOR (ELECTIONS)
511 Main St, Alexandria, SD 57311
(605) 239-4446
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Public Health
511 Main St, Alexandria, SD 57311
(605) 239-4446
Social Services
511 Main St, Alexandria, SD 57311
(605) 239-4446
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Hanson County Public Health Nursing Service – Alexandria, SD
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Alexandria
Population: 3,400
Established: 1873
Tier: 4
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Hanson County residents.
