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History · Pickstown

Pickstown’s post office opened in 1947, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Pickstown was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the Pickstown Fire and Police Station. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1964 on, and the census since 1990.

1947first post office
1on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Pickstown’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Pickstown began, and where its name came from

When was Pickstown founded?

1947

The Pickstown post office opened in 1947, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 95 in 19902020 census: 23079 years

How did Pickstown get its name?

Pickstown was named after U.S. Army General Lewis A. Pick, former director of the Missouri River Office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Founding year: the first Pickstown post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓

What stands out about Pickstown’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pickstown’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pickstown’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewLewis A Pick: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Pickstown came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pickstown.

Read it all →

Pickstown began as a government town for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees building and then operating nearby Fort Randall Dam. United States Air Force officers and airmen arrived in the 1950s to operate a Strategic Air Command radar base built on a hill three miles east of town, locally known as "Radar Hill". Air Force personnel left in the 1970s after the base closed. Currently, the "Fort Randall Casino and Hotel" owned and operated by the Yankton Sioux Tribe is located at the abandoned radar base.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owned Pickstown until the town incorporated in 1985.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Pickstown, 1947 to 1964

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1947Post officeThe Pickstown post office opens
  3. 1951Born hereGregory R. Dahlberg is born here
  4. 1959In the archiveLewis A Pick
  5. 1964On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Pickstown, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1950s1 item
Lewis A Pickc. 1959Lewis A Pick
1960s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Fort Randall Dam, South DakotaDate?Fort Randall Dam, South Dakota
Today2 recent
Pickstown Fire and Police Station NRHP 100005109 Charles Mix County, SD2025Pickstown Fire and Police Station NRHP 100005109 Char…SDMap-doton-Pickstown2004SDMap-doton-Pickstown
On the map

Pickstown on the map, 1964 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pickstown. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Pickstown on the 1964 USGS mapPickstown on the 1977 USGS mapPickstown on the 1986 USGS map1964Fort Randall Dam sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pickstown.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Lewis A Pick
Retake this viewLewis A Pick, c. 1959

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Pickstown’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Pickstown

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2020
Pickstown Fire and Police Station
Pickstown Fire and Police Station
Buildings
All 1 listings
Pickstown Fire and Police StationBuilding · listed 2020

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Pickstown, census by census

010020020002020230

Grew from 95 people in 1990 to 230 in 2020.

4 censuses, 1990–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pickstown’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Pickstown’s history

What year was Pickstown founded?

The Pickstown post office opened in 1947, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Pickstown?

One place: the Pickstown Fire and Police Station (listed 2020).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (4), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.