...the principal city of the Aberdeen Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Brown and Edmunds counties.
Geography and climate
Aberdeen is located in northeastern South Dakota, in the James River valley, approximately west of the river. The James River enters northeastern South Dakota in Brown County, where it is dammed to form two reservoirs northeast of Aberdeen. The city is bisected by
Moccasin Creek, a slow-moving waterway which flows south and then northeast to the James River.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.0 square miles , of which, 13.0 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water.
Aberdeen has been assigned the ZIP code range 57401-57402.
History
Settlement
Before Aberdeen or Brown County was inhabited by European settlers, it was inhabited by the Sioux Indians from approximately 1700 to 1879. The first appearance of Caucasians was with the founding of fur trading posts during the 1820s; these trading posts remained operational until the mid 1830s. The first “settlers” of this region were the Arikara Indians, but they would later be joined by others.
The first group of Caucasian settlers to reach the area that is now Brown County was a party of only four people, three horses, two mules, fifteen cattle, and two wagons. This group of settlers was later joined by another group the following spring, and eventually more and more settlers migrated towards this general area which is currently Columbia, South Dakota. This town was established on June 15, 1879.
The majority of the settlers were Caucasian, with the next largest group being Native American, a trend that has continued to this day.
Creation of the town
Aberdeen, like many towns of the Midwest, was built around the newly developing railroad systems. Aberdeen was first officially plotted as a town site on January 3, 1881, by Charles Prior, the
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