REGIONS AND THEMES, Chapter 1

South Dakota, situated in the north-central United States, part of the Great Plains and Prairies region, is the nation's fifth smallest state by population. The Missouri River splits the state in half - each half is known as West River and East River. The land east of the Missouri has a larger population than the west part of the state, is better for farming, and has the flat, seemingly endless prairies made popular in the Little House on the Prairie books and television series. West of the river is drier land more suited to grazing and ranching than farming, with steeper hills closer together than those east of the Missouri River. The southwestern region of the state has a varied geography in the Black Hills and Badlands, and the northwestern part of South Dakota has buttes, which are isolated mountains or hills with steep sides and flat tops.

Chapter 1 of the text lists the average population density of the United States as 77 persons per square mile. With the exception of the Black Hills, South Dakota's population density west of the Missouri River is about 5 people per square mile. In the state's northwestern corner, Harding County has less than one person per square mile. "In the nineteenth century, when white settlers were still spreading over the continent, the definition of frontier was 'having fewer than two people per square mile. As of 2007, eleven of South Dakota's sixty-six counties still fit that description.' " (Celebrate the States, p.12)

www.myonlinemaps.com/south-dakota.php
McDaniel, Melissa, Celebrate the States-South Dakota, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2007.