“Pioneer Homestead Locator”

Two miles east and two miles north is Lake Mitchell, named for Arthur S. Mitchell, an 1878 land locator, then located at Oakwood, a tiny community situated just east of the East lake of the Oakwood Group.

Mitchell, who had some training as a surveyor, had learned to locate the surveyor’s corner marks, chiefly by steering the pole of a conveyance, by compass directions and measuring distances from a known corner as called off by the driver, by the revolution of one wheel, on one spoke of which a marker was appended. He made a handsome living for himself locating land seekers from 1878 to 1882 when the country became pretty well filled up with settlers.

One day, when James Christie was a land-seeking client, they chanced on a fine body of water, five miles southwest of the Oakwood Lake group and Christie demanded its name. It had none, and Christie then and there insisted if should be called Lake Mitchell and it has borne that name for 81 years.

Mitchell remained at Oakwood until the railroad reached Volga, 7 miles south, in the fall of 1879 and then went to Volga to continue his operations. He lived in Brookings County until his death, when he was 72 years old in 1913, one of its oldest pioneers.

Brookings County, Hwy 81 two miles north of Arlington