“Swan Lake”

November 13, 1886, James C. Bunker and his survey crew reached Swan Lake and surveyed the lands adjacent thereto. The Yankton to Sioux Falls stage road then ran around the west side of the Lake. In 1869, William W. Aurner and his sisters-in-law, Helen S. and Anna J. Bachelor, filed on the NW, SW & NE quarters of Section 9 adjacent to the Lake on the north. Valentine P. Thielman perfected title to the SE one half mile north of this marker. The 1871 legislature created Turner County and named Swan Lake, County Seat. The County was organized on June 13th with Aurner, Thielman and Lewis H. Elliot as County Commissioners. By October, 1875, the Swan Lake Era was published and advertised S. Olney, Druggist; Thielman, Real Estate; Alfred Flagg, Lawyer; Jorg Jorgenson, Blacksmith and Gustav Gilbert, Merchant. Aurner was first postmaster, 20 Sept. 1869. Joseph Allen was postmaster, 1 April 1883. But until then Swan Lake was the stage line hub of ‘YANKTON & SWAN LAKE, John N. Moore, Proprietor, Stages Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Connects at Swan Lake with stages to Parker, Sioux Falls and Vermillion.' Swan Lake clung to its County Seat through three elections against Marion, Parker and Hurley but the 1885 Legislature, acting on a legal technicality, awarded Parker the County Seat subject to a new election. Parker won, Swan Lake was doomed. It would still be an attractive location for a town.

Turner County, pull-off on south side of Swan Lake Dr, east of 455th Ave (2021)