Fall River County is named for the Fall River which flows through the county.
Surrounding county Courthouses:
N – Custer County
S – Dawes County, Nebraska and Sioux County, Nebraska
W – Niobrara County, Wyoming
Created: April 3, 1883
County Seat:
Hot Springs 1883 – present
County Courthouse – Hot Springs
Location: 906 North River Street / Battle Mountain Avenue
Built: 1891 – 1892
Style: Romanesque
Architect: Charles P Brown
Contractor: Fred T Evans & Company
Description: The building faces east and is a four story native red colored sandstone structure. The building is located on landscaped grounds in the center of Hot Springs. The building has a square central tower with an arched entrance on the second story. Stone stairs rise to the second story. The top of the tower has long vertical niches. Smaller towers with high windows are on the north and south corners. The building houses the County Circuit Court of the 7th Judicial Circuit and the County Magistrate Court.
See: The 7th Judicial Circuit includes Custer County, Pennington County and Shannon County.
History: The county was created in 1883 and Hot Springs was selected as the county seat. The courthouse is the first and only courthouse erected in the county. The contractor Fred T Evans owned the land on which the courthouse was erected. The cost of construction was $23,000 with an additional $3,750 for the jail. While the courthouse was being constructed, court was held in the Opera House. The courthouse serves Oglala Lakota County ( Shannon County ) which consists almost entirely of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Matters related to the Oglala Sioux Tribal members, however, are handled by the Tribal Court in Pine Ridge.
County Courthouse – Hot Springs
County Circuit Court courtroom
Photos taken 2009 and 2015
Images 15*