Watertower, DeSmet, South Dakota - Water Towers on Waymarking.com

De Smet is a city in and the county seat of Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,164 at the 2000 census.

The town was incorporated in 1883 and is made up of German, Norwegian, Irish, Danish, and Dutch ancestries.

It was named for Father Pierre De Smet, a 19th century Jesuit missionary.

De Smet was the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the birthplace of author Rose Wilder Lane.

Since 1971, De Smet has hosted a pageant, held over several weekends in July, to honor Laura Ingalls Wilder. Five of her classic Little House books were based on her experiences in and around the community.

The story of how Charles Ingalls and his wife Caroline arrived in De Smet in 1879 by covered wagon from Walnut Grove, Minnesota, is told by a cast of thirty in an open-air theater near the old Ingalls homestead and the Surveyors' House. Nearby are Silver Lake and the Big Slough, locations mentioned in her books. Reminders of De Smet's pioneer past are evident throughout the town, including the First Congregational Church, where the Ingallses worshipped. Laura, husband Almanzo Wilder, and daughter Rose left De Smet in 1894 to live on a farm in the Ozarks near Mansfield, Missouri. There Laura Ingalls chronicled her De Smet memories in such works as The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. Many residents in De Smet have made a special effort to learn the Ingalls story in hopes of assisting inquiring tourists each summer.

De Smet is a popular overnight destination for travelers en route to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

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