History · Bates

Bates’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold just one old photo of Bates. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1old images & papers

0recent photos

The story so far

from the U.S. Census

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 43 to 44 (+2%).

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bates yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Timeline

built from the dates on the items below

1892Hand County, South Dakota (1892)Commons

1900–1999Nothing yet. Family albums go here.

Be one of the first

Start Bates’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bates’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHand County, South Dakota (1892), 1892: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

By decade

Bates, decade by decade

1890s1 item

Hand County, South Dakota (1892)

CommonsHand County, South Dakota (1892)1892

1900s–
1990s

Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

📷 Add from your album

National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Bates is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Bates has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 30-257-400 in Rose Hill, 4.6 miles away.

Bates and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Bates. Tap a dot.

Closest to Bates

South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 30-257-400Rose Hill · Structure4.6mi

Harmony Friends ChurchHarmony · Built 19138.1mi Long View Stock FarmMarlar · Built 191011.2mi

Shakespeare Garden and Shay HouseWessington Springs · Building14.1mi

H.P. Will HouseWessington Springs · Late Victorian · Built 191014.4mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.

2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.

3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 30-257-400’s page links to a real one.

Know an old place in Bates?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Bates’s story, or a memory of it.

📷 Add a photo of an old place

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Hand County, South Dakota (1892) (1892) and it appears here side by side.

🔁 Retake this view · +15

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history

📜 Spring Lake 📜 Burr Oak 📜 Harmony 📜 Rose Hill

From Wikimedia Commons (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.