Madison’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Madison. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Madison's origin is defined by a unique relocation of settlers from Madison, Wisconsin driven by the arrival of the railroad. In the early 1870s, two competing settlements existed in the area: Old Madison, established in 1873 on the south shore of Lake Madison, and Herman, located on the shores of Lake Herman. In 1880, C.B. Kennedy, a local homesteader, negotiated with the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad to survey a route through his land, which sat in the fertile valley between the two lakes.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Madison’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Madison’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewFirst National Bank Madison S.D, 1909: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Madison, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as 1883 bird's eye view of Madison, county seat of Lake Co. Dakota (1883) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via WikidataFrom Wikimedia Commons (4) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.