The History of Kingsbury Conservation
Kingsbury County is located in east central South Dakota about midway between North Dakota and Nebraska and in the second tier west of the Minnesota line. The county was created in 1873 and organized in 1880. The Kingsbury Conservation District occupies the entire county.
 The topography is undulating to nearly level. The west part drains through the Redstone creek into the James River. The east part drains largely into several lakes -- Henry, Thompson and Whitewood--and with some drainage into the Sioux River and Vermillion River. 
 Through the county agent's leadership with help of the Kingsbury Farmers Union and leading farmers, an information program was carried on acquaint the people with soil conservation help available. After a series of meetings, the people decided to proceed toward the organization of a soil conservation district.
 A hearing was held in January 1947 and the referendum was conducted in June 1947, with a 90 percent favorable vote. The organization of the Conservation District was completed in October 1947. The original supervisors were: Harold Galseth, Erwin; Art Brose, Arlington; Kenneth Widman, Esmond; Carroll Wellman, County agent secretary. 

Today we are called Kingsbury County Conservation District 
 We are one of three Conservation Districts in the state that own our building and are not co-located with USDA-NRCS and FSA. The Conservation District purchased land in the 1960's and put up an office. The west side of the office was added on in the 1980's. NRCS rented from the district until the 1990's when they moved in across the street with FSA. In 2004, we added the steel storage building attached to the office with a 20' by 25' tree cooler. This gives us a large cooler to store the trees in the spring and allows us to store all our equipment inside during the winter months. 
 The soils of the area are developed from glacier material and vary in structure from silty clay loams, silty clays, and a silt loam. In the west part of the county, some soils are rather fine textured and some clay-pan. These soils are better suited to grain and livestock farming. From the middle of the county east, the land is somewhat undulating with a little more loamy soil and suitable for general for general farming. A considerable acreage of this area is devoted to cultivating crops. Soil and water conservation practices, as well as maintenance of fertility, are needed. Sevent-four percent of the land is cropland with eighteen percent pasture and six percent other use.