How Huron, South Dakota Got Its Name (From a People Who Never Lived There)

Huron, South Dakota, is named for the Huron people, a nation from the Great Lakes region, by the Chicago & North Western railroad that founded the town in 1880. The Huron never lived anywhere near the James River. The name was picked by railroad men, most likely in an office far to the east.

Where the name comes from

Huron is a railroad town through and through. The City of Huron says that the railroad’s general manager, Marvin Hughitt, directed that the west bank of the James River be chosen as the Chicago & North Western’s division headquarters, and that the town site was surveyed and platted in 1880.

The name came from the Huron people. A 1908 railroad guide to place names, written by an officer of that same railroad, says the town “was named for the ‘Huron’ Indians,” and the U.S. Geological Survey’s place-name record says the same.

South Dakota Magazine called it an odd choice, since the Huron lived several hundred miles to the east and there were plenty of local Native names to pick from.

Who named it

The USGS record says it plainly: the town was “named by Marvin Hughitt, President of the North Western Railroad.” But the City of Huron’s own history is more careful. It says exactly who gave the name was never established, and that it was either Hughitt or someone in the railroad’s Chicago office.

The 1908 guide doesn’t name a person for Huron at all. What it does say, in its introduction, is that Hughitt “either suggested or approved” the names of the new stations along the line. So Hughitt’s fingerprints are on it either way, even if nobody can show he picked this one himself.

What “Huron” means

“Huron” isn’t what the Huron called themselves. The Canadian Encyclopedia says it was a nickname the French gave the Wendat people. The usual explanation is that it comes from the French word hure, a boar’s head, after the bristly hairstyle of Wendat men, and the old French huron also meant something like “lout” or “ruffian.” The 1908 guide gives a similar boar explanation, but adds honestly that “whether the word is French or Indian is not known.”

So a South Dakota prairie town carries a French nickname for a Great Lakes nation, chosen by a Chicago railroad. Not many town names travel that far.

Sources & further reading

• City of Huron, “History.” The railroad’s division headquarters on the James River, Hughitt’s role, the 1880 platting, and the city’s own statement that nobody knows exactly who chose the name.
• W. H. Stennett, A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways (1908). A public-domain railroad guide. Says the town was named for the Huron and gives a similar boar explanation; its introduction says Hughitt “either suggested or approved” station names.
• GNIS feature 1255722 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Huron. Credits Hughitt with the name and gives 1880 settlement and 1883 incorporation.
• South Dakota Magazine, “Huron: The Comeback City” (2016). Notes how odd it was to name a Dakota town for a far-off Great Lakes people.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Huron.” Where the name “Huron” comes from and what the Wendat call themselves.