1980s South Dakota SLDL

NHGIS
1

I’m trying to find shapefiles for a legislative redistricting map. The map was approved in 1983 and the map’s replacement was approved 1991. With this, I’ve checked 1990 census but have had no luck. I’ve got the statewide map done except for Rapid City and Sioux Falls areas as the hand drawn maps the Secretary of State published simply doesn’t show those areas. I do have the statutory description of the districts, but it uses a description of blocks that I can’t find any other reference to. For example, Leg District 13 is entirely in Minnehaha County and the statutory description is (in part):

“…and that portion of [precinct] 9-5 consisting of tract 4.01p, block group 4p, tract 17p, block group 1p.”

When blocks themselves are described, they are described with three digits or three digits with a “p”, such as District 14:

“…and that portion of tract 4.02p contained in block group 4, block 401p.”

I think I’ve got the 1980 blocks, but I can’t figure out what the “p” is. If I could identify the blocks, I might be able to recreate the map, but I feel like this might be work already done. Does anybody have any insight on how I can find these old leg districts? For what it’s worth, it’s districts 11-15 and 30-35.

2

Dear Cully,

This is a bit of a complicated situation to explain so bear with me. The “p” in the tract, block group, and block codes means “part”. Essentially, when you see a “p” on a code, it means that the unit in question (e.g., tract 4.02, block 401p in your second example) was split by a place boundary (probably for the city of Sioux Falls).

Unfortunately, those "p"s are not listed in the population and housing data; instead, you would have to use the state, county, minor civil division and place codes to figure out which “part” of tract 4.02 and block 401 go with the statutory descriptions.

As far as I know, there is no source of state legislative district shapefiles for the time period you are interested in. We are currently working on census block shapefiles for 1980, and Minnehaha County will be included in our initial release. You should be able to use that census block shapefile to reconstruct the 1983 state legislative district maps for Sioux Falls. We hope to have that released later this fall.

Sincerely,
Dave Van Riper