What Wessington Springs is known for
Wessington Springs, the county seat of Jerauld County, South Dakota, had 771 people at the 2020 census. It is known for the Shakespeare Garden and Anne Hathaway Cottage: a garden of more than 150 types of plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s works, planted in 1927 by English teacher Emma Shay, and a copy of Anne Hathaway’s house in Stratford-upon-Avon, taken from a postcard.
Dakota land first
Before white settlement this was Dakota land. The Dakota had been forcibly removed to reservations by 1876, when a local record names the first white settlers near Wessington Springs. The town was platted in 1882 and incorporated in 1893, and a Milwaukee Road branch line reached it in 1903. Emma Shay married Clark W. Shay in 1895, and both began teaching at Wessington Springs College shortly after.
One teacher's England
In 1926 Emma Shay borrowed $1,000 to travel through England alone, collecting botanical specimens from authors’ homes that she later mounted and sold to repay the loan. The National Register nomination says her idea came from the National Shakespeare Association and from that trip. She planted the garden in 1927; today it measures 100 by 150 feet on a 2-acre property, and an upper lily pool was added in 1938.
Residents take it on
Emma Shay died in 1945 and Clark in 1951. By 1979, when the garden and house joined the National Register of Historic Places, the cottage had asphalt shingles and cream stucco, and the nomination found the property in rather poor condition from the long term effects of drought. In 1989 a group of residents formed the Shakespeare Garden Society to buy and restore the grounds, and a South Dakota Centennial grant helped fund the restoration. During renovations in the 1990s and 2000s a thatcher gave the cottage a roof of 1,400 bales of reed, at a cost of $15,000.
The garden today
Travel South Dakota calls the cottage the only structure with a thatched roof in the state. Touring it requires an advance appointment, and a High Tea is available to groups of up to 16 by reservation. The Society has run an annual Planting Festival for more than 20 years, and an August 2026 garden party marked 100 years since Emma Shay’s trip to England. The draw is not prairie heritage. It is Shakespeare’s England, brought by one teacher onto land the Dakota had been forcibly removed from, and kept by the residents who formed the Society.
Questions people ask about Wessington Springs
Why does Wessington Springs, South Dakota have a Shakespeare garden?
English teacher Emma Shay traveled through England in 1926, and in 1927 she planted a garden of plants mentioned in Shakespeare's works in Wessington Springs. It now holds more than 150 types of plants, and the Shays also built a copy of Anne Hathaway's cottage from a postcard.
When was the Anne Hathaway Cottage in Wessington Springs built?
Sources differ. Most, including the site's own website, date it to 1932, when the Shays retired. The 1979 National Register nomination instead describes the house as following the 1927 garden by about two years.
Can you visit the Anne Hathaway Cottage?
Yes, by advance appointment, according to Travel South Dakota, and a High Tea is offered to groups of up to 16 by reservation. The state tourism site describes the cottage as the only structure with a thatched roof in South Dakota.
Who looks after the Shakespeare Garden?
The Shakespeare Garden Society, formed by a group of Wessington Springs residents in 1989 to buy and restore the grounds. It has run an annual Planting Festival for more than 20 years, alongside English teas, summer concerts and occasional weddings.
Whose land was Wessington Springs before settlement?
It was Dakota land. The Dakota had been forcibly removed to reservations by 1876, the year a local record gives for the first white settlers near Wessington Springs. The garden and cottage celebrate Shakespeare's England, not Dakota or prairie heritage.