Medary is an unincorporated community in Brookings County, South Dakota, United States.

The buffalo, elk, and deer herds in the area were important parts of Native American and pioneer life.

[2] Medary was the first official town in Brookings County and was one of the first three settlements in South Dakota, along with Flandreau and Sioux Falls.

[2] Medary was located and founded in May 1857[3] by the Dakota Land Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, which was headed by Major Franklin J. DeWitt and Alpheus G. Fuller.

Medary was also the location of the first school sessions in Brookings County, which were held in volunteers' homes.

Instead, the businessmen of Medary and Fountain collaborated and decided to build a town along the planned path of the tracks, which later became Brookings in October 1879.