Wooden Legs Brewing Company was founded in 2010 to bring craft beer and a proper brewpub with a great atmosphere to Brookings, South Dakota. The Wooden Legs Brewing Company name is tongue in cheek homage to Judge Wilmot Wood Brookings. Judge Brookings is a significant figure in history of South Dakota. The county and city were named after him although he only visited the city twice. In February 1858, Brookings rode a horse from Sioux Falls to the Yankton area during a blizzard. His horse slipped and fell into Split Rock Creek in the freezing weather. Brookings made it safely to Yankton, but his wet legs had suffered such severe frostbite they both needed to be amputated. He spent the rest of his life using a pair of squeaky, wooden legs.