1908 Palisades Bridge

The village of Palisade on the bronze did not outlast the railroad. It grew up around C. W. Patten's mill on Split Rock Creek, but in 1889 a railroad junction two miles north drew the town away, and the new settlement became Garretson. The mill ran until 1917. Local owners farmed the land around the gorge until 1947, when 20 acres were given to the state; more land followed in 1953, 1967 and 1969, and Palisades State Park was established in 1974. The 119-foot bridge is the only one in the state set on natural rock abutments.

What the plaque says

1908 Palisades Bridge In 1908 the Western Bridge and Construction Co. of Omaha, Nebraska, built this Pratt Through-Truss Bridge. Workers fastened beams together with diagonal bracing to create a strong, rigid framework. Each beam of a truss bridge shares a portion of the weight of the bridge to help displace the weight and stress of crossing traffic. The steel bridge rests on natural abutments of Sioux quartzite. A milldam bridge was built nearby in 1870 when C. W. Patten erected a flour mill on high ground northwest of the (Continued on other side) Dedicated in 2000 in memory of Jon H. Kentfield by the Minnehaha County and South Dakota State Historical Societies 1908 Palisades Bridge (Continued from other side) dam. Water from Split Rock Creek powered the mill. Built of heavy timbers and large boulders, the bridge was wide enough to drive over with team and wagon. In 1883 a bridge was built on this site. It made the uphill grade less abrupt for loaded wagons heading to Patten's Mill and the village of Palisade. An ice jam destroyed this bridge in the spring of 1896 by lifting it from its moorings and floating it downstream. The 1908 Palisades Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Dedicated in 2000 in memory of Jon H. Kentfield by the Minnehaha County and South Dakota State Historical Societies

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Falls Park — 14 mi
  The falls a town company came for in 1856, abandoned in 1862, and tried to make pay with a seven-story quartzite mill that ran for barely two years.

More markers nearby

• Valley Springs Rest Area — 6.1 mi
• Minnehaha County — 6.2 mi
• The Town of Valley Springs — 7.3 mi
• The City of Brandon — 7.4 mi