Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail

This is the second of two identical bronzes the Deadwood commission helped pay for; the other stands near Morristown, at the Corson County end. Few traces of the stations survive. The best known, Cannonball Stage Station near Carson, North Dakota, keeps two dugouts and a barn outline, and wagon ruts still show near Flasher. The fleet the bronze counts, 26 Concord coaches and 200 teams, was run from Bismarck by some 175 men, and in October 1879 the town's hotels reported no rooms left for travelers bound for the Hills.

What the plaque says

Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail At this point the Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail passed in a line extending about 240 miles from northeast to southwest. In 1877, the Dakota Territorial Legislature commissioned the survey of the trail, which transported passengers and freight between Bismarck, the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Deadwood. Rich mineral deposits in the Black Hills had been confirmed by an 1874 expedition led by General George Custer. The first four-horse Concord stagecoaches, owned by the North- western Express, Stage and Transportation Company, started over the trail from Bismarck in April 1877 with daily service in operation by May. A typical run took 36 hours and a one-way ticket cost $23. As many as 26 stagecoaches and more than 200 teams comprised the rolling stock. The Company also utilized many mule and oxen wagons to haul freight. Twenty relay stations and two overnight stations serviced the line. A shorter trail to the Black Hills was later opened from Pierre, and by late 1880 the Bismarck route was abandoned by official traffic. The trail subsequently served area ranchers and settlers until a modern road system was developed. Partial funding for this marker made possible by the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hugh Glass Monument and Shadehill Reservoir — 20 mi
  Where the forks of the Grand River meet under a reservoir, a monument a poet raised in 1923 for a trapper mauled by a grizzly, with a message for the people of 2023.

More markers nearby

• Hugh Glass - Adventurer — 18 mi