Christ Church

In the parish's second summer its chapel held a different kind of meeting. On August 30, 1862, as news of the US-Dakota War in Minnesota reached Yankton, the town's men gathered in the Episcopal chapel to form Company A of the Dakota Militia and plan a defense, answering the territorial governor's call for every man from eighteen to fifty to enroll for home defense. They elected the printer Frank M. Ziebach captain, with the newspaperman George W. Kingsbury as orderly sergeant, and two days later began the sod north wall of the stockade.

What the plaque says

Christ Church Mother Episcopal Church of the Dakotas Founded in 1861 by The Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, D.D., LL. D. First missionary to settle in Dakota Territory This building is the third church home of the Yankton Episcopal Parish.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 22 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.

More markers nearby

• Pine Street Bridge — steps away
• First Territorial Capital — 0.2 mi
• North Wall Yankton Stockade — 0.3 mi
• Trial of Jack McCall For Murder of Wild Bill — 0.3 mi