Historical Marker · No. 562
Colonel W. H. Nobles
Sanborn County · South Dakota
The stone calls him Colonel; in the war he was a lieutenant colonel of the 79th New York Highlanders, posting pickets on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, in November 1861. Before that William H. Nobles had been a St. Paul wagonmaker, credited with building the first wagon made in Minnesota, and a territorial legislator in 1854 and 1856. Nobles County, Minnesota, carries his name. In 1859 he set out from St. Paul to open a trail to the Fraser River gold fields and turned back at the Saskatchewan. He died in a St. Paul hospital on December 28, 1876.
What the plaque says
Col. W. H. Nobles in 1857 constructed this ford over the James River on the Fort Ridgeley and South Pass Wagon Road.
Where it stands
44.12965, -98.09076 · Directions