Faith

The bronze speaks in the town's own voice, from its half mile above sea level to a closing Thanks for listening. Its account of the name does not hold: it credits the daughter of Milwaukee Road president Albert Earling, whose only daughter was Harriet, and the town's own history names a Faith Rockefeller instead. It names two Lakota leaders the homesteaders met, Puts on His Shoes and Iron Lightning. The land had been cut from the Great Sioux Reservation by the act of 1889.

What the plaque says

Faith Where Highways US 212 and SD 73 meet, at the end of the Cheyenne Branch of the Milwaukee Road, we live, a half mile above sea level, on the Fox Ridge Divide, our souls nourished by picture sunsets. Our grass is unsurpassed anywhere, producing beef, the backbone of our existence. Bounded by the Cheyenne Reservation, the Moreau and Cheyenne Rivers, the Black Hills — our faith is boundless. The area, opened for settlers in 1890 had few immediate takers but 1908-10 saw the rails push westward, homesteaders filed for the free land and were met with the stoic calm of the Sioux, led by Puts on His Shoes and Iron Lightning, two of Sitting Bull's chieftans. The Matador, Flying V, Turkey Track, and other large cattle outfits lost their "free range" to the "honyocker's" plowed fields and protective barbed wire. In 1910 Faith sprang up on this prairie, so vast in its extent that deceit finds no place to hide and man is known for his true stature — which is well, since the county sheriff is 110 miles away. Named in honor of the daughter of President Earling of the Mil- waukee Railroad, her name has provided a sustaining influence these first fifty years. Our livelihood being in direct ratio with the varying rainfall, our philosophy is: "Next Year Will be Better." Thanks for listening. Erected 1960 by the Faith Chamber of Commerce and the State Highway Commission

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Small Town - Badger Clark — 0.5 mi