First School in Bon Homme

The obelisk stands where a village once did. Bon Homme took its name from the island Lewis and Clark called Bon Homme in 1804, and a party of Minnesota settlers led by John H. Shober founded the town on the Dakota shore in the fall of 1859. When the county was created in 1862 the village became its seat, and held it until 1885, when the seat and even the Cogan House hotel moved to Tyndall. The railroad from Yankton to Running Water passed it by, the post office closed in 1903, and only its cemetery remains.

What the plaque says

In 1860 near this place was erected the first schoolhouse in the territory now comprising the states of South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. First Teacher Emma J. Bradford Pupils John Bradford Geo. McDaniels Leanna Bradford Ira Brown Mary McDaniels Melissa Brown Geo. G. Rounds Delia Rounds 1860 Erected by the Pioneers' Association of Bon Homme County in 1910 with contributions from school children and citizens.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santee Sioux Nation Museum — 5.5 mi
  The Isanti Dakota nation's museum and research room beside its headquarters at Santee, with census rolls from 1866, the mission school's photographs and a Dakota-language newspaper that ran for 68 years.
• Ponca Tribal Museum and Old Ponca Agency — 20 mi
  The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska's museum, powwow arena, talking trail and bison herd at the old agency near Niobrara, on homeland the nation was forced from in 1877.

More markers nearby

• Replica Bon Homme School — steps away
• Tabor — 6.8 mi
• West Wall Yankton Stockade — 18 mi
• Hanging of Jack McCall — 18 mi