First Territorial Capital

The Mackenzie this bronze blames was Alexander McKenzie, Burleigh County's sheriff from 1874 to 1886, and the capital was an early chapter. Born in New York in 1850, he came west at seventeen on the Northern Pacific and settled in Bismarck in 1873. For twenty-one years he was North Dakota's Republican national committeeman, called the senator-maker, his machine accused of stolen votes and beaten opponents. In 1900 a judge he had placed at Nome, Alaska, made him receiver of other men's gold mines; the Ninth Circuit jailed him for contempt, and McKinley pardoned him in May 1901.

What the plaque says

First Territorial Capital 1861-1883 Dakota Territory, extending N to Canada and W to the summit of the Rockies, a fourth larger than Texas, was created March 2, 1861. Lincoln appointed William Jayne Governor and he arrived at Yankton June 8th. Dakota had 2,326 white citizens; the first legis- lature met at Yankton on March 17, 1862 and after a lot of legislative jockeying, Yankton was named permanent capital on April 8, 1862. It so remained, capital, "mother City," steamboat town and railhead until 1883. Then Alexander Mackenzie came down from the North with a handful of votes and reputedly a satchel full of money. He parlayed these assets into a capital removal commission. The law required that they organize at Yankton. They did, on a Milwaukee train passing rapidly through town late in April. Aspirants were Aberdeen, Bismarck, Canton, Frankfort, Huron, Mitchell, Odessa, Ordway, Pierre, Redfield and Steele. The Commission passed among these towns in a glorious jamboree and then met at Fargo on June 3rd and decreed Bismarck as capital. Governor Ordway and Senator, later Territorial Attorney General Alexander Hughes were credited as Mackenzie's most effective allies. Yankton resorted to the law but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal. Governor Pierce completed the move to Bismarck and Yankton has a fine historic site a few rods north of this marker and a bitter memory. Erected 1956 by Hotels Charles Gurney and Nancy

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

• Trial of Jack McCall For Murder of Wild Bill — steps away
• First Building at Yankton Site May 1858 — steps away
• Christ Church — 0.2 mi
• Pine Street Bridge — 0.2 mi