Fourteen Mile House

The railroad the bronze credits with ending this stage stop had a hard spring of its own. On March 24, 1881, the flooding Missouri reached the Dakota Southern's tracks on the bottomlands, and when the water fell the whole line from Yankton to near Sioux City was a wreck, its grade softened and washed away and its rails sunk in mud. Twelve miles from Yankton to Gayville were rebuilt on a new grade. Captain John J. Clague, tallying losses for General Terry, put Union County's at $30,000. The Northwestern-controlled line was later sold to the Milwaukee company.

What the plaque says

Fourteen Mile House Just 14 miles from Sioux City on the Military Road from that place to Ft. Randall, this house was built of logs by Francis Reandeau about 1861. A Frenchman, he and his son, Lyzimon, whose name is carved on one of the original logs, ran this stage stop, tavern and store for over a decade until the new Dakota Southern Railway came by in 1872. A wall, highly polished, of the original structure is to be seen within, which has been recently reno- vated by Francis Chicoine, its owner. Erected 1966 by Francis Chicoine and State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ponca State Park — 6.5 mi
  Oak ravines and bluffs at the downstream end of the Missouri's last unchannelized reach in Nebraska, with a three-state overlook and the river's resource and education center.
• National Music Museum — 20 mi
  One of the great collections of musical instruments in the world, on a college campus in a prairie town, built around a band teacher's thousands of horns, fiddles and curiosities.
• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 25 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

• First Flour Mill in Dakota — 1.9 mi
• St. Peter's Church Jefferson — 2.1 mi
• Grasshopper Cross — 2.1 mi
• Postmasters Jefferson — 2.1 mi