History Unfolds

The bronze's last paragraph runs fastest past its largest story: several Aricara villages, 1400 to 1790. The Sahnish, as the Arikara call themselves, lived along this stretch of the river in fortified earth-lodge towns, and the Little Cherry band met the Verendrye brothers at the mouth of the Bad River in 1743. The smallpox epidemic of 1780 to 1782 cut their villages along the Missouri from thirty-two to two, and by 1795 the survivors lived thirty or forty miles upriver, with the Lakota holding the bend.

What the plaque says

History Unfolds Up the canyon on U.S. 14 to the west, the Ft. Pierre-Deadwood Trail of 1876-86, the main artery of commerce to the "gold diggins" of the Black Hills had its course. Untold thousands of patient oxen pulled millions of tons of freight over that long route. Spirited horses took countless stages through in 48 hours when conditions were right. Follow this arrow 1.3 miles and .3 mile to right is monument to Fort Pierre Choteau, fur capital of N.W. from 1831-55; when purchased by the U.S. it became Military Post where Gen. W. S. Harney had famous council of 1856 with Sioux Indians. On .7 mile and .5 mile to left is family graveyard of Scotty Philip, cattle and buffalo pioneer of west river country. Site of famous buffalo herd. Beyond and on river side are sites of Fort Galpin, 1857, New Fort Pierre, 1859-66 and several Aricara villages 1400-1790. Over and beyond the dam were sites of Ft. LaFrombois II, 1862-65, Ft. Primeau, 1862 and old Aricara fortress. Erected 1955 by Ft. Pierre National Bank and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Verendrye Monument — 1.1 mi
  The hilltop above Fort Pierre where three children found a lead plate in 1913 that two French brothers had buried in 1743 to claim the West for their king.
• South Dakota State Capitol — 2.2 mi
  A copper-domed capitol built to end three elections' worth of fighting over where the capital belonged, beside a lake fed by an artesian well with a gas flame burning in it.
• Oahe Dam — 5.4 mi
  One of the largest rolled-earth dams in the world, dedicated by President Kennedy in 1962, holding back a reservoir that reaches more than 230 miles to Bismarck.

More markers nearby

• Verendrye Hill and Monument — 1.3 mi
• Fur Posts — 1.3 mi
• Fort Pierre — 1.3 mi
• Fort Pierre Chouteau — 1.3 mi