Lake Herman - Historic Points

This marker is gone; HMdb reports it missing from Territorial Road, and its text survives in a photograph taken while it stood. The sanctuary near Fort Thompson it names had another history. Fort Thompson took its name from Clark W. Thompson, the Minnesota superintendent of Indian affairs who in 1863 arranged the removal of Dakota and Ho-Chunk people to the Crow Creek reservation there. The land was dry and short of game, food shipped under his contracts came late, and more than 1,300 of the exiles died within three years. The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe holds the reservation today.

What the plaque says

Lake Herman - Historic Points 1 to 2 Miles South Lake Herman was the original stopping point on the Indian Trail that led from the pipe- stone quarries in Minnesota to the Three Rivers of the Sioux, a Sioux sanctuary near Fort Thompson on the Missouri. State Highway No. 34 closely follows this Indian Trail. 1 Mi. S. - Old Townsite of Herman Village, platted in 1878, was named for Herman Luce, pioneer settler of 1870. It was a thriving town with stores, newspaper and a bright future until the railroad entered New Madison in 1881. William Luce was appointed first Postmaster in 1874. 1 1/2 Mi. S. to Inkpaduta Indian Camp site - 1857. 2 Mi. S. to Lake Herman State Park and orig- inal log cabin of Herman Luce, built in 1871. Erected 1955 by Lake County Historical Society and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ingalls Homestead and the De Smet Historic Homes — 31 mi
  The quarter section a mile from De Smet that Charles Ingalls filed on in 1880 and proved up in 1886, the house in town he built, and the cottonwoods he planted.

More markers nearby

• C. B. Kennedy — 2.8 mi
• Wm. H. H. Beadle — 2.9 mi
• Old Madison - First County Seat — 5.9 mi
• Lake County / Miner County — 9.9 mi