Medicine Knoll

This tablet dates from 1923, when the state historian Doane Robinson asked for markers along the Black and Yellow Trail in Hughes County, and its date comes from Robinson's own history. He wrote that Nicollet's party reached Medicine Knoll on the evening of July 3, 1839, with Frémont climbing it at midnight. Another account has the expedition leaving Fort Pierre for Devils Lake only on July 11. The serpent on the knoll is one of many stone effigies on Dakota hilltops. The Kiwanis moved the boulder in 1986.

What the plaque says

Medicine Knoll Two Miles South Gen. John C. Fremont the Great Pathfinder and Joseph Nicollet Eminent Scientist celebrated July 4, 1839 on this butte. A large serpent in boulder mosaic a Sioux memorial is on the top. Erected 1923 by Pierre Kiwanis Club Relocated by The Pierre Kiwanis Club in 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• South Dakota State Capitol — 18 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 — 18 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.
• Verendrye Monument — 20 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.

More markers nearby

• You Are Now on the 100° Meridian — 2.2 mi
• Mentor Graham — 2.7 mi
• Fort Sully — 14 mi
• African American Homesteader Community in Sully County — 14 mi