Oakwood Lakes State Park

The detachment the board places here came from a battalion with a tangled past. Its companies were raised at Fort Snelling in 1861 as Minnesota cavalry, served in Tennessee in the Curtis Horse, renamed the Fifth Iowa Cavalry in 1862 over the men's protests, and came home in 1864 as Brackett's Battalion. That July it rode with Alfred Sully against a largely Lakota camp at Killdeer Mountain, which Sully's army burned, and fought again in the Badlands in August. The battalion's own record winters it at Fort Ridgely in 1864 and 1865, which is why the board says probably.

What the plaque says

Oakwood Lakes State Park Breastworks Probably built by two companies of the 2nd Infantry, under command of Capt. D. Davidson, in June-July, 1859. Parapets were then about 5 ft. high. A log house once stood in the center, but was razed long ago for firewood. Cannon were mounted in NE and SW corners. Lt. Joseph H. Porter probably bivouaced here with his detachment of Brackett's Battalion (Minnesota), which located here in the winter of 1864-65 to keep Indians from drifting back into Minnesota. South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks Oakwood Lakes State Park Te-Tonka-Ha The Sioux called these lakes Te-tonka-ha, (Place of the Great Summer Lodge) probably because they made seasonal visits to live on the fish and game which abounded here. About a mile north of this spot are several large mounds where it is presumed that many of their number were buried. Nicollet and Fremont The first white men to visit this area were J. N. Nicollet and J.C. Fremont who wrote in their journal on July 8, 1838, "Wood is not so rare here and it is found on every tongue of land which separates the lakes from one another and by which they communicate their waters with one another. The landscape is full of grandeur and beauty, the soil excel- lent, the trees of pretty growth, and several villages could be established on their shores. But there is no soul expand- ing its life here." South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Oakwood Lakes Burial Mounds — 0.5 mi
• Significant Site — 0.6 mi
• 'Ol Spot Mortimer's Cabin — 0.9 mi
• Oakwood 1877-1894 — 1.7 mi