Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm

The farm that the Norgren family and their neighbors raised money to buy still runs as South Dakota State University's Southeast Research Farm, 594 acres outside Beresford. Seventy fenced acres serve grazing studies and twelve are certified organic, and the work covers corn and soybean management, forages and small grains, weed control, nutrient management, drainage and combined crop and livestock systems. The nonprofit Southeast Experiment Farm Corporation still stands behind it, with directors elected for two-year terms from each participating county, an annual meeting where members propose new research, and its funds going into the station's buildings.

What the plaque says

Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm In Memory of Gustavus Norgren Dedicated to the Early Pioneers of South Dakota The Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm was organized on April 5th 1956, for the purpose of conducting a research demonstration farm in Southeast South Dakota. It was through the efforts of the Norgren family, farmers, and other interested people in Lincoln, Turner, Union, Clay, Yankton, Bon Homme, Hutchinson, Minnehaha, Charles Mix and adjacent counties that the needed money was raised and the farm purchased. The Farm is operated by the South Dakota State College Experiment Station in co-operation with the Directors of the Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm. Erected 1961

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 12 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.
• National Music Museum — 18 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.

More markers nearby

• William J. Bulow — 7.2 mi
• Archie M. Gubbrud — 14 mi
• Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Alcester — 14 mi
• Swan Lake — 16 mi