The Trail Blazers

Ben Ash told a historian in the summer of 1945 that once his eyes improved he would put a small marker here, where his party first saw the Black Hills, in memory of Dodge and the others. He died the next spring, and this granite was dedicated in July 1949 instead, its cut map calling it the Ben Ash Monument. The stone gives Dodge as S. C.; Bismarck accounts name Joseph C. Dodge, killed in the spring of 1876 bringing cattle back. They crossed land the 1868 treaty had reserved to the Lakota.

What the plaque says

The Trail Blazers Here on December 26 1875 Ben Ash, S. C. Dodge, Russ Marsh, Ed Donahue, and Stimmy Stimson on their trip from Bismarck through the Indian country first sighted the Black Hills.

Where it stands