Two Sisters

Locals call this climb Long Hollow; the bronze calls it Herigstad Pass, for the farm family who sheltered travelers here. Sisseton sits about 1,203 feet above sea level, and the top of the hollow, a few miles west, stands hundreds of feet higher, cooler than town in summer and exposed in winter. South Dakota Magazine retold the 1903 night in 2016: the sled broke on a boulder, and the girls were found at sunrise less than 400 yards from the Herigstad house. Norway has a Hallingdal, a valley in Buskerud, and no Hellingdal, the spelling cast here.

What the plaque says

Two Sisters Oh Pioneer, speak of your story, lest we forget. On a pleasant winter day, January 6, 1903, Knut Throndson, an 1892 homesteader from Hellingdal, Norway, decided to visit his closest neighbors, Tobias and Bertha Herigstad, who lived less than a quarter-mile east of this spot. Knut's wife, Caroline, remained at home with three small children, while the older daughters Theoline, age 13, and Menne, age 15, accompanied their father on the sleigh. Returning home late in the day, they were caught in a sudden blizzard. The sled runner hit a rock and broke. Knut unhitched the team from the sleigh and told each daughter to hold the horse's tails as he held the reins of the team. They struggled through the blinding storm. Arriving home, the father discovered both his daughters missing. He ran back to his neighbor's homestead, shouting their names all the way. Knut and Tobias searched frantically all night in the storm. When daylight came they found the frozen bodies of Theoline and Menne four hundred yards from Tobias Herigstad's home. Over the past 100 years of Herigstad Pass history, other travelers have recited many fortunate stories of being rescued from winter storms on the Coteau des Prairies by the hospitality of the Herigstad family. The tragic legacy of the Two Sisters lives on, reminding travelers to be prepared for winter storms. Sponsored by the Heritage Museum of Roberts County and the South Dakota Department of Transportation 1998

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Joseph N. Nicollet Tower and Interpretive Center — 3.2 mi
  A tower on the edge of the Coteau des Prairies honoring the French mapmaker who drew this country in 1838 and 1839 and kept the Dakota names on the map.
• Sica Hollow State Park — 6.3 mi
  Wooded ravines on the edge of the Coteau, on the Lake Traverse Reservation, where the springs run iron-red and the Dakota tell of a good land gone bad.
• Fort Sisseton Historic State Park — 17 mi
  A stone fort on the Coteau des Prairies built to watch the Dakota after 1862, renamed for the Sisseton who scouted for it, restored by the WPA and saved again by a boy who grew up loving it.

More markers nearby

• Two Companions — steps away
• Little Paul Mazakutemani — 2.0 mi
• Roberts County / Marshall County — 2.5 mi
• Map of Northeast South Dakota — 3.2 mi