Vermillion

The flood the bronze sums up in a line reached the town near midnight on March 27, 1881, when ice and runoff from the hard winter came down the valley and the Baptist church bell, the agreed alarm, sent families wading through icy water to the bluff road. On March 31 forty buildings floated off. On April 6 fifty-six more went within hours, the Saint Nicholas Hotel and the depot among them, and 132 were destroyed in all. On April 14, with water still standing, residents voted to rebuild on the bluff, and lots there doubled in price.

What the plaque says

Vermillion August 24, 1804, Lewis & Clark camped near the White Stone (Vermillion) River and next day visited Spirit Mound 8 miles north. The military road, Sioux City-Ft. Randall after 1855 provided access, as did steam- boats. A.C. Van Meter ran the ferry. In 1859 permanent settlers came as the Yancton Indians went to their reservation. The town was on the Missouri, under the bluffs, east of the Vermillion. Dr. Franklin Caulkins had a private school. The 1860 census credited the Vermillion area with 40 families and 215 people. John Ball surveyed the township that fall and Compton and Deuel had a store and a saw mill. Samuel B. Mullholland, the hotel keeper, became postmaster on April 17 and in August Brother C. D. Martin established a Presbyterian Church of logs. April 8, 1861 Abraham Lincoln located Dakota's Land Office here with Jesse Wherry and Henry Kennerley, Receiver & Register and on July 18th, Clark & Bedell established the Dakota Republican. Private schools continued until Captain Nelson Miner, Dakota Cavalry, built a permanent one the winter of 1864. November 25, 1872, the Dakota Southern reached here. In 1873 the village was organized and was incorporated in 1878. The 1862 Legislature named Vermillion site of the University but it was October 18, 1882, until first classes were held. Meanwhile the great flood of 1881 had wiped out the town below the bluffs moving the Missouri south to the Nebraska bluffs. So began a new era for Vermillion located atop the bluffs as now. Erected 1966 by the Vermillion Rotary Club and State Highway Commission The Missouri River Was Historic Highway Historic Sites 1 Pacquette's Ferry 1855 2 Hotchkiss & Dexter Mill 1867 3 Willows 1861 Adelescat 1869 Jefferson 1873 4 14 Mile House 5 First Homestead in U.S. 1-1-1863 6 Fort Brule 1862 7 First Election in NW U.S. 8-22-1804 8 Fort Vermillion Fur Post 1833 9 Vermillion Fur Post, School, Church, Paper A First Catholic Church B St. Paul Lutheran Church C Lincoln P.O. 6-1864-00 D Post Vermillion 1823 E McClellan's Post 1805 F Fort Hutchson 1864 G Stanage Ferry 1859 H Greenway Ferry 1859 I Frost-Todd Trade Post 1859 J There are 16 historic markers located in YANKTON the "Mother City" K Custer Campsite April 1873 L Jack McCall Hung 1877 M Custer Campsite 1873 N Lewis & Clark Council with Sioux 1804 O Spirit Mound 1804 Erected 1966 by the Vermillion Rotary Club and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Music Museum — 0.6 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.
• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 6.0 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.
• Ponca State Park — 18 mi
  Oak ravines and bluffs at the downstream end of the Missouri's last unchannelized reach in Nebraska, with a three-state overlook and the river's resource and education center.

More markers nearby

• Andrew Lee — 0.5 mi
• Grand Officers — 0.8 mi
• First Permanent Schoolhouse in Dakota Territory — 0.8 mi
• Bruyer Church — 4.5 mi