Historical Marker · No. 278
Wessington Springs
Jerauld County · South Dakota
Erected by R.E. Dean and State Highway Commission, 1960
No one has found the man the springs are named for. Samuel Medary's map for the Interior Department, submitted on January 18, 1858, labeled the place Wassington Spring, the name's first printed use. The trapper story first ran in the Wessington Springs Herald on January 4, 1884. The Rev. A. B. Smart, who arrived in 1880, heard instead that Wessington was one of Nobles' ox teamsters. Researcher Tom Shonley found no Wessington in the 1850 or 1860 census, or in the expedition's letters, maps and journals, and the question is still open.
What the plaque says
Wessington Springs Roadside Park Wood and water were essential to pioneer road builders and in 1857, when the Fort Ridgeley & South Pass Wagon Road was built by Col. W. H. Nobles, the springs at Wessington Hills was a natural on the Reconnaissance to the Missouri River. On the return, when mounds were erected every 1/4 mile, Samuel A. Medary, the Engineer, said: "A favorable ascent of the coteaus on a narrow divide between two ravines...forming an easy grade to the highlands." That grade is directly east 1/2 mile. First known to white men when LaFrombois, enroute by cart, to Ft. Pierre in 1817 passed; it had been known to the Indians for centuries as their artifacts, of tribes other than the Sioux, marked this as a rendezvous. It was on a second official thoroughfare when the Minnesota & Powder River Wagon Road of 1865, located by George N. Propper as Engineer for W.W. Brookings, Superintendent, made this a point enroute up this same easy grade. Tradition has a trapper named Wessington killed near the Springs in 1862. The first settler, Levi Haines, who built a cabin at the foot of the hill, was here in 1876 and in 1878 Wessington P. O., Peter R. Barrett - P.M., was established, renamed Elmer in 1882 and finally Wessington Springs in 1884. Erected 1960 by R.E. Dean and State Highway Commission
Where it stands
44.07503, -98.57483 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Robert S. Vessey — steps away
- Noble's Trail Campsite — steps away
- Cleveland T. Hall — 0.6 mi
- Wolsey: A Crossroad of the Heartland / Wolsey Notables — 24 mi