Historical Marker · No. 649

You Are Now Entering South Dakota

Erected by South Dakota State Highway Commission, 1956

The leaving face here speaks for Iowa, and its boasts largely hold. Iowa is the nation's largest corn producer; in 2008 its 92,600 farms grew 19 percent of the country's crop. It raised about 30 percent of the nation's hogs that year, and in March 2018 it held about 22.6 million hogs in 8,000 facilities. Crops cover about 60 percent of the state and grassland another 30. The cast claim to the highest percentage of first class agricultural land is the one boast those figures do not measure.

What the plaque says

You Are Entering South Dakota CREATED with its TWIN North Dakota, 2 November 1889, its 77,047 square miles ranks 15th in size. Those square miles include: exceptional corn land in the SE, grass land in the W, wheat land in the N and PRODUCTIVE land all over. Its lowest point, BIG STONE, is 979 feet above sea level; its high- est, HARNEY PEAK, at 7,247 feet is the highest point in the U. S. A. east of the Rockies. The BLACK HILLS "THE AMERICAN ALPS" are scenically unsurpassed and are the richest "100 MILE SQUARE" minerally in the world. MT. RUSHMORE, "THE SHRINE OF DEMOCRACY" is visited by hundreds of thousands annually. Its BADLANDS are weirdly beautiful and undeniably bad. ANNUALLY it ranks in the first ten states in the production of wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, grass, and cattle. Its HOMESTAKE MINE is the greatest gold producer in the western hemisphere. SOUTH DAKOTA is "ECONOMICALLY, PHYSICALLY, RECREATIONALLY" a State of "INFINITE VARIETY." Its economy is well balanced. FIRST visited by white men, VERENDRYE, in 1743, for a century it was a fur traders paradise with a most romantic history. ITS highways are well marked; roadside PARKS frequent; historic markers, such as this, are to be found therein and adjacent to historic sites. Our MOTTO "UNDER GOD THE PEOPLE RULE" is symbolic of life in South Dakota. Welcome to our State. Erected 1956 by South Dakota State Highway Commission You are now leaving South Dakota and about to enter Iowa where Corn is King and a great State of the land. Famous for its highest percentage of first class agricultural land, its hog production and a pleasant and contented people. Erected 1956 by South Dakota State Highway Commission

Where it stands

42.52568, -96.48128 · Directions

Worth the stop nearby

Ponca State Park — 13 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.
National Music Museum — 29 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

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