You Are Now on the 100° Meridian

The bronze blames a geographer, and one fits: Stephen Long's 1820 expedition labeled the plains the Great American Desert, and John Wesley Powell later drew the edge of dependable rain near this meridian. Its other target was South Dakota's own experiment. Voters amended the constitution, and a state Rural Credit board began lending in October 1917 on state bonds. By February 1924 it had made 11,130 farm loans totaling about $43.8 million on $44.5 million in bonds. That is the debt the 1955 bronze says cost plenty and was paid in full.

What the plaque says

You Are Now on the 100° Meridian Historically that meridian is significant. For two generations the Insurance Companies and other world-wide lending agencies would not, as a matter of agreed policy, lend a shiny dime west of this line. Their reason was that some geographer had labeled it the EAST EDGE of the Great American Desert. Neither the geographer nor the Insurance Companies had been west of 100°. Today, more than a quarter of America's new animal wealth alone, is produced from that misnamed desert. This unrealistic, geographically limited loan policy, forced South Dakota into the farm loan business. Our Rural Credit business cost us plenty and was a splendid illustration of why a State should not be in the loaning business. But South Dakota has paid all its debts in full. The 100th Meridian is just another bad memory. Historically however the 100° Meridian was a most important one in Western economy. Erected 1955 by Hyde Holding Corporation, Pierre and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• South Dakota State Capitol — 20 mi
  A copper-domed capitol built to end three elections' worth of fighting over where the capital belonged, beside a lake fed by an artesian well with a gas flame burning in it.
• Oahe Dam — 20 mi
  One of the largest rolled-earth dams in the world, dedicated by President Kennedy in 1962, holding back a reservoir that reaches more than 230 miles to Bismarck.
• Verendrye Monument — 22 mi
  The hilltop above Fort Pierre where three children found a lead plate in 1913 that two French brothers had buried in 1743 to claim the West for their king.

More markers nearby

• Mentor Graham — 0.5 mi
• Medicine Knoll — 2.2 mi
• Fort Sully — 14 mi
• African American Homesteader Community in Sully County — 14 mi