You Are Now on the 100° Meridian

The bronze calls the meridian just another bad memory. Climate scientists have since given it a second life. In 2018 a team led by Richard Seager of Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reported that the boundary between the humid East and the arid West, long drawn along this line, has shifted about 140 miles east since around 1980, toward the 98th meridian, and is likely to keep moving as the climate warms. A twin of this bronze, cast for a Pierre firm with the same text, stands on Highway 14 west of Blunt.

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 by the First National Bank of Selby and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Bangor — 1.9 mi
• The Mickelson Governors — 4.9 mi
• Dedicated to the Indian People in Honor of the "Fool Soldier Band" — 23 mi
• Honoring the People of the Eureka Area — 28 mi