South Dakota's Historic Sites
South Dakota is home to a rich array of historic sites that reflect both its Indigenous heritage and frontier history. Among these sites is Bear Butte, a sacred location for the Cheyenne Indians, recognized for its cultural significance and natural beauty. The Deadwood Historic District stands out for its preserved mining town atmosphere, a remnant from the gold rush era, where notable figures and events shaped the region's narrative. Fort Pierre Chouteau, a vital fur trading post established in 1832, showcases the early commercial activities that were crucial to the fur trade in the northern Great Plains.
Additionally, sites like the Fort Thompson Mounds and the Langdeau Site highlight the deep indigenous history, featuring burial mounds and early village life in the region. The Wounded Knee Battlefield serves as a poignant reminder of the tragic confrontations between Native Americans and U.S. forces, marking a significant moment in American history. Collectively, these historic sites offer insights into the diverse cultural tapestry of South Dakota, inviting exploration and reflection on the past.
South Dakota's Historic Sites
Bear Butte
Location: Sturgis, Meade County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Sacred to the Cheyenne, Bear Butte is the place where Maheo imparted to Sweet Medicine (a mythical hero) the knowledge from which the Cheyenne derive their religious, political, social, and economic customs. The site is in Bear Butte State Park.
Deadwood Historic District
Location: Deadwood, Lawrence County
Relevant issues: Business and industry, cultural history
Statement of significance: The site of a rich gold strike in 1875, Deadwood retains its mining town atmosphere. Many original buildings remain. While Deadwood is one of the most highly publicized mining towns of the trans-Mississippi West, much of its fame rests on the famous or infamous characters that passed through.
Fort Pierre Chouteau Site
Location: Fort Pierre, Stanley County
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: Perhaps the most significant fur trade/military fort on the western American frontier, Fort Pierre Chouteau was the largest (almost three hundred feet square) and best-equipped trading post in the northern Great Plains. It was built in 1832 by John Jacob Astor’s (1763-1848) American Fur Company as part of its expansion into the Upper Missouri region. The trading activities at the site exemplified the commercial alliance critical to the success of the fur business.
Fort Thompson Mounds
Location: Fort Thompson, Buffalo County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This large group of low burial mounds dating from Plains-Woodland times (c. 800 CE.) contains evidence of the first pottery-making peoples in the area. It is situated on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation.
Frawley Ranch
Location: Spearfish, Lawrence County
Relevant issues: Business and industry, western expansion
Statement of significance: Frawley Ranch represents the development of practical land use for an area unsuited to homestead farming. In the 1890s, lawyer Henry J. Frawley acquired several unsuccessful homestead farms and created a large and prosperous ranch here.
Langdeau Site
Location: Lower Brule, Lyman County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Possibly the earliest reliably dated village of the Missouri Trench, Langdeau Site represents the full emergence of the Plains Village traditions in the Middle Missouri cultural area. It is also a cultural intrusion of organized village people with highly adaptive strategies, including horticulture, into an area previously occupied by hunter-gatherers.
Molstad Village
Location: Mobridge, Dewey County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: A tiny fortified prehistoric village site containing five circular house rings enclosed by a ditch, Molstad appears to represent a period of transition, when Central Plains and Middle Missouri cultural traits were combining to form the basis for Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara cultures as they existed at the time of the first contact with Europeans.
Vanderbilt Archaeological Site
Location: Pollock, Campbell County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Archaeological information about the earliest culture history of today’s Mandan and Hidatsa peoples is preserved in the Vanderbilt Village Site. They began to transform their environment along the Missouri River floodplain near the Cannonball River around 1000 C.E. by expanding their horticultural economy with permanent villages, substantial houses, and more complex technologies. By 1400, the Vanderbilt Village was a dynamic, well-established community within which its people lived comfortably, traded, hunted, fished, and created a highly developed clan tradition with neighboring villages.
Vérendrye Site
Location: Fort Pierre, Stanley County
Relevant issues: European settlement
Statement of significance: Here, in late March, 1743, the Vérendryes, the first Europeans to explore the northern plains region of the present United States, secreted a lead plate beneath a pile of stones. Sixty-one years before Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first arrived in this area, these French explorers, in search of a Northwest Passage to the Pacific, lay the basis for French sovereignty on the Upper Missouri, seeking to define the bounds of French Louisiana to include the entire Mississippi River drainage.
Wounded Knee Battlefield
Location: Batesland, Shannon County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, disasters and tragedies, military history
Statement of significance: On December 29, 1890, this was the scene of the last major clash between Native Americans and U.S. troops in North America. In the period following the introduction of the Ghost Dance among the Lakota and the killing of Sitting Bull, a band of several hundred led by Big Foot left the Cheyenne River Reservation. Intercepted by U.S. troops, they had given themselves up and had been escorted to an army encampment on Pine Ridge Reservation when shooting suddenly started. The ensuing struggle, short but bloody, resulted in seventy-five army casualties and the virtual massacre of Big Foot’s band.
"Historic Deadwood." Deadwood, South Dakota, 2024, www.deadwood.com/. Accessed 4 June 2024.
"Museums, The Arts, & Historic Sites." Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association, 2024, www.blackhillsbadlands.com/arts-culture. Accessed 4 June 2024.
"South Dakota" National Park Service, www.nps.gov/state/sd/index.htm. Accessed 4 June 2024.