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    Pierre and Fort Pierre
    Pierre and Fort Pierre
    Pierre and Fort Pierre
    Ebook183 pages1 hour

    Pierre and Fort Pierre

    By Jan Cerney

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    About this ebook

    From prairie to river s edge, the Pierre and Fort Pierre area resounds with historical adventure. Visited in 1743 by French explorers the Verendrye brothers and by Lewis and Clark in 1804, Fort Pierre was established as a significant fur trading post in 1817 and served briefly as a military fort in 1855. The decaying port settlement was revived during the Black Hills gold rush of 1875, outfitting bull trains. For over a decade, it bustled with freighting activity and stagecoach travel on the Fort Pierre-Deadwood gold trail. When the Chicago, Northwestern Railroad reached the Missouri River in 1880, Fort Pierre s sister city, Pierre, emerged as an important river town. During the days of the open range, Fort Pierre served as a holding place for the millions of cattle to be ferried across the Missouri to the trains at Pierre. In 1889, Pierre was named capital of the state and became the political heart of South Dakota. When nearby reservations opened for settlement, the cattle range began to fill with settlers, changing the scene once again. In these pages, a pictorial history unfolds, the drama of men and women who lived out their dreams near the Missouri.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 26, 2006
    ISBN9781439632796
    Pierre and Fort Pierre
    Author

    Jan Cerney

    As a child, Jan Cerney spent many memorable Sundays along the shores of the Missouri. She has written four books for Arcadia: Badlands National Park, Mitchell�s Corn Palace, Gregory and Charles Mix Counties, and Lakota Sioux Missions.

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      Book preview

      Pierre and Fort Pierre - Jan Cerney

      Philip.)

      INTRODUCTION

      Fort Pierre has earned the distinction of being the oldest continuous settlement in South Dakota. Because of its location on the Missouri River, Fort Pierre began as a fur-trading post when Joseph LaFramboise built a post of driftwood at the mouth of the Bad River, where Fort Pierre is now located, in 1817. Joseph Renville of the Columbia Fur Company rebuilt the post in 1822 and named it Fort Tecumseh. Five years later, Pierre Chouteau Jr. became its manager, and the fort was rebuilt again in 1832 and christened Fort Pierre in honor of Pierre Chouteau Jr. When the steamboat the Yellowstone made a successful run in 1832, frontier commerce and transportation changed. Until then, goods were transported with keelboats, pirogues, and other crude river craft. The faster-paced steamboat returned downriver loaded with pelts, furs, and thousands of pounds of buffalo tongues. Chouteau established a regular steamboat schedule to supply his posts and to return downriver with hides and furs. Fort Pierre became an important port on the Missouri River, rivaling the most known post, Fort Union. Trade with the Sioux was brisk for 20 more years until its decline in the early 1840s. The military bought the declining fort in 1855 for use as a military outpost. The government appointed Gen. William S. Harney as its commander; however, Harney was unhappy with the deplorable conditions at Fort Pierre and chose another site downriver for his fort. The salvage from the dismantled Fort Pierre was moved to Fort Randall. When the last of the troops left Fort Pierre in 1857, the post was in ruins.

      When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874, Fort Pierre made a comeback as a river port a few years later. No roads or trails existed across the open prairie from Fort Pierre to the Black Hills. This region was American Indian territory guaranteed by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The gold seekers paid no heed that they were trespassing. The prospectors and mining industry required supplies and goods. Fort Pierre became one of the main points where steamboats could unload freight to be transported to the goldfields by bull trains. At first, freighting operated illegally until the government secured the Black Hills from the Sioux in 1877. From 1876 until 1887, millions of tons of goods moved over the Fort Pierre–Deadwood trail until the railroad reached Rapid City in 1886 via Nebraska. During that time, Fort Pierre, like Deadwood, became a rough and tough town attracting all sorts of characters, some good and some bad. Fort Pierre’s sister city, Pierre, began its rise in 1880, when the railroad reached the east bank of the Missouri. Not only did Pierre become involved in the freighting business to the goldfields, the frontier town also became the shipping point for cattle, an industry that began to fill the open range. When South Dakota became a state in 1889, Pierre and Huron vied for the state capital. Pierre won out mainly because of its central geographic location. Pierre built a large wooden structure to serve as the temporary capitol building. The permanent capitol was built to replace the wooden hall after the second capital fight in 1904. The new capitol was dedicated in 1910. The 20th century brought many challenges, including the dust storms of the 1930s and the periodic flooding of the river.

      Many famous and colorful characters have been associated with Fort Pierre and Pierre. From the earliest recorded history, important individuals have left their mark on the state’s history. Some of them, to name a few, are the flamboyant French explorers the Verendryes, Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, the artist Karl Bodmer, the fur trader Pierre Chouteau Jr., the native people, the famous ranchers like James Scotty Philip, the town promoters such as Charles Hyde, the rodeo star Casey Tibbs, and the governors of the state and all the hardworking men and women who made Fort Pierre and Pierre what it is today.

      Riverboats were a constant scene on the Missouri River in the early days of settlement. The steamboats became the lifeline for delivering cargo and merchandise needed in the frontier West. Ferryboats transported people, wagons, and livestock across the river before bridges were built. The construction of railroads and bridges brought an end to the colorful river craft. (Courtesy of the South Dakota State Historical Society Archives.)

      One

      FORT PIERRE

      OUTPOST ON THE MISSOURI

      A marker designates the site of old Fort Pierre. The inscription on the monument reads, This tablet marks the site and commemorates the institution of Fort Pierre Choteau [Chouteau] Trading Post chief landmark of the fur-trading period 1822–1864 on the Upper Missouri River between the Platte and the Yellowstone. Founded 1832, by American Fur Company, St. Louis, Mo. Dismantled 1850. (Author’s collection.)

      A monument now marks the site near Fort Pierre where on March 30, 1743, the Verendrye brothers buried a lead tablet to claim the region for France. This tablet, found on February 13, 1913, is the first written record of white men to visit this region in South Dakota. Francois Verendrye wrote in his journal, "I placed on an eminence near the fort a tablet of lead with the arms and inscription of the King and a pyramid of stones for Monsieur le General; I said to the savages, who did

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