Because of the Homestead Act, the public land passed into private hands so quickly that by 1885 all Dakota east of the Missouri River was settled. Settlers came by the thousands to their new “El Dorado.” They quickly filled the river bottoms and area along the major steams. They then pushed out across the plains which resulted in the “Dakota Boom of 1878 – 85.”
By 1900, the movement of new settlers who were anxious to establish a homestead in South Dakota, were beginning to establish homes out on the prairie long before the area was opened to homesteaders. They began to move into eastern Pennington County and west of the Missouri River in Gregory, Lyman, and Stanley counties.
The government land west of the Missouri River was fast being taken by the homesteaders that resulted in the end of the open range which was necessary for the cattle industry. Those homesteaders brought with them barbed wire, built schools and churches, and established towns. After they settled the area west of the Missouri, the frontier was gone.
They had also occupied the ceded lands in Gregory County east of the 99th meridian. By 1902, the Chicago and North Western Railroad extended their line out of Nebraska to the ten-year-old community of Bonesteel. At the same time, the abandonment of the Fort Randall Military Reservation in 1893 made additional lands available in Gregory County.
In 1904, the west part of Gregory County was opened for homesteading. Registrations for the drawing were held at Yankton, 57,432 filings; Fairfax, 8,700; Chamberlain, 6,100; and Bonesteel, 35,176. The chances of winning a homestead were 1 in 46. It was a royal holiday, the trains were running night and day, and everything was ‘wide open.’ The gamblers, confidence men, and the ‘underworld of 1904’ had flocked to Bonesteel for a chance to cheat the gullible to file.
During the registration, on July 20, 1904, a pitched battle was fought between the law abiding citizens and the thugs and gamblers who were running wide open and in the most flagrant manner. After a considerable amount of gunfire, the latter were eventually driven from town. It was called “The Battle of Bonesteel.”
The Minneapolis Journal of July 15, 1904, contained a long story with this headline: “TOO MUCH GRAFT UP AT BONESTEEL.” The story began:
“The trustees of Bonesteel made an arrangement with a firm of gamblers, for which the gamblers paid $100 a day . . . . The trustees anxious to make as much money as possible, failed to provide adequate police protection. They employed two good men, assisted by a force so green that the Bonesteel cows nibble at them as they pass.”
“The result is that the town is absolutely in the hands of grafters, thieves and thugs. Some of the ‘best men’ in the country are at Bonesteel, plying their trade. If all the well-known criminals unblushingly in evidence at Bonesteel, were to be arrested, the result, would be a small fortune of rewards. The gamblers and grafters realize they cannot rely on the aid of the police. Each one with any money interests at stake, had provided an arsenal of his own, and woe to the men who would attempt to rob these ‘joints’.”
George W. Kingsbury, in his five-volume History of Dakota Territory, which was published in 1915 devoted four pages to the event. “The officials of the town,” he reported, “were too free in granting licenses for all sorts of games. The result was that the town became filled with crooks, bums, law breakers and scalawags of every description, all of whom apparently united to make as much money as they could out of everyone who came to register.”
Finally the disorder and riot became so threatening that the officials were compelled to interfere to prevent the town from being captured by the law breakers. The law-abiding citizens united, went to the hardware stores, took possession of all arms and promptly arrested forty-five crooks of all sorts and placed them in a bull-pen, which was guarded by 100 armed citizens.
This action did not seem to check the lawless proceedings so the citizens began to systematically search out the rascals in all parts of the town. They entered their haunts and scattered them like rabbits from the sagebrush.
An attempt was made to drive them a mile outside of town where the crooks turned and attempted to return to town. Immediately, the battle began. A volley of gunfire was poured into the group by the police that resulted in about ten crooks being wounded. In return, four of the police were seriously shot. According to Kingsbury, “One gambler was killed and two others were dangerously wounded.”
In August, Governor Herreid went to Bonesteel to learn of the actual conditions there and ascertain if troops were needed to control the unlawful element. He was informed that the services of the troops were not needed and that they could and would control the unlawful element and maintain order.
In addition to the unruly behavior of some of the visitors to Bonesteel that July afternoon, the citizens also had to deal with a fierce hailstorm and hail as large as hen’s eggs. A tornado came within a mile of town. At six that evening a second funnel cloud formed just outside of town.
Everyone was anxiously looking forward to some much needed peace and quiet!
Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on January 3, 2024