The two states of Dakota were once part of the vast Dakotaland which extended from the Mississippi to the Missouri River.  They shared with Minnesota in the history of exploration and early settlement.  For centuries it had been a land of life – plant, animal, and human.  Eventually, the first white explorers (fur trappers and mountain men) found it.  The fur companies gathered immense wealth from its natural land.

By the time Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri in 1804, there were almost no streams, lakes, and wooded valleys where cunning trappers and shrewd traders had already visited.  The Hudson Bay Company in the north almost immediately had stiff competition from American competitors who came up the river from St. Louis.

The Red River Valley in the northeast claimed the first log cabin built on Dakota soil.  In 1780 a French trader established his post in the middle of a plum thicket and cranberries that gave the Indian name Pembina.  A young Alexander Henry penned the first written record (first Dakota literature) of his wide travels for twelve years (1799 – 1811) to establish the fur trade.  He wrote about the buffalo herds, red deer, black and grizzly bears, and the old fort at Pembina.

Henry also told of being visited by David Thompson, an Anglo-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer who was known by the Natives as “Koo-Koo-Sint” or “the Stargazer” an astronomer.  Just for a moment try to imagine what it must have been like for someone (Native or White) to view the moon and stars for the first time through a telescope!

While exploration and settlement in the north was taking place, the “Missouri River Slope” (that area on the north side of the river between Sioux City and Fort Pierre) experienced much activity and had numerous unexpected visitors.  Prior to the permanent settlement of this area, the later part of the 1700s saw numerous visitors come and go.

The establishment of Fort Randall in 1856 changed everything for the “Missouri River Slope”.  A military road was constructed and a telegraph line was created.  A stage route was established and stage stops were determined about every fifteen miles.  Post offices were approved and the U. S. Mail was delivered regularly, first by horse and later steamboat.

The influx of settlers into this area was promoted not only by land agents, colony organizers, and railroads, but by local improvements in transportation facilities.  Ferries had been established at various points along the Missouri.  Early settlers along the slope also maintained ferries on the larger streams along the Government Road between Sioux City and north to Fort Pierre.  Some of these streams were bridged by government appropriation in 1868.  This was a notable improvement.

When the railroad reached Sioux City, a daily stage to Yankton was established, and in the same year Sioux Falls and Yankton was united by a mail stage.  Transportation was also facilitated somewhat by three government wagon roads through the Dakota Territory to the distant mines in the Rockies.

Before the Great Boom of 1878 – 86, only two small parts of the area what would later become South Dakota had a population of two or more per square mile.  The southeastern corner (the lower Missouri and the lower Sioux valleys) had this density after 1869, and the Black Hills after 1876.  The population in the former section was found chiefly on the flood-plains, with a large majority in the Missouri Valley.

It was a time of abounding hope and even greater action, and the motive was chiefly agriculture.  During the early years few surplus products were raised because of the lack of markets.  The Dakota Southern Railroad (Sioux City to Yankton) and steamboats carried cattle and grain to the markets in Sioux City.  Even ferries were used in taking farm products to the markets in the east.

A 1909 Bijou Hills, S. D. newspaper story dated August 5 told readers about a lady in that community who had suffered a serious accident while operating the Bonds Ferry which linked Bijou Hills and Iona.

“WOMAN LOSES HAIR IN FERRY BOAT MACHINERY” declared newspapers in South Dakota and surrounding states.

“Mrs. Clarence Lillie,” readers were told, “a well known resident of Bijou Hills, a small town in the southern part of Brule County, was the victim of a distressing accident.  Her husband operates a ferry-boat on the Missouri River at Bijou Hills.”

“While aiding her husband,” the story continued, “her hair caught in the machinery of the boat, and before her husband or any of the boat’s crew could go to her assistance a great deal of her hair was torn out by the roots and her jaw and arm were broken.”

Her dress got caught in the drive-belt that turned the paddle wheel and her body was sucked into the powerful machinery which powered the boat.  Her jaw was broken in three places and all her teeth were knocked out.  It took twenty-one stitches to put her face back together.  She was a licensed engineer and later piloted a boat between Iona and Chamberlain.

In her later years, Mrs. Lillie and her son (Harvey) lived in a large log cabin on the bluff northeast of Iona.  Dad and I often stopped at their home for a cup of coffee.  Her vivid stories of early life in Lyman County are still remembered today.

Mrs. Lillie died in 1962 and is buried in the Iona Cemetery, next to her husband.

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on April 3, 2024