There were few towns and post offices in the Dakota Territory in 1870.  The number had made a small increase in ten years.  The traveler coming into the territory from Sioux City and crossing the Big Sioux River on the Government Bridge would journey a distance of twenty miles to Elk Point before reaching a town, though a post office had been established at Jefferson, eight miles east of the Point, on the stage road.

Elk Point was the county seat of Union County, and had grown to be something of a village with a weekly newspaper, the Elk Point Leader published by F. O. Wisner.  The population of the town was claimed to be 500.

Eight miles northwest was a new town called “Liberty,” owned by the Curtis family, somewhat famous as vocalists, where there could be found a post office, sawmill, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and the Curtis residence.  On their journey from Sioux City the traveler would have observed a fair sprinkling of log cabins and some frame residences along the road.

From “Liberty,” it was seven miles to Vermillion, situated on the bank of the Missouri River, fated to be its destroyer ten years later.  Vermillion had about six hundred settlers.  It was the county seat of Clay County, a United States land office, and the seat of the United States Court for the First Judicial District.  It had two hotels, a sawmill nearby, a number of stores, and a number of lawyers, doctors, and an appropriate portion of clergymen.

Clay County had made considerable progress in agriculture and was fairly well settled in the southern townships along the lower valley of the Vermillion River.  Crossing the Vermillion River was the Government Bridge, and eight miles west was the town of Lincoln, or rather the stage station and post office.  The site was selected by Mr. Taylor, who came in with the New York colony in 1864, and took up a homestead there.

It contained a first rate hotel kept by Mr. and Mrs. Taylor and was the location of a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and a country store.  Sixteen miles further west by north the James River was crossed on the Government Bridge, and four miles beyond the James travelers would reach Yankton, the capital of Dakota Territory.

At the time, it was said that Yankton was the finest natural town site on the Missouri River.  However, Lewis and Clark had not observed its significance in 1804 while in the area.  Their only terrain recommendation in the area was the mouth of the White River.

Yankton had now become an incorporated city, with fine hotels, the Episcopal and Congregational churches, a public school, an academy, the Dakota Hall for young ladies seeking a higher education, two newspapers – the Union and Dakotaian, and the Yankton Press.  It was a town of about twelve hundred citizens, governed by a city charter and the usual officials provided for by such legislative entitlements.

Yankton did a large commercial business with the forts and Indian agencies all along the river and the settlers into what later became North Dakota and Montana.  At the same time the Dakota and Northwestern Railroad was pushing west from Sioux City and there was expectations of other railroads expanding into the area.

Twenty miles by land due west, located on the banks of the Missouri River, was the little town of Bon Homme, the county seat, where two good stores were located, a decent hotel, the first school in the area, and several residences.  A post office and courthouse were already established in the community.

Eight miles farther west was the new town of Springfield, where a United States land office had just been established.  The town was located nearly opposite the new Santee Indian Agency and Reservation in Nebraska, from which it was to derive a portion of its prosperity.

Beyond Springfield thirty-five miles was Greenwood on the east bank of the Missouri, the official residence of the Yankton Indian Agent, and the seat of the Yankton Indian Reservation.  Fifteen miles above Greenwood on the opposite side of the Missouri was Fort Randall.  Early on it was garrisoned by four companies of United States troops.  Opposite Fort Randall was a post office at White Swan and a few miles above White Swan was Wheeler, the county seat of Charles Mix County.

Twenty miles above Fort Randall, on the east side of the river was the notorious site of Harney City, a frontier trading post and steamboat landing.  Harney City was directly opposite the mouth of Whetstone Creek where the Government Agency had been established for the Sioux Indians on their vast West river reservation.

The supplies for Spotted Tail and Red Cloud’s Indians were landed at Whetstone Landing and hauled out to the agencies in the interior.  There was a significant Indian settlement at Whetstone in addition to the agent and his employees.

There was a post office at Harney, and an average population of 200, made up largely of cattlemen, herdsmen, “wood-hawks,” and a few merchants, restaurant keepers, and others.  Those who visited the community referred to it as “the wildest frontier town in the country.”

However, there is no record of any serious crimes having ever been committed there!

 

Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on January 22, 2025