Ricketts had purchased equipment from George Mathieson’s meat market (Exchange Meat Market on Main Avenue) in 1907 for his new business on the corner of Deadwood and Main.  In 1919, he built a second building at this location also called Andy’s Meat Market and operated it until he passed away in 1949.  His son, George Ricketts, operated Andy’s Meat Market until 1969 when George Middleton bought it and it became Butcher Boy. In later years, it was used by the Cowboy Inn/Rock’n R Bar, the Fort Pierre Times newspaper, a taxidermy shop, and two different electrician’s offices.  The building was purchased in 2019 by Ryan and Tessa Krueger and remodeled for the CHALK Pre School and Krueger Contracting office.

Andy’s Meat Market at 102 N. Deadwood

1972 Stanley County Jail

1905 Stanley County Jail. Fort Pierre, South Dakota

• After Fort Pierre won the county seat, in 1890, the county rented office space and then built a small building/hall.
• In 1907, they decided to build a new brick courthouse (concrete walls are 8” thick) on the corner of First Street and Main Avenue. This was where they had built the Old Jail in 1905 for $400, in its present location.
• Sheriffs utilizing the Jail:  Andrew Feeney 1903-1907 and George S. Huston 1907-1911.
• In 1911, C. E. Coyne was elected Sheriff and he offered Frank Norman the job as Deputy Sheriff.
• At that time, the Deputy Sheriff was called a Jailer (paid $55 a month). Frank moved his family into the basement of the courthouse, which was previously the location of the County Agent’s office. Frank’s wife, Jessie provided the meals (she received $.25/meal) for the prisoners. In those days, it was necessary to have someone live near to keep watch over the prisoners. (Source:  Prairie Progress in West Central SD and A Bridge Apart)
• The Jail held a number of rowdy & law-breaking robbers/outlaws like “Notorious horse thief Buff George!”   Rumor has it there may have been murderers housed here too!  Many folks say, “If only those walls could talk, we would get a great History lesson!”
• The Jail is one of the oldest buildings in Fort Pierre, which is located at its original site.
• Nowadays, tourists, local residents, especially the small children, enjoy visiting the old Jail and snapping a picture being ‘jailed’ behind the barred door.

Stanley County Jail outside west wall

An unusual circumstance occurred in 1921 as documented from an excerpt in the Pierre Capital Journal, December 17, 1921.

“Many residents had the opportunity to view a full grown mountain lion which is being held in the Fort Pierre Jail as a result of a trip taken by Andy Leonard and Hugh Schultz to Kalispell in the Judith Basin of Montana.  They were there selling buffalo for butchering and managed to return to Fort Pierre with a mountain lion.

Jail Time

The rancher who bought the buffalo told them that for $25 he could guarantee them a mountain lion.  The deal was agreed to and the rancher and his Airdale dogs went to complete the deal, treeing the lion.  A wire loop was thrown about the cat’s neck nearly choking it until it fell out of the tree, then it was secured, crated and taken to the railroad station where is was shipped to Fort Pierre.

If the lion was a ferocious wild one, it became quickly settled and acted as wild as a pet house cat.  Some who have observed it claim it purrs, stretches and plays just like a cat — although it is a wild animal and beautiful!  Andy Leonard intends to send it to the Longfellow Gardens in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

The Verendrye Museum maintains the Fort Pierre Depot, Log Cabin Visitor Center, Sansarc Country School Museum, and the 1905 Stanley County Jail. Please visit https://www.verendryemuseum.com/ or email contact@verendryemuseum.com for more information!

St. Mary’s Hospital

In 1882, Dr. D.W. Robinson, a recent graduate, was in route by train to the Pacific Coast in quest of practicing medicine there. However, his life was about to take a twist. He was misled by the railroad folder and found himself stranded in Pierre at the end of the railroad without any means to travel west. After explaining his situation to an elderly man at the train station he was told, “you come down to my hotel, and I’ll find you some patients.” With that he laid the foundation of his career and that of the state’s central foremost medical center. It was a primitive site for a hospital and it lacked basic furniture and equipment. Robinson performed operations on kitchen tables, ironing boards and floors.

Pierre was desperately in need of a school. The community fathers approached several orders of Sisters in an attempt to get a school opened. The fathers’ requests were rejected time and time again. These Sisters had no desire to open a school in such a bleak and desolate area.

Eventually, the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton were approached. They believed they were to meet the challenges God gave them, and they agreed to go to Pierre. With $20 to their name, the five Benedictine Sisters arrived in Pierre by train on August 31, 1899.

God did indeed present the Sisters with challenges. The Park Hotel, built fifteen years earlier, was chosen as the new school site. Since the Hotel’s existence it was unoccupied for several years. The occupants had taken almost everything with them when they left. During these vacant years the only “guests” of the hotel were various animals and birds.

“What a sight, enough to discourage the Sisters,” Sister Alphonsa stated. “Nothing was in the house – no beds, no dishes, and no furniture. Dust, dirt and spider webs were the decorations. They started to scrub and clean to have a few rooms ready when Sister Catherine, our Superior, would come. The people brought cots from town. From a pile of rubbish in the backyard, we salvaged spoons, forks, knives, pitchers and plates. These we scoured and used.”

It was so filthy from the critters and river sand that they could not tell what color the woodwork was. However, the Sisters refused to be discouraged. The Mother Superior was coming in a few weeks, and they did not want her to see the “school” in its current state. These five brave Sisters began working to clean the Park Hotel up as soon as they arrived.

The physicians of the community met and determined that the need of a hospital was greater than that of a school. The morning after the Sisters arrived; the physicians met with them and insisted that they change their plans. The Sisters complied and the physicians brought with them a patient.

St. Mary’s Hospital

Mary Woods was the first white baby born at St. Mary’s on December 9, 1899. The first operation, on January 16, 1900, was performed on the first operating table donated by Dr. Robinson. Pneumonia, typhoid fever, and small pox were prevalent during the early years. The south wing of the hospital was used as an isolation unit. Although the staff worked diligently at preventing diseases and treating patients, they were not able to keep diseases at bay. Three of the Sisters died of typhoid fever in 1905 and pneumonia consumed Dr. Robinson five years later.

Dr. Theodore Foster ( T.F.) Riggs had been practicing at St. Mary’s a year before Robinson’s passing. He and five other physicians continued to lead the pioneering spirit for central South Dakota. After years of studying at Johns Hopkins University and the Mayo Clinic, Riggs had returned to his homeland, to devote himself to his people. “I belonged to this state and its people by birth,” said Riggs. “I just came home.” Riggs is commended for upholding the Moral Code of Medical Ethics and for attributing to the accreditation of St. Mary’s Hospital.

St. Mary’s Healthcare

By 1999 modern technology and medicine have come a long way from the humble beginnings in 1899. Cures for diseases have been found; medicine is readily available to treat illnesses; and cell phones, pagers and computerized equipment make it possible to communicate instantaneously. St. Mary’s continues to provide quality health care and to stay on the cutting edge in advanced medical technology in serving the people in central South Dakota.

St. Mary’s was owned by Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) based in Denver. CHI was the largest Catholic, not-for-profit healthcare system in the country. CHI and St. Mary’s share the same Core Values: Reverence, Integrity, Compassion, and Excellence. As Pierre’s largest privately owned employer, the hospital facility believes in supporting the surrounding community. In 1999 alone, St. Mary’s contributed over $3.6 million in charity care and support to the service areas through various community benefits and services.

St. Mary’s Healthcare Center’s 12 million-dollar addition was completed in January, 1999. This expansion (the northeast building) allows for better patient care, parking and privacy. The new expansion includes emergency rooms and entrances, ambulatory care unit, admissions, switchboard, a new lobby, three large waiting rooms, four surgical rooms, recovery room, business office, gift shop and RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) Office. The laboratory and radiology are located on the first floor of the northwest building. The new OB (obstetrics) unit is located on the 3rd floor of the northwest building. This unit features LDRP (Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum) rooms designed to feel like home.

Paragon Hotel

Avera St. Mary’s Hospital Campus

(Information for this section is from an unpublished manuscript by Ken Stewart, author of “Arkansas Joe and The Shady Ladies of Missouri Avenue.”  Stewart is a local historian who retired as a historian from the SD State Archives in 2020.)

Since Pierre was established as a town in the fall of 1880, it has been proud of its important role as a community and capital city. It serves and has historically served a large trade area. It has provided goods and services to distant towns, ranches, farms and Indian reservations. Pierre is truly a City of Commerce.

Yet, forgotten by most citizens is the role that Pierre played in the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876. For the period 1876-1886, Pierre and its neighbor Fort Pierre were paramount in the delivery of goods and people to the bulging camps and towns and mines in the fabled Black Hills.

When the Black Hills gold rush started in 1876, the big problem was supplying mines with all manner of goods, tools, blasting powder, food, liquor, clothing, boots and shoes, furniture, and eventually wagons and carts, locomotives in pieces, rail, boilers – everything imaginable for a new civilization needed to get to Deadwood, Rapid City, and other places.

First, goods and hundreds of miners came to Deadwood from Cheyenne WY, Sydney NE, Bismarck ND and Montana to join in the fray. But all of these places were far removed from the gold fields

In Central South Dakota, steamboats delivered all of the goods to Fort Pierre, that old established fur trading post and community dating back to 1823.

It was soon determined that the Fort Pierre to Deadwood route was the shortest, most direct route to the gold field. Soon big freighting outfits with several hundred mules, horses, and oxen, plus dozens of wagons, rolled out of Fort Pierre toward Deadwood, followed by would-be adventurers numbering in the hundreds. It is said that in the period 1876 to 1886 traffic consisting of wagon trains, people on horseback and afoot or even by bicycle never out of sight of one another. A constant stream of people were heading west to the land of dreams.

The U.S. Congress commissioned a study of possible routes across the Great Sioux Reservation from the Missouri River to Deadwood. There was a northwesterly route from what is now Chamberlain through Lyman County and the Badlands country. A possible route from old Fort George, a fur trading post southeast of Fort Pierre in Lyman County was another route. The most direct route was from Fort Pierre to Deadwood though Chantier Creek and then westerly to the hills.

Congress ‘persuaded’ the Indians to allow these freight routes. The winner was the Fort Pierre to Deadwood route. Over the next ten years, an average of three million pounds of freight would annually cross the Great Sioux reservation to the Black Hills, plus thousands of would-be gold seekers and those who would benefit from the gold seekers.

The town of Fort Pierre was illegally situated on the west banks of the Missouri River on an Indian Reservation. The military allowed it to operate simply due to its ability to supply the freight wagons and teams.

The buildings of Fort Pierre in 1876-1880 were mostly crude frame or log one-story structures. Many still had dirt floors and dirt roofs. Most of the business occupied lower Main Street, an area east of the present-day Silver Spur Bar & Restaurant. It was not an orderly place.

By the summer of 1880, Fort Pierre had 300 people. There were thirteen business houses and 44 residential houses. Virtually all of the structures were crude log and wood frame one-story edifices, many with sod roofs and dirt floors. Huge warehouses were built along the river for freight arriving by steamboats. Thousands of pounds of freight in wooden crates and barrels also lined the riverbank.

Everything imaginable came up river on steamboats: whiskey, wagons, shovels, steam locomotive engines (in many pieces), furniture, food, glassware, pianos, mine cars, guns, etc. All were offloaded in Fort Pierre; every warehouse was filled to capacity. And yet thousands of crates and barrels lined the riverbank open to the elements. The freight wagon trains couldn’t keep up with the traffic.

Everything changed in the fall of 1880. Pierre (which consisted of three buildings in the spring of 1880) had eighteen houses by July. From 1876-1880 Pierre consisted of three river men: Napoleon Ducheneaux, Joe Kirley, and Henry (Hank) Lafferty. The three men had small skiffs and made their living transporting men across the Missouri River from the Pierre side to Fort Pierre, where they could catch a freight wagon or walk to Deadwood.

On November 3, 1880, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad reached Pierre. Suddenly Pierre became the drop off point for the tons of freight from the east. Thousands of pounds of every type of freight and hundreds of passengers bound for the hills came by rail to the end of the line. They crossed the river on the new and safe ferry boat (the Jim Leighton) and headed west. Shipment by train was much quicker and cheaper than boat. See Photo Below.

The Fort Pierre Ferry Boat

Consequently, Fort Pierre soon lost its leadership role as the freight center. Steamboat traffic business decreased due to the arrival of the railroad in Pierre. The flood of 1881 devastated the businesses and houses in Fort Pierre. A depression hit Fort Pierre and it never recovered its prominence as a shipping town.

PIERRE

Pierre had a number of citizens who served the community beyond the normal role. Many have been honored, but many are truly unsung heroes and heroines. There are no monuments to them – just memories.

Lower Pierre had many one and two-story unpainted frame buildings, with grandiose names, but little refinement. The interiors were usually an open saloon and gambling room on the first floor. Upstairs (if such existed) was perhaps a balcony with boxes for the more flush patrons. There were also private ‘rooms’ where customers and a doxey or two could adjourn for more ‘intimate entertainment’. The customers were required to spend generously on fifty cent rock-gut whiskey, or if more flush, quality goods. The ‘girls’ helped the gents lighten the pockets of coin. See Photo Below.

Shows downtown Pierre circa 1881 looking towards Missouri Avenue and the river. Two-story depot on the right is the location of current federal building at intersection of Sioux Avenue and Pierre Street. At the top right of the photo, where the cottonwood trees are located, was the sordid Missouri Avenue.

In the area behind the present-day Isburg Funeral Chapel (339 South Pierre Street) was Pierre’s version of Chinatown. Here Bee Wo, We Chin and Hop Chin had laundries in 1884. They did much business with the dollies of Missouri Avenue. They probably were also engaged in supplying opium to those so inclined. The local editor in l884 pointed out the locations of dives, saloons, bawdy houses and opium dens – all on or near Missouri Avenue.

By 1884, there were more than 50 prostitutes operating the in the houses of Missouri Avenue. There were at least a dozen ‘madams’. Many assorted characters were listed in the 1884 City Directory as actresses, with the usual male hangers-on. See Photo Below.

This northeast corner of Pierre and Missouri Avenue anchored another block of female boarding houses and dives, along with some respectable businesses like the Pullman Hotel.

There were several so-called variety theatres featuring singers, dancers, and comedians providing risqué entertainment and debauchery to well-fortified boozers. When not performing on stage, it was a reasonable assumption that other performances were taking place in the upstairs boxes on the balcony of the variety theaters in the ‘Ladies’ boudoirs.’

In the photos section, we will show you the street address and locations of these saloons and bordellos of Missouri Avenue, courtesy of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. See Photos Below.

This is the corner of Pierre and west Missouri, showing the saloons and female boarding houses as well as the two building comprising Pierre’s Chinatown. This image is from the 1884 Sanborn map, before a fire destroyed most of these building in September of 1884.

More dives on the 200 block of west Missouri Avenue. From left to right, Ed Tierney’s Opera House (which was not a refined establishment), middle is the Palace Saloon, a female boarding house (bordello), and on the corner of Fort and Missouri was Bismarck Annie’s notorious bordello and dive. The female boarding house is about the current location of the Moreno and Lee Law Offices. In the alley to the rear is the probable location of Calamity Jane’s cabin.

Additional dives and female boarding houses on east Missouri Avenue. The Pullman House was a respectable hotel, but its location was in a shady part of town. The Animal Clinic of Pierre now stands in about the footprint of the hotel.

The people who pretty much controlled the vice in 1880s Pierre were Ed Tierney, who operated a two-story establishment with the euphoric name of the Pierre Opera House and George Glover, who ran the Palace Saloon at the corner of Pierre Street and Missouri Ave. (Pierre Dentistry location). Theaters advertised themselves as ‘club rooms’ upstairs. George B. Ridgeway, Susan Chartrand, Peter Ripper, and J.W. Weir operated the saloon and bordello establishments. See Photo Below.

Northwest corner of Pierre and Missouri Avenue Intersection. Across the street, to the south, is where the vigilantes shot Arkansaw. In the 1880s, this corner was French Joe’s cardroom and other dives.

George Ridgeway was a Civil War veteran. As the owner of Ridgeway’s Dive, he regretted his wasted life and pending mortality. In the early 1890s, he began to consult with the local Catholic Church. He sought confession with a priest and was buried in the Mount Cavalry Cemetery north of Pierre. His grave is marked with a Civil War GAR monument.

Joseph W. Weir, whose establishment was at the present location of the River Set Apartments at 121 West Dakota Avenue, purportedly fathered the child of Calamity Jane. At least, that is the theory of a Black Hawk, SD, woman, who claims to be a direct descendant of Calamity Jane. See Photo Below.

In circa 1882, Joseph Weir, a bordello operator, is thought to have fathered a child with Calamity Jane at this location, according to a Rapid City woman.

Bismarck Annie, operator of a ‘female boarding house’ across the street, was often dragged into court for operating a bordello. She was eventually run out of town.

Dr. Alice Baird, a Pierre osteopathic physician, apparently performed abortions on ‘the girls’. Maude Lee, a long-time Pierre prostitute, died in her care in 1895. Dr. Baird was charged with manslaughter as a result. She was fined and drifted into history.

The era of Missouri Avenue’s days of infamy continued into the 1890s. A house of ill repute came into being near the railroad bridge when that structure was under construction.

CALAMITY JANE

When we commenced research into the Missouri Avenue Store, we realized that we would see tidbits regarding Calamity Jane. Accounts of history mentioned that she was in residence from time to time in Pierre. However, no one could ever pinpoint where she actually lived. It was always surmised that she bunked in whatever dive she passed out in after taking on too much rock gut whiskey. But amazingly, the account of early Missouri Avenue by an old timer in l895 brought forth valid new information.

It appears that Calamity Jane actually had a cabin in 1884 on West Missouri Avenue opposite what would later become the M.L. Hegglund house. Well, that was enough of a clue. We knew where the Hegglund House stood. It actually lasted until about 1998. So the Calamity Jane cabin occupied a site directly behind the present-day law Offices of Moreno, Lee & Bachand Attorneys P.C. at 206 West Missouri Avenue. The actual location of the law office was previously the site of a 1880s ‘female boarding house’, euphemism for a bordello -perfect residence for Calamity Jane. See Photo Below.

This northwest corner of Missouri and Fort was the location of Bismarck Annie’s brothel in the 1880s. To the left is the present Lee and Moreno Law Offices, which was the site of another 1880s female boarding house (bordello).

Behind the Lee and Moreno Law Office Building would have been the probable location of Calamity Jane’s cabin.

She was described in an 1880 account as being tall, raw-boned, with a pleasant eye, cowboy hat, cartridge belt for a band. She wore a mule skinner’s coat, a red shirt and a blue calico dress. Boots and spurs, a typical frontier woman.

The same account from 1880 said one afternoon a bull whacker was riding down the avenue on a buckskin pony at a furious pace and, when almost opposite Jane’s shanty, shot at her. She immediately went to the rear of the house and with an oath pumped on a white horse in masculine fashion, revolver in hand, and started in pursuit yelling like an Indian. The bull whacker was the noted Arkansas, afterwards killed by the vigilantes.

Calamity Jane came and went from Pierre on several occasions. She moved around the west as the mood struck her. At one time, she also lived in a cabin on Roberts Street.

The fall of 1880 brought the beginnings of civilization to Pierre. Good people started coming into town to settle and open business places. An element of respectability was established in houses and businesses above Missouri Avenue. Thoughts of building a permanent town was in the minds of many.

However, the lawless element that had moved into Fort Pierre in the 1870s, spilled over into Pierre when it was first settled. Ruffians, crooks, thieves, drunkards of all types soon kept the dives, saloons, and bordellos of Missouri Avenue in business.

ARKANSAS JOE

Unfortunately, there are scoundrels who get a monument or marker because their claim to fame is evil deeds. This certainly is the case with one character, Alexander McDonald Putello, alias ‘Arkansas Joe’. He had to pay with his life to receive his monument and the story behind that monument is controversial and conflicting.

Arkansas was one of hundreds who sought a new life in the great American West. He was born to humble and honorable people in Wisconsin. His father was of Italian descendant. His mother was Scottish. He apparently had a normal childhood.

Arkansas, a red-haired tall fellow, came from Boscobel in southern Wisconsin and arrived in Fort Pierre in 1879. He found work with pioneer freighter and rancher Noah Newbanks on Sansarc Creek. It was a four-day trip by oxen team and wagon to haul supplies to the ranch 35 miles west of Fort Pierre. Arkansas found this job tedious. Sensing the excitement in the Black Hills gold rush, Arkansas went to work on the Fort Pierre to Deadwood freight runs.

Charles Gilkison, in his 1927 paper, wrote Arkansas was a steady fellow, well-liked by his fellow ranch hands. He was thought to have been a likeable enough young man, industrious in his habits. He had one vice, that of drink. On payday he went off to quench his thirst and became a different person. He went insane when in his cups. He was an insane bully. All of his good reasoning and strength of character, his sympathy, and kind heartedness left him. Equipped with a set of pistols, he proceeded to shoot up whatever establishment he was in. When his funds ran low, he would simply browbeat the barkeep. Not satisfied with that, he accosted people on the streets and waylaid them for their money.

In Fort Pierre he encountered a plethora of other lowlife types. These ne’r do wells (never do wells) began a reign of tyranny that would culminate in the death for several and a period of calm respectability for young Pierre and Fort Pierre. He lost all respect for humankind when in his cups. Plying his unsavory new occupation and gaining a reputation as someone to avoid at all costs. Arkansas became the bane of both Fort Pierre and Pierre.

In November 15, 1880, about the time when an election should have been held for county officers, the good citizens were at the mercy of thugs, robbers, gamblers, and bullies. There were no appointed or elected law officers. There were city constables with no real authority.

On the night of November 17, 1880, Jennings and McLaughlin, who had a restaurant at the foot of Pierre Street, were robbed about eight o’clock. Jennings was almost killed by a shot from one of the robbers named Pock Marked Kelly, although no money was secured.

After the blatant robbery by Pock Marked Kelly of Jennings and McLaughlin’s café, Anson Hilger, a saloon owner and friend of the two, took it upon himself to ‘arrest’ Kelly. He held Kelly in the back room of his saloon. Though he had no authority, he and his brother John D. had had enough of the robbers and thugs of Missouri Avenue. He wanted to hold Kelly for the territorial court in Yankton.

Shortly after the arrest Baker and Bell, two cohorts of Kelly, attempted to extricate Pock Marked from Hilger’s store. They finally overpowered Anson Hilger and the prisoner escaped. A fellow named Long Joe managed to save Anson Hilger’s life from the gang but just barely.

The good citizens of the new town of Pierre had reached the point; enough was enough. The constant shooting up the town by the drunken pals of Arkansas was too much. Sometimes a thousand shots were fired in a day. The open hold-ups of citizens just walking down the street, the robberies of business places, the accosting of innocent women and children by strumpets and pimps, and the lack of respect for all had to end.

A group of armed citizens marched down Missouri Avenue. They entered a group of tents housing women of vile repute. The inmates were informed that they had four hours to pull up stakes, which this motley group did by crossing over to Fort Pierre. A number of other reprobates may have joined them by gunpoint. This was the first action of the quickly formed group of local citizens.

The outlaws and their women, upon arrival in Fort Pierre, met with Arkansas and others. The riffraff said that as soon as the river was frozen, the whole outlaw force would cross the river and clean the town out of honest citizens. ‘That damn Hilgers and others’ were to be shot on sight.

Among the members of the quickly formed Pierre Vigilance Committee were John D and Anson Hilger, Ira and Henry Drew, E.D. and John H. Hausman, L.L. Shurtleff, Tom O’Neal, and others.

The next night, 25 or so respectable men met in the office of lawyer Kincaide, in a corner of Hausman’s general store on Coteau Avenue. On Nov. 18, 1880 they selected a captain, John D, Hilger. Others in the group included Anson Hilger, Ira and Henry Drew, E.D. and John H. Hausman, L.L. Shurtleff, Tom O’Neal, and Louis B. Albright. See Photos Below.

Two views of the Hausman Store built in circa 1880. Was the meeting place of the Pierre vigilantes prior to the shooting of Arkansaw. This was located on the lot south of Fischer Rounds Office Building on Coteau Street. This building was torn down several years ago.

Two views of the Hausman Store built in circa 1880.

There were several banks in Pierre, and all would have been at the mercy of the outlaws, were it not for that committee. Their spy went out, and in a short time returned saying that the gang was in town. A moment later, two shots were fired in defiance of their orders.

The outlaws led by Arkansas Joe entered French Joe’s Saloon and Card Room at the corner of Pierre St and Missouri Avenue and ordered the proprietor to hand over his gun. The hapless soul had a warning that Joe and his gang were on the way. He tricked the gang by hiding most of his money in the building, so the gang got a smaller amount. Arkansas then said, ‘Now I want $20.00 to go on’. The frightened barkeep quickly conformed to this request. Then Joe demanded that the barkeep set up drinks for everyone in the place.

Now there stepped into the saloon, one Bert Wilcox. He said he came to listen to the violin player. Bert said when he saw Arkansas point the pistol at the barkeep and demand cash, he tried to leave the joint, but there was only one entrance. Then Joe saw him and said, ‘Step up to the bar and take a drink’. Bert said that he told Joe, ‘I promised my deceased mother that I would never take a drink’. Arkansas Joe, angered, said, ‘By ____ you will take drink now’, and pointed his pistols at Bert Wilcox. Being drunk, then Joe tripped and Bert dived out of the door and stood aside. Shots rang out immediately… just missing Wilcox. So Arkansas cared little for anyone’s life.

The two shots aimed at Bert Wilcox were the call to action for the Pierre Vigilance Committee. They marched as a group to French Joe’s Saloon and Card Room. The vigilantes formed a half circle around the building. At that, a stranger stepped up and told them that Arkansas had fled the saloon and was hiding in the bushes opposite the saloon, present site of the Law Office of Adam, May, and others. Arkansas then began a flank movement by walking at a right oblique in the vigilantes’ direction. Tommy O’Neil, one of the vigilantes, said ‘There is Arkansas coming through the bushes. I know him by his buckskin shirt’. We see him even though night had fallen.

John Hilger called out, ‘Arkansas is that you?’. ‘I am the Boy,’ he answered. Shots then rang out from both of his pistols. They went wild for at the same moment nineteen holes were put into his body. One of the vigilantes had a double-barreled shotgun loaded with buckshot. One charge struck Arkansas just below the chin, the other in his forehead. See Photo Below.

The three buildings in back far left were brothels and saloons. This would be the area where Arkansas was gunned down, next to French Joe’s card room.

He must have expected to die that night. John Hilger searched Joe’s body and found his last will. He gave his riddled buckskin shirt and his guns to his brother-in-law who was present. The brother-in-law said he was glad that Joe was dead, as he and his wife had lived in fear of the man. Apparently Arkansas had killed another brother-in-law in the past.

Hilger shaved the man. They took a new suit from the store clothing stock. He was buried in a new pine box with services by Rev. Williams of the Episcopal Church. The burial spot was about twenty rods from the present capital building, as this was the burial ground at this early time.

But that was not the last that anyone heard from Arkansas Joe.

When crews were digging the basement for the new Capitol, about 1904, a body was uncovered. From the location and Arkansas’s red hair, he was identified by Hilger. Oddly enough, his skull was eventually put on display in the Soldiers and Sailors museum on Capital Avenue. There it reposed in a display cabinet of other skulls until about 1970. It and the other human remains were repatriated by the museum staff at an undisclosed location in rural Stanley County. Now on Judgement Day, poor old Arkansas Portello will rise from two counties.

The Vigilantes had no more trouble for a time. One scarlet maiden shot a pistol off a few weeks later. She was ordered out of town by the Committee and boarded a stage for Deadwood the next day. The outlaw element returned to early Pierre for a time, but there were no more shootings and carrying on by them.

The days of the Shady Ladies and the Outlaw element had ended.

Pierre’s First School house

In the fall of 1880, Max J Schubert from Watertown, WI, came to Pierre and bought land to build a drug store. He came back to Pierre in spring of 1881 with two carpenters and precut lumber to build the drug store and built a small one room, 14’x20’ temporary building in town, in the middle of the block on the east side of Coteau Street, to use while building the larger two-story drug store.

According to one resource, the building was used then in 1881 as a school for one year until no longer needed when a public school opened that October. There were eighteen students and the teacher was Louise Mip Cavalier.

There were two or three buildings of the same size and look of the first school built in the early 1880’s.

In an interview in 1937 with Louise Kehr of the Kehr Grocery Store, the building was located on Dakota Avenue. In this interview for the Hughes County History , she told that previous to it being used as a school, it was a millinery shop, operated by Mrs. Tillman, her cousin. She told, “enterprising early citizens felt the need of educational facilities and transformed this 16 x 20 foot wooden structure into a school of learning”.

A gunsmith, James Lewis, finally owned it. He was born in Indiana during July 1858, and died on January 28, 1936 in Pierre.

In 1965, it was moved to the present location in Steamboat Park. Since 1966, the East Pierre Women’s Club maintains it. They have furnished the schoolhouse with antique desks, maps, potbelly stove, textbooks, and teacher’s desk.

Photo courtesy Betsey DeLoache

Charles Lindbergh standing next to his airplane the “Spirit of St. Louis”

Most of us know that Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh was the first to fly solo and non-stop from New York to Paris. His 33½ hour solo flight on May 20-21, 1927, in a single engine monoplane, was “the” aeronautical achievement which had fascinated the world. Lindbergh’s determination, courage and skill piloting the Ryan monoplane — the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ — which had no radio and only minimal navigation equipment was a true aviation “first”.

When he arrived back in the United States, the Daniel Guggenheim Fund and the U.S. Department of Commerce sponsored Lindbergh in a nation-wide air tour. The stated purpose was to stimulate interest in commercial aviation and to demonstrate the safety and punctuality of flight. The tour was designed to visit all the state capitals cities.

After a short exhibition of circles and maneuvers over Ft. Pierre, Pierre, and the landing field, Lindberg landed in a private pasture north of Pierre at exactly 4 pm on Thursday September 1st 1927. Flying another aircraft, D. E. Keyhoe, his manager, and Lieutenant Philip Love accompanied him on the tour on behalf of the national Department of Commerce. Their trip to Pierre started in Denver.

Ultimately this event would result in the city purchasing the landing site and using it as Pierre’s first airport. The site served as a landing field for both private and commercial aircraft for the next twelve years.

The lady walking in front of the “Spirit of St. Louis” is Henerietta Paine from Ree Heights, SD

The field had been prepared on Wednesday by the American Legionnaires under the direction of Godfrey Roberts. A two-hundred foot circle was drawn on the east end of the field, with one runway landing north from the circle and a second runway west from the circle. Hopefully Lindbergh would use the west runway parking, then park the plane behind a fence separating the field from the spectators’ cars.

Cars had been parked on the 40 acres adjoining the field. State Sheriff Fred Minier arranged to have two deputies on motorcycles direct traffic to a 40 acre parking area adjoining the ‘airport’. The public was to remain behind the fence. Walter H. Burke, commander of the American Legion, had seen to it that cattle were moved from the field and designed security. Also, rocks had been cleared and the grass cut. And By 3 PM, the local band was in place at the landing field.

Lindbergh was greeted by Governor William. John Bulow, Mayor John. E. Hipple, President Claude Coon of the Commercial Club, President Charles Whitlock of the Kiwanis club, Commander Walter H Burke of the American Legion, Dr T. F. Riggs, Charles Lee Hyde, not to mention many others. The crowd, estimated at 3800, waiting behind a fence, gave Lindberg a very warm welcome. Interestingly, the Legionnaires recorded 700 cars from 39 SD counties and 18 from out of state.

Security for the planes during the landing and overnight, was handled by Battery ‘C’ commanded by Lieutenant Lower. Interestingly, two ropes used to tie down ‘The Spirit of Saint Louis’ are still in the possession of private citizens in Pierre.

Colonel Lindbergh and the members of the reception committee rode in a large open car driven by Don Lawrence leading a long procession of cars from the landing field through the streets of Pierre. The group stopped at the St. Charles Hotel where the special guests were to spend the night.

A dinner had been scheduled for 7 PM hosted by Mayor and Mrs. John E. Hipple, at the Hipple home on Highland Avenue. Present were the dignitaries from the reception committee, Mr. and Mrs. Robert. B. Hipple and Mr. and Mrs. James B. Hipple.

At 8 PM the reception committee escorted by the American Legion Scotch band — the “Kilties” — went to the front steps of the Capitol. A crowd estimated at 5,000 was waiting in front of the capitol and a huge cheer greeted Lindbergh as he appeared on the front steps. Dwight Olander happened to have an extensive outfit for broadcasting the speeches. He had arranged several loud speakers spread along the sidewalk to the street to enable everyone to hear what Colonel Lindbergh and other speakers had to say.

Lindbergh’s plane hanging in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC

Mayor Hipple spoke briefly, then turned the program over to Governor Bulow who spoke at some length about Colonel Lindbergh and his accomplishments. Bulow said though Lindbergh had crossed the Atlantic and returned to tell of it, he predicted someday some man would leave the earth, journey to the moon, and return to tell of it. Bulow concluded his remarks by presenting Colonel Lindbergh with a white sheepskin, inscribed with a resolution of tribute adopted a special session of the South Dakota legislature in June.

Colonel Lindbergh then spoke briefly, confining his remarks to an explanation of his presence in Pierre. He declared that Pierre was the center of a large portion of the country not previously covered on his continental tour. He said his trip was the forerunner of a time in the near future when people of Pierre could leave the Pierre airport and arrive at the east or west coast on the same day.

He also remarked that Pierre was especially fortunate to have a natural landing field. He claimed that it would be important for all cities to develop airports. This tour was to be an important step in the overall aviation program. A well developed aviation program would certainly benefit the east and result in the generation of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars. Preparation would be necessary but well worth the expense.

At the conclusion of his remarks Colonel Lindbergh had planned to retire to his hotel, but was prevailed upon to appear at the dance at the auditorium staged by the American Legion. Knowing that the Legionnaires had been so active in securing an airport Colonel Lindbergh agreed and was driven to the auditorium. He consented to return to the auditorium at 10 PM, a huge departure from his customary program.

Thus, shortly after 10 PM, Colonel Lindbergh reappeared, accompanied by Walter Burke commander of the American Legion post. He was escorted to the stage through the applauding crowd. He declined to speak but did sit on the stage during part of the dance, then he retired.

He returned to the Hipple home for a few minutes before returning to the St. Charles. He simply wished to bid goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Hipple and to thank them for the dinner, then returned to his hotel and retired.

Friday morning Lindbergh and his team had planned to take off at 9 AM, but were delayed by a need to prime an oil pump. Repairs complete, Lindbergh and party took off at 9:30, flying over Rapid City and Deadwood and landed in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Turtle Effigy

Turtle Effigy is a large stone alignment on the earth in the shape of a turtle. No one knows for sure who made the effigy. According to one story not attributed to a specific tribe, “An Arikara lookout surprised by a Sioux War party and badly wounded, took flight to warn his kinsmen. He ran about one-half mile before dying. The Sioux, admiring his bravery, placed a rock for each drop of his blood and constructed a cairn (pile of stones) where he died. They signed it with a tribal band insignia of a turtle.”

Effigies are patterns and pictures on the land made by the careful placement of stones. More than 100 stone effigies have been found in South Dakota. Most are located on high bluffs and ridges. Although we know that American Indians created these sites, we understand little about why the effigies were made. Archaeologists believe that some effigies may be commemorative, marking significant places, people, or events. Others may have helped aid the hunt or held spiritual power. No one knows for sure, and many different stories often are associated with a single effigy.

Sites like the turtle effigy are special places and vulnerable to harm. A number of known effigies have been lost forever, because people removed the stones or damaged the design.

Old Fort Sully

By the 1840’s, thousands of people were travelling west, but they initially posed little threat to the Plains Indians, because they did not settle on the Plains but instead headed to California and Oregon. Once they did begin to stake claims to land on the Plains, the Indians acted to protect their lands, and conflict erupted between the American Indians and pioneers. Old Fort Sully was one of a series of military forts established to keep peace on the Northern Plains.

Following the Dakota War of 1862, also referred to as the Sioux Uprising, the War Department sent two large contingents of soldiers to pursue any American Indians perceived as hostile. General Alfred E. Sully, who led one of the detachments, had orders to pacify regions of North and South Dakota. On September 3rd, 1863, Sully’s troops attacked and defeated a band of American Indians at Whitestone Hill in North Dakota. After the battle, most of the men were sent downstream to garrison Fort Randall near the South Dakota/Nebraska border. The remaining troops constructed Old Fort Sully east of Pierre using cottonwood logs.

Old Fort Sully

The fort was one of a series of new posts along the Missouri River which, over the next 15 years, extended the power of the United States Army to the Rocky Mountains. The army abandoned Old Fort Sully in late summer of 1866, however, because of the deplorable conditions. There was no grass or wood within two miles; muddy river water had to be hauled to the fort; and rats, mice, and fleas were everywhere. A new Fort Sully was constructed about 30 miles upriver. The original fort was dismantled to use as fuel for steamboats.

No buildings remain, but markers indicate the corners of the fort. The Farm Island Visitor Center stands in the center of the original Fort Sully and provides exhibits that help visitors learn more about the fort.

Oahe Chapel

In 1874, Reverend Thomas L. Riggs, a Congregationalist minister, and his first wife, Cornelia Margaret “Nina” Foster, established the Oahe Mission to serve the Sioux Indians of central South Dakota. The missionaries chose to build on the site of an old Arikara Indian village called Ti Tanke Ohe, later shortened to “Oahe.” The mission eventually adopted the name of the Indian village, which also became the name of the dam and lake that now cover the site. The Oahe Chapel is now the only remaining building associated with the Oahe Mission.

The Oahe Mission was on the east bank of the Missouri River about five miles upriver from the modern-day location of the chapel. In the beginning, a log house was the center of the mission. In only three short years, the house became too small, and the Indians agreed to help Reverend Riggs build a chapel, which was finished by September of 1877. The chapel’s design is a one-story nave layout, with a one-and-one-half story bell tower.

A sign in front of the building includes the text “Oahe Mission School and Chapel”.

As with many other buildings on the frontier, the chapel served a dual purpose–as a schoolhouse and the center of religious life. The mission also opened The Oahe Industrial School in 1883 as a boarding school for Indian children and a second boarding school for young girls in the 1890s. Starting with an ABC primer, the men, women, and children of the mission all learned to read the Bible first in the Dakota language and later in English. As Europeans settled in the community, they joined in Sunday and holiday worship at the chapel. Services were originally in the Dakota language, but by the 1930’s were only in English.

Completion of the Oahe Dam led to the flooding of the original site of the Oahe Chapel. In the 1950’s during the construction of the dam, the chapel was given to the State of South Dakota, and the State Historical Society was put in charge of its restoration and continued preservation. In 1957, the society moved the chapel to a temporary location to escape the flooding and then moved it again in 1964 to its current location.

In 1984, local citizens formed the Oahe Chapel Preservation Society in order to restore and preserve the chapel. With donations and volunteer labor, plus the assistance of the South Dakota State Historical Society and the State Historic Preservation Office, the chapel was restored completely in 1988. While the South Dakota State Historical Society owns the building, the Oahe Chapel Preservation Society continues to maintain the chapel.

Jefferson Davis Carr House

Constructed in 1906, the Jefferson Davis Carr house is important for its associations with an early settler in Stanley County who built the home, and for its architectural significance. The house is a somewhat rare domestic building because it is constructed of all locally manufactured materials. The home is a brick foursquare with Colonial Revival elements including the one-story wraparound porch and classical columns.

Jefferson Davis Carr began ranching in Stanley County in 1891. In 1906, Carl Wagner built him a house in Fort Pierre of reddish-yellow, gumbo brick from the local Franc Rauch brick yard. Carr decided he needed a residence in town for his family to ensure his children’s education. Incorporated as the Empire State Cattle Company and commonly known as the Mississippi Outfit, Carr’s ranching enterprise was part of the large scale ranching movement that lasted in South Dakota for 17 years. The treaty of 1889 opened Indian lands to white settlers for cattle grazing. The period of large scale ranching began to come to a close in 1907, when the Federal Government began to change its policies, restricting grazing land and leaving ranchers like Carr with smaller grazing lands and herds. The house stands as a reminder of one of Fort Pierre’s first economic systems, ranching.