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South Dakota Timeline History
1743: French explorers, the LaVerendrye brothers, claimed area for
France
1750: Sioux tribes moved to Dakota
1794: Jean Baptiste Trudeau established trading company
1803: U. S. acquired South Dakota from France in Louisiana Purchase
1804: Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived in South Dakota
1817: Joseph LaFramboise started trading post at Fort Pierre, the oldest
continuous white settlement in South Dakota
1823: Arikara Indians attached fur trading party, 12 traders killed and
11 wounded
1861: Dakota Territory was established; William Jayne appointed governor
1863: First homestead filed in Dakota Territory
1868: Treaty signed with the Sioux, continued the Great Sioux
Reservation which included the Black Hills
1874: Gold was discovered in Black Hills; gold rush began
1876: Homestake Gold Mine opened; Sioux war occurred and Gen. Custer and
7th Cavalry defeated
1889: South Dakota admitted into the Union as 40th state
1888: Major blizzard strikes, 35 people die
1890: Wounded Knee Massacre occurred - 7th Cavalry killed more than 250
Lakota men, women and children; Sitting Bull killed at Little Eagle; Indian wars
ended
1927: Gutzon Borglam began work on Mount Rushmore National Monument
1930's: Severe drought and dust caused agricultural problems
1939: Badlands designated National Monument by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt
1941: Mount Rushmore National Monument completed
1944: Congress passed Pick-Sloan Plan for construction of four dams:
Fort Randall, Oahe, Gavin's Point and Big Bend
1948: Korcak Ziolkowski began work on Crazy Horse Mountain
1949: Blizzard struck South Dakota; railroad from Pierre to Rapid City
blocked for serveral weeks; air drops of hay required
1952: Major flood caused damage all through the state, inundated most of
Pierre
1960: Ben Reifel elected as first American Indian to serve in Congress
1962: Oahe Dam completed, started generating electricity
1963: Cold War escalated and ICBM missiles were placed around state
1972: Flooding in Rapid City area killed over 200
1973: Riots by supporters of American Indian Movement occurred at
Wounded Knee II and Custer Court House.
1980: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad shut several
thousand miles of track which affected more than half of state's total railroad
mileage; U. S. Congress approved payment to Sioux Indians of $122 million for
compensation of lands seized in 1877
1987: Lottery began; fire destroyed block in historic downtown area of
Deadwood
1988: Severe drought conditions caused crop failures and lack of feed
for cattle; lightning caused large forest fire in Black Hills destroying 16,000
acres
1990's: ICBM missiles removed
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