Lori Walsh:
The history of South Dakota counties along the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers begins well before Dakota Territory was organized in 1861. The story of how the Federal Government and various commercial interests laid that groundwork for white settlement in Eastern Dakota is the topic of today's Images of the Past. And joining me for the conversation, we have Bill Hoskins, he's director of the Siouxland Heritage Museums here in Sioux Falls. Hey Bill. Welcome back.
Bill Hoskins:
Hey Lori. Great to be back. Always happy to talk to you.
Lori Walsh:
So we are talking about these Eastern counties and towns and how they were set up. Beginnings of towns like Sioux Falls, Flandreau, Brookings, others. And this area is part of Minnesota originally? Help me understand some of the early mapping that was happening.
Bill Hoskins:
Well, yeah, Sioux Falls was really founded by two rival town companies, one from Dubuque, Iowa, and one from St. Paul in Minnesota. And the origins of their establishment and how they got started founding towns really goes back into the 1830s when you start having actual exploration into the area. You’ve got a fur trader named Philander Prescott who visits the falls in 1831. And John Frémont – “The Pathfinder” - and Joseph Nicollet visit the great Pipestone quarry, probably passing through here. They mentioned the falls of the Big Sioux River, but they visited the quarry in Pipestone in 1838.
Bill Hoskins:
In the 1840s, a company of U.S. dragoons based at Fort Des Moines, on the site of downtown Des Moines, Iowa, followed the West Des Moines River upriver to its source at Lake Benton, passed over through what they called the hole in the mountain to the Big Sioux River, and then followed the Big Sioux River down its course to the Missouri. And James Allen, the commander of that company of dragoons made a detailed map and kept a journal of everything. And that was later published.
Bill Hoskins:
Then you have some other things going on. There's several Indian treaties. Iowa becomes a state in 1846 on the eve of the Mexican War. America comes out of the Mexican War with this Manifest Destiny: We're going to expand and go on. And as a result, Minnesota Territory was created. And in 1851, there's a treaty called the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux, which was actually signed near where Saint Peter, Minnesota is today. It's the first of a series of treaties. The Sioux sell about 24 million acres in what's now Southwest Minnesota, Northwest Iowa, Eastern Dakota territory to the Federal Government. And they're going to get paid over a 50-year time period is the agreement.
Bill Hoskins:
But those things all kind of set up these two land companies. And they're speculators. They're making an investment. And the first one is the Dubuque Land Company or the Western Town Company of Dubuque, Iowa. And they get together in the fall of 1856 and form their company. And they actually send a couple guys out to check out the Falls as a town site in the fall of 1856. They don't stay.
Lori Walsh:
I want to jump in here, Bill, in the interest of time. Because in the journals and the maps, which I know that you have extensive experience with and the remaining minute that we have. Yeah, I know I could just listen to you all day. So, but what are some of those early impressions they had of this place? Like what are some of the things that they said? Yeah.
Bill Hoskins:
They talk about the falls. The growing accounts of the falls of the Big Sioux River. And I think the falls are one of the primary reasons people come here and really the Minnesotans, they get excited about Western Minnesota as they called it. And they're going to come out and not only establish towns at Sioux Falls, but at Medary and in Flandreau and a bunch of other little towns in what's now southwest Minnesota.
Lori Walsh:
And they're scrapping for influence, economic, financial, political influence as well. It'll make your head spin. Won't it? In our last 15 seconds. Yeah.
Bill Hoskins:
Oh, yeah. And then the town companies are playing a role in the politics of the new state of Minnesota when it becomes a state in 1858.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. This is really fascinating stuff. So people can go online at sdpb.org/imagesofthepast. But aside from that, you really ought to head down to the Siouxland Museums because from exhibit after exhibit, all kinds of fascinating stories of this place and the people who have spoken about it and lived here and passed through the conflict and everything. It's all in this museum run by Bill Hoskins. Bill, thank you so much.
Bill Hoskins:
My pleasure. Anytime.