PIERRE — Historic places—one long vanished and two that have been preserved and rehabilitated—are featured in the Winter 2015 issue of “South Dakota History,” the quarterly journal of the South Dakota State Historical Society.
In “Fort George and the Union Fur Company on the Upper Missouri River,” W. Raymond Wood traces the history of a fur post established in 1842 on the Missouri River, southeast of present-day Fort Pierre. The Union Fur Company operated Fort George for just three years, but remnants of the post survived into the 1880s, and a small community on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation took its name. Wood, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Missouri, has spent decades as an archaeologist and historian of the central and northern Great Plains.
In “‘No finer trout-streams in the world than these’: The Making of a Recreational Fishery in the Black Hills Forest Reserve,” John R. Henris details the re-engineering of streams in the Black Hills to form a system that hatched, distributed and protected two million trout annually at its peak. At the center of this “fish culture” was Spearfish, where a federal hatchery was founded in 1899. Today, the facility is known as the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives. Henris is assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and a graduate of Black Hills State University.
Elizabeth J. Almlie, a historic preservation specialist with the South Dakota State Historical Society, presents a progress report on the rehabilitation of the Mead Building in Yankton. The three-story structure was built in 1909 as the women’s unit of the State Hospital for the Insane and sat unused for nearly three decades. Thanks to the efforts of the Yankton County Historical Society and others, the Neo-Renaissance-style structure will soon house a museum and archives.
Frances (“Peg”) Lamont of Aberdeen, a leader in historic preservation both locally and nationally, is highlighted in the “Dakota Images” biographical sketch that is a feature of each issue of “South Dakota History.”
“South Dakota History” is a benefit of membership in the South Dakota State Historical Society. For information on membership, call (605) 773-6000. Individual issues may be purchased for $10 plus tax and shipping by calling (605) 773-6009.