This marker is located in the parking lot of the Fort Pierre Depot Museum. As such, there is plenty…read moreof parking for you to stop and be able to read the sign. The museum was closed when I stopped by but it looks quite interesting if you're spending time here in Pierre. The marker reads, "The oldest continuous white settlement in the area of South Dakota." "First visited by Verendrye, who took over for France by planting a lead plate on March 31, 1743. A monument marks the spot. It is over the R.R. track first street to right, on hill to you left .6 miles." "Joseph LaFrombois started first fur post here in 1817 on west bank of Missouri just south of mouth of Bad river. Whites here since then." "Practically on same site, French Fur Co., Pierre D. Papin & Pascual Cerres had post Ft. Teton 1827 sold to Am. Fur Co., 1830. Bad River, then called Little Missouri was site where Father Hoecken on June 12-13, 1840 baptized 25 children, offspring of 13 traders and trappers, among them Dorion, Papin, Halsey, Campbell, Brazeau and Alleron." "All these things happened in limits of Ft. Pierre." [Review 17839 overall - 43 in South Dakota - 1360 of 2022.]

Along US-14, this marker points out an invisible line. The 100th Meridian, although an imaginary…read moreline on the surface of the earth, has long symbolized the end of the east and the beginning of the west. Major John Wesley Powell, an early western explorer and the second director of the United States Geological Survey, recognized the 100th Meridian as the natural demarcation line between the humid east and the arid west. "Historically that meridian is significant. For two generations the Insurance Companies and other worldwide lending agencies would not, as a matter of agreed policy, lend a shiny dime west of this line. There reason was that some geographer had labeled it the EAST EDGE of the Great American Desert. Neither the geographer nor the Insurance Companies had been west of 100°. Today, more that a quarter of America's new animal wealth alone, is produced from that misnamed desert. This unrealistic, geographically limited loan policy, forced South Dakota into the farm loan business. Our Rural Credit Business cost us plenty and was a splendid illustration of why a State should not be in the loaning business. But South Dakota has paid all its debts in full. The 100th Meridian is just another bad memory. Historically however, the 100° Meridian was a most important one in Western economy." The road does not have any extra space to pull over so use caution. [Review 17845 overall - 47 in South Dakota - 1366 of 2022.]