Fort Dakota

title

Fort Dakota

In August of 1862, the six year-old settlement at the falls of the Big Sioux River was abandoned, when the Santee Sioux War in Minnesota spread west into Dakota Territory. Two Sioux Falls residents were killed causing the territorial governor to order an evacuation of the small city in the making. Some of the settlers went to Yankton where a crude fortification was erected by a hardy band of people who decided to stay and protect their frontier assets.

Many others left Dakota Territory never to return. Their desperate departure became known as the “Great Dakota Stampede,” a chaotic and awkwardly comic event that included many panicstricken, territorial officials. Those that stayed in Yankton were not attacked by the Indians, but fearing future attacks, they petitioned the federal government for military protection.

America was just then in the throes of the Civil War and little attention was given to outlying settlements on the western frontier. The tragic situation in Minnesota was different. The uprising that killed hundreds of white people was crushed by federal troops, while volunteer cavalry units confronted and fought the Sioux on the Dakota frontier, but no action was taken toward establishing a military base at Sioux Falls until the end of the Civil War.

The passing of the Homestead Act of 1862 was part of the federal government’s plan to transplant white American’s onto the frontier. So with the war over, the plan was set in motion. And on June 1, 1865, Lt. Col. John C. Pattee selected as the site for a military post, raw land near the falls of the Big Sioux River in what is now downtown Sioux Falls. A company of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, under Lt. Joseph DeHaven began building the post.

The site included the remains of several buildings along the west bank of the Big Sioux River that were left by the settlers. The troops built a barracks out of logs for enlisted men, a commissary storehouse, and a stable. An officer’s quarters, a stone powder house, and a rail fence around the compound were added later.

An elevated lookout tower stood on the bluff west of the post near a cemetery where four men and a laundress were buried, having died during the post’s time in Dakota. A repaired house was adapted for use as a library and medical quarters, and the laundress’ quarters were set up in another rebuilt house on the east bank of the river.

The post was originally named Fort Brookings after Wilmot W. Brookings, one of the very first men to settle at the falls. But Brookings would have to accept other honors because Fort Dakota became the official name of the remote and isolated military reservation that encompassed 70 square miles. Troops regularly patrolled the vast area to watch for Indians and to make sure homesteaders made claims outside of its boundaries.

Volunteer troops from Iowa and Minnesota were rotated at the post for the first year following the establishment of Fort Dakota. They were serving out their term of enlistment in Dakota, a quiet respite from the endless bloodletting and

cascading noise of the Civil War. These men were replaced by Company D of the Second Battalion, of the 13th U. S. Infantry. The replacements arrived in June of 1866 and later left, leaving us nothing on record about their day to day duty so far from their homes in a strange, unfamiliar country far from all things familiar.

Such was the lonely, forgettable life of a soldier on the frontier, a land that was both mystifying and boring. They served at Fort Dakota—a place in a far away land dominated by wolves and other wild creatures--for the duration of its existence. For many a soldier, the vision of a city in making was obscured by an opposing force, one that pounded out a more

pessimistic message. It was something that time, and others far more optimistic, could and would reverse.

Captain Kilburn Knox was placed in command of the post and was tasked with putting the poorly run outfit in good order. He was up to the challenge and maintained command until January of 1968 when he was relieved by Lt. William Olmsted. Unfortunately, Olmsted was a poor choice for he was arrested on mysterious charges and replaced on March 1869, by a caretaker commander, Captain John Duffy who oversaw the final months of Fort Dakota.

Military installations on the frontier could not replace actual towns, but they did attract the attention of the settlers living outside of their borders. Invariably the post had a “sutler,” a civilian who

conducted a sort of general store business, where both military and civilian folks could purchase goods and food. Ole B. Iverson, whose family settled along the Big Sioux River, east of Fort Dakota, was a frequent, and much welcomed, visitor. The talented and gutsy Iverson was not only a customer, he was a volunteer. Iverson made a daring trip to Sioux City in the awful winter of 1868-69, at the

request of the commanding officer of Fort Dakota, and brought back supplies that saved the garrison from starvation.

The end of the post came about the same way it began—as a political expression. While west-watchers back east may have looked upon military reservations with some favor, Fort Dakota proved to be very unpopular with those folks who were eager to move in and willing to accept the risks. These brave souls wanted the federal government to close it down and send the soldiers elsewhere. Let the clash of cultures play on. Hopeful civilians petitioned the War Department and the garrison was terminated as of June 18, 1869.

How much the post accomplished to protect settlers was a question debated throughout its existence. As it turned out, the garrison dealt with fear but little

danger. The soldiers fed far more Dakota natives---traveling between the Missouri River and the Pipestone Quarries---than they had to chase away. Fort Dakota did, however, serve a purpose. It made frontier people feel secure. In the words of Captain Knox, it provided “seeming protection.” And in the words of future historians, it provided the basis for the re-creation of the city of Sioux Falls.

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