The Old Yankton Trail and Stagecoach Road BY WAYNE FANEBUST
T
he Yankton Trail from Sioux Falls to the territorial capital city on the Missouri River has a long and somewhat colorful history. As early as 1861, a Yankton newspaper informed it’s readership that a “natural and good wagon road from Sioux Falls to Yankton” was available for traveling between the two tiny towns, both struggling for survival on the Dakota frontier. In August of 1862, the settlers from Sioux Falls, fearful of being attacked by Indians, traveled over the crude road on their way to the safety of Yankton. Deep ruts from the wagons of that sad exodus were formed and then forgotten until they caught the attention of people many years later. While the city grew, and the Yankton trail was re-routed, the quaint ruts somehow survived the ravages of time on the campus of Sioux Falls College, now the University of Sioux Falls. In 1928, the sophomore class of the college placed a
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HISTORY
small plaque near the ruts to memorialize the old road. It was also known as the “government road” after the creation of Fort Dakota at Sioux Falls in 1865. Supplies were regularly brought up from the steamboats docked in Yankton until the fort was abandoned in 1869. While the fort was in operation, and during the 1870s, the road was used regularly by people on horseback and in private conveyances, many of whom were drawn up from Yankton to see the falls of the Big Sioux River. The magnificent and powerful falls were an early day tourist attraction. It was obvious to people in both towns that the trail would continue to be useful. With in mind the legislators of he ninth session of the territorial legislature in December of 1870, created a three-man commission to monitor, maintain and improve the road, including the building
of bridges over streams and sloughs along the route. These improvements meant passengers, freight and mail, would be making their way, back and forth with greater frequency. The early 1870s marked the beginning of the rather colorful, but very uncomfortable stagecoach era, linking Sioux Falls to Yankton, with another line that went from Yankton to Sioux City. The latter was a bumpy sixty five mile, twelve hour experience that was described by one exasperated traveler thusly: “the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition were tender mercies in comparison to the terrible ride of 12 hours.” Other tormented travelers, over time, would come forth with their own stories about the bumps and grinds of stagecoaches. In 1879, the stage line was owned and operated by William Kramer, from Yankton, who ran it like a business rather than a novelty. He boasted that his line
