South Dakota

In the south-eastern part of South Dakota there is a large diversification of crops, and a great deal of intensive farming. These methods are spreading rapidly northward and westward over the entire State. Pigs and dairy cattle are being introduced in larger numbers, and a greater percentage of the grain is being fed to stock on the farms. Of 1,746,000 cattle in the State in Jan. 1936 (valued at $63,532,200) 576,000 were milch cows. Their value was $28,224,000. Creamery butter produced by factories within the State amounted to 38,948,000 pounds in 1934. The number of hogs including pigs diminished from 1,229,000 on Jan. I, 1934 to 840,000 on Jan. 1, 1936 though their value mounted from $3,785,000 in the former year to $12,600,000 in the latter year. They were most numerous in the south-eastern portion of the State. West of the Missouri, in the rougher country, there is a great deal of sheep-raising; the sheep grown increased from 644,000 in 1925 to 1,290,000 in 1935, wool production in the latter year running to 9,329,00o pounds with an average fleece of 8.3 pounds.

In 1930 86.5% of the farmers owned motor-cars, 17.4% owned motor trucks, and 53.6% were served by telephones, while 10.9% had electric light in their dwellings. 37.2% of them possessed tractors.

The average size of a South Dakota farm decreased from ac. in 1920 to 438.6 ac. in 1930.

Mining.—The bulk of the mineral output consists of gold and silver produced from the deep mines of the Black Hills, particularly from the famous Homestake mine in Lead City. Silver is a minor product and is only classed with gold because it is found in the same ores. Of the 1,674,720 tons treated in 1924 there was an average recovery of $3.65 in gold and $.05 in silver per ton, making the gold output $6,117,421 and the silver production $57,787. In 1934 the gold output was 482,000 oz. or $16,845,900 at $34.95 an ounce. 106,000 oz. of silver were pro duced in the same year. South Dakota ranked third among the States in gold production. Altogether the Homestake mine has produced nearly $300,000,000 worth of ore and paid about $5o,000,000 in dividends. During the World War, when there was a shortage of tungsten, South Dakota produced large quanti ties, totalling $1,106,740 in value for the years 1915-18 inclusive.

Manufactures.

The most important industries are those connected with the agricultural products of the State such as butter, $8,981,533 in 1933; flour and other grain-mill products, bread and bakery products, $2,450,926; meat packing (wholesale), $25,124,132; poultry killing and packing (whole sale), $1,200,458. Except for concentration at Sioux Falls where products to the value of $36,166,431 were manufactured, factories are usually small and well distributed over the State.

Transportation.

There were on Dec. 31, m. of track in the railway systems of the State. Of these the Chicago,

Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific owned over one-third, including the only transcontinental line crossing South Dakota. The Chi cago and Northwestern had over 1,000 m. of road in the State.

Highways.

At the end of 1934 there were in South Dakota a total of 5,989 miles of State highway, of which 5,014 were sur faced, mostly with gravel and chert, only 216 miles being paved. Expenditures of the State on roads and bridges for the year were $6,818,000. Most of the important highways run from east to west. The Yellowstone trail roughly parallels the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway.

History.

It is possible that the Frenchman, Charles Le Sueur, visited South Dakota in the region around Sioux Falls as early as 1683 and that some trading with the Indians in that vicinity by French on the Minnesota river took place around 1700, but the first authentic exploration by white men, of which there is certain record, was that of the Verendrye brothers, who in 1743 came overland from the Assiniboine river in Manitoba to the Missouri in North Dakota, and wandered from there south-west probably to the Black Hills and thence east to the Missouri at the present site of Pierre. Theirs was a disappointed search for the "western ocean." In the decade of the 178os fur traders began to enter South Dakota irregularly, coming up the Missouri river from St. Louis, down from Canada by the Red river of the north, or in from Wisconsin by the Minnesota river. In Jean Baptiste Truteau, leading a fur-trading expedition from St. Louis, caused the first building erected by white men to be built on the bank of the Missouri river, in Charles Mix county.

Fur traders and trappers were, therefore, already familiar with the territory when the first scientific exploration party led by Lewis and Clark passed up the Missouri in 1804 on its way to the Rocky mountains. The whole area of the State in the mean time had been transferred from French to U.S. ownership by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Following the Lewis and Clark expedition, which returned in 1806, the Missouri river became the natural highway for many expeditions trading with the upper Missouri Indians or passing westward to the mountains. Manuel Lisa, of St. Louis, ascended the river in 1807 and for many years thereafter either went him self, or sent parties to trade with the upper Indians. In 1817 Joseph La Framboise built old Ft. La Framboise near the modern site of Pierre, and around this post grew up the first settlement in South Dakota. In 1831 the first steamboat to ascend the Missouri reached the site of Pierre. It was owned and regularly used there after by the American Fur company, which by that time controlled the Missouri river fur trade. In 1832 Ft. Pierre was built for the same company.