Except for a later period of bison-hunting, the fur trade period was about over in 1855 when the company sold this post to the U.S. Government.
first attempt at permanent settlement by the agricultural pioneers was at the falls of the Sioux river in 1856 by a party from Minnesota. Other homes were established in the Sioux valley from 1857 to 1862, but all were abandoned because of fear of the Sioux Indians after the Minnesota outbreak of 1862. In the meantime, a permanent settlement was made at Yankton in 5859. In 1861 Dakota Territory was created by Con gress and Yankton designated as its capital. Settlement was very slow at first, however, and even by 1870 when Iowa had I,II5,0oo inhabitants, South Dakota had no more than 12,000. Sioux City, Ia., was reached by the railway in 1868 and in the same season stage lines to Yankton and Sioux Falls were established. The last two towns became the centres for early settlement in the eastern part of the State, and Sioux City was the depot and shipping point until the railway reached Yankton in 1873 and Sioux Falls in 1878.
In the meantime, a settlement of quite different character was developed in the Black Hills at the opposite end of the State. Gold was discovered in 1874 by the men of Custer's expedition, and a rush of gold hunters followed. But the region belonged to the Sioux Indians and the Government intervened to keep settlers out until an agreement could be made with the owners. Such an attempt was made at the Red Cloud agency in 1875, but when the Indians refused to cede the region, Government opposition to settlement ceased. Between Nov. 1875 and March, 2876 over 1,100 persons arrived in the hills, most of them stopping at Custer, the scene of the original discovery, which by March was a city of at least 6,000 persons. The rapid exhaustion of the placers there encouraged prospecting elsewhere with the result of rich workings being discovered in Deadwood gulch, 75 m. further north, in June 1876. Almost the entire population rushed to the new diggings where the city of Deadwood rapidly became famous. The discovery of permanent bodies of ore gave it stability, and smaller towns grew up in outlying gulches. In the autumn of 1876 Moses Manuel located the Homestake lode, which has supplied one of the world's greatest gold mines with a steady stream of ore to the present day. Around it the city of Lead has grown up. Stage
lines to Deadwood were established from Laramie, Wyo., Sidney, Neb. and Bismarck, N.D., and population grew rapidly.
The "Dakota Boom."—During the years 1879-86 much of the territory of South Dakota was settled and these years are known as the years of the "Great Dakota Boom." At the end of the period all but three of the present day counties had settlements located in them, and all of the counties now east of the Missouri river had been organized. In 1878 there was but 6o m. of railway in the Territory, but by 1886 over i,000 m. of railway were built and settlement rapidly followed each railway.
During the energetic decade ending June 3o, 1889, nearly 42,000,000 ac., or almost half the area of South Dakota, were homesteaded. In 1887 no free land remained in 22 counties of southern Dakota Territory. The population had increased from 98,268 in 188o to 263,411 in 1885, and in 1890 it was 328,808. The boom times were brought to an end chiefly by crop failures, the terrible drought of 1889 producing widespread destitution.
Admission to Statehood.—The boom resulted in a movement for statehood. There was much agitation among the inhabitants for a separation of Dakota Territory into a northern and south ern State, and this was made part of the programme of the National Republican Party in 1888. When the party prevailed in the subsequent election, North and South Dakota were admitted as separate States (Nov. 2, 2889). From 1889 to 1897 South Dakota suffered a period of repeated droughts, the rainfall over large parts of the State being deficient every year. Immigration was almost at a standstill and many homesteaders left the State. Many counties in 2897, most of them west of the James river, had but half the population they boasted in 1887. Those that went were largely of American stock, the foreign immigrants being more persistent. Commencing about 1896 the rainfall increased and fairly satisfactory conditions prevailed until 1910. These were years of stabilization and increasing prosperity, the aggre gate value of farm property rising at least 500% between 1895 and 1910. The increase in population in the same years was 252,913 or 76%, a large proportion of the increase being west of the James valley. Many of the Indian reservations were opened to settlement in the latter part of this decade.