Eastern Pennington County Memories. This chapter is from "Eastern Pennington County Memories", published by The American Legion Auxilliary, Carrol McDonald Unit, Wall, South Dakota And is uploaded with their kind permission. Pages 5-6 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net, 1999. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm Eastern Pennington County (Ziebach) by Will G. Robinson South Dakota State Historian The area east of the South Fork Cheyenne River, west of the 102( west meridian and north of a line from the mouth of Corn Creek to the mouth of Spring Creek on the South Fork of the Cheyenne was designated as Ziebach County by the 1877 Legislature. That doesn't sound like it's too difficult, as boundary' description, but as a matter of fact, unless you know the boundary (1) of Lugenbeel (2) Shannon and (3) Pennington Counties as created in 1875, you would have no notion where Ziebach County was located and then you would have to have the (4) new Pennington as created in 1877 for the Legislature made a left handed approach to it. They said all of what was Pennington in 1875 less what we are making into Pennington in 1877 shall be Ziebach. But generally speaking that Ziebach County of 1877 and it remained Ziebach until Pennington re-absorbed it in 1883, was a pretty easily recognizable geographic and economic entity. It now goes by the commonly used name of the east party of Pennington County, as it is still cut off from the west part by the South Fork of the Cheyenne, a pretty formidable barrier at times. This history is being written about that area and in some ways it is a bit hard to find early history, pertaining to this particular area, in any abundance. One could not say of a finality that the first white man to traverse any part of this area was Jon Valle, whom Lewis and Clark met over near the mouth of the Cheyenne in 1804. He told them he had wintered in 1803 in the Black Hills. The Journal entry stated: "He wintered last winter 300 leagues up the Chien River under the Black Mountains, he informed us that the river is very rapid and difficult even for Perogues to ascend and when rising the Swels is very high, one hundred leagues up it forks, one form comes from the south, the other at 40 leagues above the forks enters the Black Mountains". In as much as Jon Valle was in the fur business, it would be most unlikely that he would not have gone at times on the South Side of the Cheyenne itself and so actually set foot in this area. The next man who of a certainty was in the area was Jedediah Smith and several companions, among them Sublette and Fitzpatrick, a really notable company, in the fall of 1823. Any review of Clyman's Journal -would indicate the very strong possibility that they made at least an overnight stop at Bear Springs which is a few miles north of the present Scenic. In 1828 and perhaps prior to that date, the Upper Missouri Outfit, a subsidiary of the American Fur Company, had a trade post on the South Fork of the Cheyenne at the Mouth of Rapid Creek and there is no question, but that as a subsidiary of Ft. Tecumseh, trappers and traders, via Pineau Springs just west of its eastern boundary, traversed this area many times. In fact one Journal entry would indicate that the boats, with furs from the Oglala Post at the mouth of Rapid Creek, had got hung up by low water at some point, probably not far from the mouth of Elk Creek and that they had to send out a large drove of pack horses to carry the fur packs into Ft. Pierre. This was prior to January 30th, 1832 when the Oglala Post blew and burnt up. The route from Ft. Tecumseh to Ft. William, later called Ft. Laramie and passing through this area from Pineau Springs to Bear Springs and on down through the pass south of Scenic, was one of the first and one of the most important land routes during the fur trade days. Over this route, which was the shortest from the Missouri River to the fur trade rendezvous at Green River, where the mountain men assembled yearly, a great volume of outgoing trade goods and incoming furs passed annually, for at least a decade. It was a well known route when Lieutenant G. K. Warren, the notable topographer, was mapping this area in 1855-1857. Over this route the awe inspiring columns of General William S. Harney passed in 1855 en route from Ft. Laramie to Ft. Pierre and the evidence of his passing is to be seen at most every stream line, where his advance pioneers cut down banks and bettered the hard crossings which had been the reliance of the old trail. It was along this self same route that the scientists who wanted to observe the formations and the paleantological marvels of the Mauvaise Terres (Bad Lands) passed. By 1834 many people had traveled out this trail to view the Bad Lands and Laidlow, the factor at Ft. Pierre, described them with particularity to Maximilian. In 1843 Alexander Culbertson, who had more scientific knowledge than the average fur trader, made a special trip to the Bad Lands over this route and his report, which had very fine scientific terminology and his specimens which were sent back to Philadelphia, aroused great interest and hardly a year passed that some notable did not visit the Bad Lands thereafter. It was this area South of Bear Springs, in the Scenic, Sheep mountain area that these people visited and described. The most notable among them were Dr. H. A. Prout in 1847, John Evans in 1849 and E. Giradin, a French artist visited them with Evans. Later his drawings brought world wide attention to this outstanding region much of which is in this Eastern Pennington County area. David Dale Owen the U. S. Geologist visited the Bad Lands in 1852. In 1850 Thadeas A. Culberston, a younger brother of the Alexander, who had visited them in 1843, made a most interesting trip out to them. He operated with a buggy which would indicate a fair sort of a trail to them from Ft. Pierre. In 1853 the most notable visitors were Ferdinand J. Hayden and F. B. Meek. When, in 1855 Harney was to make a military demonstration to show the Sioux the power of the whiteman, Lt. G. K. Warren made a reconnaissance and fairly copious notes. As the Harney column traversed the area, Capt. J. B. S. Todd, later to locate in Dakota and who was identified with it until his death, made notes and a map. Thus it is to be seen that this area was at least, in part, very well known to white man, long before the Black Hills had came into public notice. Up until the creation of Nebraska Territory in 1854 this area had, since the Louisiana Purchase, been attached to Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri in turn and finally in 1834, was declared to be "Indian Country". But in 1867 it was by the Treaty of Ft. Laramie specifically Indian County with the Dacotah or Sioux Indians given exclusive rights in everything North of Nebraska, South of the Cannonball River and West of the Missouri and out to the Big Horns. So it remained the domain of the Sioux and this area was more particularly the home grounds of the Minneconjou, Two Kettle and Sans Arc bands of the Teton or Lakota Sioux until the Treaty of 1889. This treaty was the final result of a long series of almost farcical maneuvering and attempted treaty making, since the completely illegal Treaty of 1876, made to free the Black Hills from Indian dominance, was finally signed by 3/4th of the adult Indian males in 1889. It was not long before the white man was coming into settle the country. First it had to be surveyed and contracts were let. The great bulk of this area was surveyed in the summer and fall of 1890, as appears from the map, which shows the names of the surveyors, the areas each surveyed, the dates of such surveys and what they found worth while putting down in their field notes. Since the time of the gold discovery in the Black Hills in 1874, prospective miners had been making the long trek from Ft. Pierre, which they reached by steamboat or by wagon road East of the river. One old timer, who acted as a guide for early gold seekers, told a reporter for the Yankton Press & Dakotian that the best route followed the divide between the Bad and the Cheyenne and crossed the Cheyenne between Elk Creek and the Belle Fourche and then out on the divide between Elk and Alkali Creeks. The crossing would have been about at the township line between Townships 4 and 5 north, and the trail close to the present Creighton. A little later Frederick Grant, headed a commission to determine the best route between the on coming Dakota Central (now the Northwestern Railroad) which was to have a Missouri River crossing either near the mouth of Ft. George Creek or near Bad River. They investigated both routes, going out by way of Ft. George and along on the divide between the White and the Bad Rivers. This route would lead to Interior and on past near where Casey Post Office, the first in this area, was later located in Section 2 Township 3 S Range 16 E and then on to a crossing near the mouth of Spring Creek and on to Rapid City. They came back by another route, essentially that of the Black Hills-Ft. Pierre stage route, although they crossed the Cheyenne at the mouth of Elk Creek and located their Missouri River terminal at Chantier Creek rather than Ft. Pierre. So this famous son of a famous father crossed this area before 1880. Post Offices came late to this area. Casey the first and John Roth as Postmaster from June 30, 1890. There were no other until Pedro, Elmer E. Hawks, Postmaster, was established 26 March 1896. The settlers who did come into the area got their mail at Grindstone over on the North Fork of Bad River, at Dalzell just South of the Belle Fourche in Meade County or at Smithville South of the mouth of Elk Creek or at Link, at the mouth of the Box Elder, all on the West side of the Cheyenne. An 1889 map showed a Territorial Road running from near Peono Springs across the area to a point on the Cheyenne due West of Wall. It also showed the Chamberlain-Deadwood road crossing the South Fork South of the mouth of Bear Creek, and running Southeast to a point North of where John Black lived on the White River in Township 4 S R 17 E. If the surveyors are to be believed in 1890 a man named Simpson in 7-3N-15E; Williams at Pineau Springs (called Peono Creek by the Surveyor); Eugene Knecht, just East of the present Quinn; Quinn who lives West of the Forks of Sage Creek; Frank Lally down in 4 South 14 East and Black and Gallahger down in the Southeast Township were the named inhabitants. There was at least one other, Gus Craven at the mouth of Indian Creek during the Messiah War of 1890. R. G. Anderson however had found a couple of houses but did not name the inhabitants, near the Cheyenne in 2 N 14 East. The map seeks to show some of these facts graphically and should be a good point to start a more modern history of this extremely interesting territory of which Wall in 1965 is the dominant point of economic and social activities.