Incorporated in 1890, Fort Pierre was an important trade center for ranchers. Opening the Great Sioux Reservation to settlement further enhanced the community's business prospects. The Stockgrowers Bank started in a wooden building, but owners C. L. Millet and G. E. Sumner had big plans. They built one of Fort Pierre's most elegant Romanesque Revival structures to house their bank. The bank's prominent corner location and impressive architecture made it the center of commerce for the young community. Other tenants in the building included Fort Pierre's first telephone exchange, a land office, and local buffalo rancher Scotty Philip.
Fort Pierre's economic boom came at a steep price. The Great Sioux Reservation had initially included all of the land in South Dakota west of the Missouri River and Euro-American settlement in the area was prohibited. By the late 1880s, over 11 million acres of reservation land had been thrown open to settlement, displacing many American Indians.
Sponsored by the South Dakota State Historical Society, a Preserve America grant, and the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad Corporation.
Images courtesy of the South Dakota State Historical Society.
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