Oh my gosh, did I get a great Capital Fight item in the mail today. A fully illustrated 32-page brochure for the last South Dakota capital fight extolling the virtues of “Picturesque Pierre.” And one that spends as much time-trash talking those scurrilous slanderers of Mitchell as they do extolling the virtues of Pierre. It might be one of the single best pieces I’ve run across that shows the lengths that these communities went to in fighting for hosting the South Dakota State Capital.
You get awesome passages such as “Mitchell proceeds to libel and vilify it through local and itinerant knockers and by newspapers and other campaign literature. But when charged with such libel and vilification, Mitchell hypocritically denies that she has knocked the western half of the state.”
And that’s one of the mild attacks on it’s competitor to be the seat of government for South Dakota.. here’s another passage:
“What would you think of a proposition, made by any special and selfish interest of any single community in the state, or by any bunch of conspirators connected therewith, which, merely for its own real estate boom, should attempt to smite and libel and slander and slap in the face every acre of the more than two millions comprised in these seven southeastern counties of the state?
What would you think of the consummate nerve of such a bunch if it should go to the owners of all the real estate in these seven southeastern counties and ask them to help in this libel and slander of their own millions of acres?”
That is just great stuff.
Sharing a few pages from the brochure, you can see why I’m absolutely giddy to get my hands on this great piece of history.
On the cover is the old Capital, located at the present day location of the Retailer’s Building, across the street from the current one…
Page 2 has the Hughes County Courthouse, which I believe they’ve redone the roof in the intervening years, as well as the Old Federal Courthouse and Post Office, which has been donated to the state, and has been state offices for decades now. I used to work there many years ago when the Division of Insurance was in the building.
Some pictures showing the fertility of the region.. with the header of one the Capital Fight Slogans, “Pierre, Progress and Prosperity”
Three of the banks in Pierre at the time, one of those corner buildings might still be there…
and the back cover with the view across and down the street from the temporary Capital.. Not sure if any of that’s left, although that might be the methodist church far in the background.. or the old high school.
If you’re into the history of our state, this is great stuff, and a unfiltered glimpse into how rough and tumble politics could be 120 years ago.
My Grandmother was in both Pierre and Mitchell during the ” Capital Fight”, which lasted a year. The Chicago Northwestern and Milwaukee Road offered free excursions. Mitchell was the favorite of the Milwaukee while the Chicago Northwestern had just built to Pierre though the bridge over the river would not be built until the capitol issue was decided. She was about 12 at the time and said “it was a marvel. Like a big fair every day for a year in each city.”
Nice artifact, Pat.
As you can read in the brochure, Pierre’s position was based on an assumption that the region between the James River Valley and the Missouri River would be heavily populated by small farmers growing wheat and corn. Pierre proponents also banked on the opening of the West River reservations to homesteading which would result in a large migration of farmers to that region. Nature intervened with a devastating series of droughts beginning in the 1890’s and continuing through 1905. Nonetheless, Pierre prevailed. Their victory was a triumph of optimism over harsh reality. They also overcame a well financed Mitchell campaign, funded in the main by the Milwaukee Road.