South Dakota
State in W USA; nicknamed Coyote or Sunshine State
Area:
199,800 sq km/77,123 sq mi
Capital:
Pierre
Cities:
Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen
Physical:
Great Plains; Black Hills national forest; Badlands national park;
the Missouri River; Wind Cave national park; Jewel Cave national monument;
Custer state park
Features:
In Black Hills, granite Mount Rushmore, on whose face giant relief
portrait heads of former presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln,
and T Roosevelt are carved; Deadwood, a 19th-century gold- mining town,
with legalized gambling; Wounded Knee Massacre Monument, in Pine Ridge
Native American reservation; Sioux Indian Museum, Rapid City; Indian
Museum of North America; Corn Palace (1892), Mitchell; Greek Revival
state capitol (1910), Pierre; DeSmet, home of writer Laura Ingalls Wilder
Industries:
Cereals, hay, livestock, gold (second-largest US producer), meat products
Population:
(1995) 729,000
Famous People:
Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Ernest O Lawrence
History:
First explored 1743 by Verendrye for France; claimed by France in the
18th century; passed to the USA as part of the Louisiana Purchase
1803; explored by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 1804-06;
first colonial settlement, Fort Pierre 1817, reached by first
Missouri River steamboat 1831. A gold rush brought thousands of
prospectors and settlers to the Black Hills by railroad 1873-74,
and South Dakota became a state 1889. In the 20th century, dam
construction along the Missouri River, rural electrification,
and reclamation of arid land has helped raise the standard of
living, but economic opportunities remain limited.
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