The Two RV Gypsies: Full-Time RVers
entered South Dakota and explored Palisades State Park
June 18, 2012

Before driving to Palisades State Park, the two RV Gypsies stopped at Glacial Lakes Rest Stop in New Effington, SD - and learned a bit about the state. The historical marker shown below is located on the southbound rest area along I-29 south of the North Dakota/South Dakota border. Its text is quoted below the photo of the historical marker. Scroll down to learn some of South Dakota's history, then continue scrolling to explore Palisades State Park and its glorious rock formations

South Dakota eastern heritage has been remembered along the Interstate highway system at safety rest areas and tourist information centers. "The eight pillars which thrust skyward here merge in the framework of a teepee, the Plains Indian home. The one-by-one-and-a-half foot concrete lodge poles rise fifty-six feet in the air and weigh six-and-one-half tons each. The structures were executed in an architectural manner reflecting the spiritual lifestyle of the nomadic Lakota (Sioux) Nation.

"The Coteau des Prairie country to the south of this rest area was one of the parts of South Dakota first settled by the Lakota tribes. The Coteau country was formed by the last great glacier which reached across South Dakota as far as the Missouri River. As it melted, thousands of ground-out potholes became glacial lakes. To the southeast, Lakes Traverse and Big Stone represent remnants of a mighty river which drained archaic Lake Agassiz in Canada.
"Fur traders and voyageurs found this lake country to be prime trapping and trading territory: they may have arrived in the area as early as 1679. At that time the Santee Sioux consisting of the Wahpeton, Sisseton, Mdewakanton, and Wahpekute tribes were moving into the lakes region. Nearly two centuries later the Santees ceded this part of South Dakota to the United States in Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. 1851.

"The U.S. Army established one of the earliest military posts in South Dakota in 1864 at Fort Sisseton, 36 miles (57 kilometers) southwest of here. That post was abandoned by the army in 1889, and is now a South Dakota state park. Actual white settlement did not begin until the reservation area of the Sisseton-Wahpeton was open in 1892.

As quoted above: The eight pillars which thrust skyward here merge in the framework of a teepee, the Plains Indian home. The one-by-one-and-a-half foot concrete lodge poles rise fifty-six feet in the air and weigh six-and-one-half tons each. The structures were executed in an architectural manner reflecting the spiritual lifestyle of the nomadic Lakota (Sioux) Nation.

Driving along in South Dakota, the two RV Gypsies saw a semi-truck hauling a windmill turbo blade.