Chapter 11, Pierre, North Dakota, 2026

 Hi!

After we visited the Black Hills area and traveled across the beautiful plains of South Dakota, we decided to go to Pierre, the capital city of South Dakota.  We discovered a nice city park campground along the Missouri river in Fort Pierre, which is a suburb of Pierre.  Fort Pierre is on the southwest side of the river.  We set up and settled in at our site and took a nice walk along the river and discovered that we were on the trail of part of the Lewis & Clark expedition.  There were lots of signs to read about what happened in this area.  

This was our camp site at Fischer's Lilly Park, along the river.  It was $22.00 per night!!

One of the most significant events of the Lewis & Clark expedition took place at what is now the Fischer's Lilly park where the Bad River enters the Missouri River.  This is where Lewis & Clark met for the first time with officials of the Lakota Indian Nation.  The Lakota controlled this section of the river and interactions became hostile, but the confrontation was diffused through the efforts of Chief Black Buffalo, so the expedition was able to continue.  The United States flag was flown for the first time over present-day South Dakota at this meeting with the Lakota.

The next day we took a day trip in our car across the Missouri river into Pierre.  We drove around and found the South Dakota National Guard Museum.  

This was a very small museum, but nicely laid out displaying the history of the National Guard in South Dakota.

The displays were mostly inside glass cases and we were unable to photograph them due to reflections.  They did have a mock up of an F-16 jet fighter cockpit.

 

The cockpit was very small and cramped and Tom didn't even try to get in.

 

 

After leaving the museum, we drove to the State Capitol building and took a nice self-guided tour of the interior of the building.  

 

We don't search out every state capitol building in our travels, but occasionally, when convenient, we try to go inside.  We entered the building and went through the security checkpoint and were pointed to the self-guided tour maps and were told we could explore the building.

South Dakota became a state in 1889.  Pierre became the capital city in 1904.  The capitol building construction began in 1905 and became the current capitol building in 1910.

The interior of the building was beautiful with its mosaic tiled floors and high stain-glassed ceilings.  We were impressed by the beautiful marble staircases.  The rotunda was under reconstruction and so all we could really see was all the very tall scaffolding.

 

As we wandered through the halls of the building we were looking for the office of the court reporter, which is a treat for Suzie if we can stop in and say hello.  Suzie was a court reporter at the San Bernardino County courthouse in southern California and at the Shasta County courthouse and occasionally at the Tehama County courthouse in northern California during her 32 years of court reporting, so she always likes to stop and do the secret handshake with other court reporters..

While wandering through the capitol building in Pierre, we came across the Supreme Court, the Senate and House of Representatives' chambers and the Governor's office.  The building was very quiet as the Senate and House are only in session for 40 days in the winter.

All of the rooms were open to the public and we were able to just walk right in and look around.

As we continued wandering around the building trying to find the courter reporter's office, we saw a gentleman coming out of the clerk's office.  We asked if he could tell us where the court reporter's office is.  He told us there was no official court reporter and that they hire one for Supreme court proceedings, but that the legislative sessions are all video-recorded.  We chatted with him for a period of time and then he unlocked the door to the House of Representatives and told us we could enter and take some photos.

We hope you enjoyed this chapter of our blog!  We enjoy hearing from you and passing on any suggestions for places to see and things to do.

Tom & Suzie