First Territorial Capital

1861-1883 Dakota Territory, extending N to Canada and W to the summit of the Rockies, a fourth larger than Texas, was created March 2, 1861. Lincoln appointed William Jayne Governor and he arrived at Yankton June 8th. Dakota had 2,326 white citizens; the first legislature met at Yankton on March 17, 1862 and after a lot of legislative jockeying, Yankton was named the permanent capital on April 8, 1862.

It so remained, capital, named ‘mother City,’ steamboat town and railhead until 1883. Then Alexander Mackenzie came down from the North with a handful of votes and reputedly a satchel full of money. He parlayed these assets into a capital removal commission. The law required that they organize a town at Yankton.

They did, on a Milwaukee train passing rapidly through town late in April. Aspirants were Aberdeen, Bismarck, Canton, Frankfort, Huron, Mitchell, Odessa, Ordway, Pierre, Redfield, and Steele. The Commission passed among these towns in a glorious jamboree and then met at Fargo on June 3rd and decreed Bismarck as capital.

Governor Ordway and Senator, later Territorial Attorney General Alexander Hughes were credited as Mackenzie’s most effective allies. Yankton resorted to the law but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal. Governor Pierce completed the move to Bismarck and Yankton has a fine historic site a few rods north of this marker and a bitter memory.