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The Archives and Special Collections has a 1937 atlas by the Clay County Planning Board. It depicts the county after the stock market crash of 1929 and during the Great Depression. The maps show parcels of land owned by private individuals, the Federal Land Bank, other banks, insurance companies, land associations, etc. "The Clay County Farm Ownership Atlas was sponsored by the Clay County Planning Board. The work of securing the data, drafting, blue printing, and all clerica

Archives and Special Collections recently received a list of interviews with Clay County WWII military veterans done by Donna Schafer and published in the Vermillion Plain Talk newspaper. Aakre, Elmer “Sandy”. Vermillion Plain Talk. March 25, 2011, page 5. Anderson, Richard. Vermillion Plain Talk website says January 27, 2011, but we could not find it […]

For a time prospects for a park and artificial lake under a W.P.A. grant generated much interest in the southern part of the county. The idea first emerged in 1933 as a modest project involving a grant of $8,000 for work-relief purposes. During the following year the concept grew in proportion to culminate in a […]

The Royal Harders diary was recently added to the Chilson Collection in the Archives and Special Collections. Royal grew up close to Mission Hill (SD). In his diary, he describes his daily activities while in military training in the United States during World War II.

While researching another topic, I recently found in a 1975 Volante student newspaper that the League of Women Voters established an all-volunteer recycling center in Vermillion SD, and it was in a restructured building below the bluff. The article does not mention when. If you know when this recycling center started and stopped, please let […]

#ArchivesHashtagParty asked archives across the USA to share their favorite repetitive designs and patterns for #ArchivesPatterns. We love the piano keyboard pattern on one of the local National Music Museum buildings.

William Lyon was born and grew up in Vermillion, SD. His widow Winona Lyon donated the land containing the beautiful palisades to the state of South Dakota. Additional land will be added to the park during the summer of 2024, doubling the size of the park. Palisades State Park is one of the most unique […]

We found a self-recorded 78 phonograph dated 1949 in our USD Phonograph collection. It was in Modern Electric Co.’s. bag. Did Modern Electric or the University of South Dakota have the equipment needed to record onto a blank phonograph?

Bobby Penn graduated with a BFA from the University of South Dakota in 1974. While at USD and after his graduation, Penn worked as an art instructor and illustrator. Beginning in 1986, he pursued his painting career full-time. Penn lived and worked in Vermillion, South Dakota until his death in 1999. Penn’s work is in […]

Caption on photograph is “Ben shooting the V.R. [Vermillion River] rapids. Image from University of South Dakota Photograph Collection and Digital Library of South Dakota. Identifier PO5878.

Southern Dakota was one of the first railroads in Dakota Territory, and the first to successfully operate in the area that would become the state of South Dakota. The tracks began in Sioux City in 1872 and reached Vermillion, Dakota Territory at the end of that year. In 1873, the tracks were completed to Yankton, Dakota […]

Do you see the park’s baseball field and the swimming pool on the postcard above? Vermillion is collecting stories about the park for the celebration. We will happily forward any stories you send to us to the committee collecting the stories. Help us assign a date to this postcard. We know it is after 1936 […]

The Archives and Special Collections received 31 boxes of rolled architectural drawings, floor plans, and blueprints of buildings in Vermillion SD and the University of South Dakota. We are in the process of flattening and inventorying this gift. Projects date from 1920s to 2000s. Some of the projects are the Clay County Courthouse, Vermillion public […]

Historian Everett Sterling wrote in Vermillion Story (1959) that there was “a 1910 map preserved in the City Building, on which every residence is shown and identified …” Does anyone know where the map is now? Sterling’s Vermillion Story is in the Chilson Collection. Other histories about Vermillion and Clay County SD are listed on […]

If ghost towns do not need to have standing structures, then Clay County has at least one – Lodi. Bloomingdale may turn out to be another one, but further research is needed to determine if Bloomingdale was a town. Both are now private land and used for farming. Peterson’s atlas can be viewed in the […]

She was active and influential in politics and public education in the early 20th century at the local (Vermillion SD) level and the state level. She also wrote for a local newspaper, the Vermillion Plain Talk, and taught school. 1866 – birth. Circa 1888 – graduation from USD and started teaching at Vermillion. 1901 – […]

The mound appears on this 1856 map as Little Spirits Hill. Spirit Mound was described by local Indigenous people to the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. Twenty years ago in 2001, it was replanted with native grasses and joined the South Dakota state park system as Spirit Mound Historic Prairie. In 2010, a geologic […]

Though the name never appeared on a map, the bend of the Missouri River south of Burbank, SD was called Negro Bend. The French named it after a local settlement of Black woodcutters who sold fuel wood to steamboats. On many maps, the region is called Kate Sweeney Bend, after a steamboat that sunk in […]

Mrs. M. Reed, M. D. Physician and Surgeon Salmer Block Vermillion, S. D. The Volante. Volume XV, Number 1. October 2, 1901. https://explore.digitalsd.org/digital/collection/volante/id/3048/rec/1 One little ad in the Volante sparks so many questions. A woman doctor in Vermillion in 1901? Who was she and where did she come from? Where did she go to medical school? What […]

In September 1952, fans at an USD football game and some residents of southeast South Dakota saw an amazing light show in the sky. It was described in the Vermillion Plain Talk: FIREBALL IN SKY FLOODS AREA WITH LIGHT ON SATURDAY NIGHT. Alert residents in the Vermillion area got an opportunity to see one of […]