“Medicine Knoll River”

On September 22, 1804 Lewis & Clark passed by this river and camped a couple of miles up the Missouri. They called it Reuben River for Reuben Fields, one of their hunters. In 1839 however this was called Medicine Knoll River by Nicollett & Fremont who held a 4th of July pyrotechnic display on the Medicine Knoll 12 miles up the creek. In 1855 Lt. G.K. Warren, noted western topographer camped here while mapping the area. The same year Paul Narcelle quit the American Fur Company and started a ranch just South of here near the creek where he raised cattle, the first settler in this area. In 1857 the Yankton Sioux by treaty ceded the area of SE South Dakota to the Government and this creek was part of the Northern line of the lands ceded. In 1863 the U.S.A. moved the Winnebagos from Minnesota and Wisconsin to Dakota and this Creek was west line of a Reservation that extended down to Ft. Thompson, created that same year. By 1876, the Narcelle ranch was a stage stop on the Yankton-Ft. Randall-Ft.

Thompson-Ft. Pierre stage line. In 1955 the Reclamation service plans a huge Reservoir north of Blunt on its Headwaters.

Hughes County, 12 miles east of Pierre on Highway 34 (2006)