“Pierre Was A Cowtown-Reading Brands”

Yes sir, Mister, Pierre was a cowtown. Why they built the sidewalks two feet off the ground to keep the cows from spattering ‘em up. The stockyards ran longside the river for half a mile and three ferries were busy night and day in the shippin’ season fetching cows over from the holding grounds, where cattle from as far away as Montana were funneled into the railhead at Pierre.

Yes sir, Pierre had 14 saloons in which cowpokes could wet a whistle and it was cows that kept Pierre awake with their endless bawlin’ enroute east. Why one year more cows clumb aboard the cares here than ever happened elsewhere anywhere. Yep sonny, put it down, Pierre was a cowtown. West river ranchers wintered here and the brand books of 1901 and prior listed 75 brand owners with over 200 brands. A few of them were:

(brand marking symbols on sign)

Hughes County, located on Pierre Street in front of Bankwest (2006)