“Center of South Dakota”

Approximate Center of North America

Area was surveyed in 1880 and in 1889 when South Dakota became state, center was located just east of highway and to the north and a cottonwood tree planted. This was an historic factor in location of capital, in the elections of 1889, 1890, and 1904. The tree died in early 1920s, was replaced, but it also died. Doane Robinson and Charles L. Hyde, to commemorate, built, with consent of Highway Commission, a 30 foot shaft in road junction 1¼ miles North. Proven a traffic hazard, Commission tore it down and re-erected a new shaft here. The National Geographic Society by finding balancing point of a cut-out of North America located in near Rugby, N.D., on 100th Meridian, taking no account of Hudson’s Bay, Gulfs of Mexico, California or continental shelf. The point where there is equal square mileage in each direction is exact center. There would be about two million square miles in each area. That point is neither at Rugby nor near Pierre. Until some divine authority determines a better method, we will continue to call this the approximate center, but will quarrel with no other approximation.”

Hughes County, marker down as of 2011