"The East and West Are One": the Missouri River Bridge at Mobridge

Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. "The East and West Are One": The Missouri River Bridge at Mobridge Greg M. Wysk Tlie opening of the highway bridge over tlie Missouri River at Mobridge in 1924 was a significant event in South Dakota histo- 17. Fi)r the first time, travelers had access to a toll-free, permanent vehicle bridge that made it possible to cross the wide, unpredictable river easily and quickly, without having to rely on the railroad, pontoon bridges, or ferries. The community boost- erism and political ariTi-t^visting that government and civic lead- ers had used to ensiire that the first Missouri River bridge in South Dakota would be located at Mobridge helped to spark lively debate around the state. In fact, the promotion, planning, and construction of the Mobridge stmcture and four others under the state's bridge program marked one of the few times in South Dakota histoiy that a dispute erupted between northern and southern counties, ratlier tlian along the traditional east- and west-river division. Despite this fact, the completion of the first Missouri River bridge within South Dakota was a unifying moment in the state s history. People and industries benefited as tourism expanded and agricultural markets opened up, con- tributing to a general .sense that South Dakota was one state, no longer divided by tlie "Big Muddy." The first means of crossing the Missouri River in north-central South Dakota were pontoon bridges and ferries at Evarts and LeBeau, located southeast of the future site of Mobridge. These towns, established on the east side of the river in the late Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 24 South Dakota History! Vol 29. no. 1 1890s as railroad terminals, were for a short time two of the world's leading cattle shipping terminals. By 1909, however, both had lost their business to the new town of Mobridge, established in 1906 when the Chicago, Milwaukee. St. Paul ik Pacific Ritihoad Ibund a better foundation there for a railroad bridge.' Completion of the railroad bridge was a vital link between eastern and western South Dakota, but there still was no ea.sy way foi- wagons and the growing nLimber of automobiles to cross the river. A ferry operated between 1907 and 1922. but 'i/'lhc railroad bridge n! .Mul-ml^c. iih;!-./! ¡.-.L-, du-,i.inuaikfroin the ferry, a seasonal and sometimes hazardous way of crossing the Missouri River. it became hazardous in the spring when water was high. In win- ter, it was possible to drive across the frozen river, but changing temperatures and currents could weaken the ice, making the endeavor ^ 1. Ray H. .Mattison, "Report on Historical A.sp(;cts of the Oahe Reservoir Area, Missouri Rivt-r, SdLiih and North Dakota." South Dakota Historical Collections 27 (1954): 74-75. 79-82. Evarts and LeBeaii dfdined rapidly; when they lost all rait service in 1924, both quickly became ghost towns. 2. Julius Skauji. ed.. .Mohridgi-: Its First 50 )'fars (Mobridgt-, S.Dak.: City of Mobridge, 1956), pp. 109-10. Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. spring 1999 Missouri River Bridge 25 Even though such problems helped to convince area resi- dents that a bridge was necessary, issues of location and financ- ing needed to be resolved. In the early 1900s, Joseph W. Parnv ley came to the forefront of the cause, actively promoting road and bridge building in the area. As a farmer who had settled near Roscoe in Edmunds County in the 1880s, Parmley realized the difficulties he and other rural people faced in getting to town to do business. State surveys had laid out roads along section lines, but these byways remained largely undeveloped. As in many other rural areas around the country, most road improvements were carried out by private citizens who worked off their taxes by doing road work—an inefficient way to build a transportation system. In many cases, farmers simply ignored their responsibility to maintain the roads adjacent to their land. During this time as well, the Populist movement was sweeping rural America, and one of its goals was the termination of railroad monopolies and their control of shipping prices. As a result, farmers began to realize that development of an efficient road system was a viable alternative to the railroads.^ By 1907, Parmley, a Republican who represented Edmunds County in the South Dakota Legislature, proposed a bill enabling counties to begin substantial road projects by aaually collecting taxes and contracting the work. The idea nearly got him laughed out of Pierre, but he persisted. Governor Robert H. Vessey recognized Parmley's efforts in 1910, appointing him as South Dakota's representative to several National Good Roads Congresses held throughout the country."* A local problem that particularly upset Parmley was the poor road between Ipswich, the Edmunds county seat to which he had relocated to run a newspaper, and Aberdeen, an important trade center for northern South Dakota. Parmley promoted a joint venture between the two towns to grade and gravel the road. When this project proved successful, he promoted simi- 3. J. H. McKeever, "How Good Roads Came to Soutli Dakota," Belter Roads (Oct. 1969): 19; James J. Flink, The Car Culture (Cambridge. Mass.: MIT Press. 1975), pp. 8-9. 4. McKeever, "How Good Roads Came to South Dakota," p. 19; Ipswich Tribune. 19 Dec. 1940. Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 26 South Dakota History Vol. 29, no. 1 A p,ood roads adcocate and booster of the Yellowsltme Trail. Joseph W. Punnlcy promoted bridging ¡he Missouri Rtivr at Mohridgf a.s early as J914. lar efforts between other towns. "Good Roads" committees were organized in Aberdeen, Mobridge, and Lemmon. By 1912, Parmley had also spread the gospel of good roads into the neighboring states of North Dakota and Montana, and on 9 Octol:)er representatives of various communities met in Lemmon to propose an ambitious project—an improved road from Min- neapolis to Yellowstone Park. Parmley served as first president of the resulting "Twin City—Aberdeen—Yellowstone Park Trail Association," and through his efforts the Yellowstone Trail became an important link in a national road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound. The Yellowstone Trail association promoted the road heartily and by 1923 operated thirteen travel bureaus between Walla Walla, Washington, and Cleveland, Ohio, providing more than two hundred fifty thousand summer Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. spring 1999 Missouri Rwer Bridge 27 tourists with free maps and information about garages, lodging, and restaurants,^ One major problem still existed, however. The Missouri River remained unbridged. As early as 1914, Parmley arranged a visit to Mobridge by representatives of cities along the route to "investigate the river with the object of l)ridging the stream."*' Traffic at Mobridge increased steadily from seven hundred cars crossing the river via ferry in the year 1913 to the same num- ber crossing during a single fifteen-day period in August 1922. In October, a new thirteen-hundred-foot pontoon bridge opened, but the fact that it was supported by fifty-two boats meant that it 5. Charlotte Petersen, ed.. IpsuHch 1883-1983 Opswich, S.Dak.; Ipswich Conimercial ClLib, 1983), pp. 59-60: O. T. Peterson, ed.. Fhsl Year Rixik of the Twin Cities-Aherdeen-Vel- lowstatie Park Trail, ¡he Gretil Highway oj Ihe Nurlhuvsl IHettinger. N.Dak.: Twin Cities- Aberdeen-Yell ow.stone Park Trail A,s,stxriütion, 19M1, pp. ft-7. 6. Peterson, First Year Book, p. 8. ill 1922. a iicir diiv helped !<• cKrciiinifdaic ¡he niiiiilM'r ¡he Missfiiii k'iier til .Mnhridfie. Copyright © 1999 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 28 South Dakota History Vol. 29, no. 1 had to be removed before the river froze.^ Clearly, a permanent bridge was needed soon. Meanwhile, a proposed state-owned dam and hydroelectric project had gotten Parmley involved in promoting the Mo- bridge area for another project related to its strategic location on the Missouri River. In 1920, two years after South Dakota voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing the state to produce public power from Missouri River water, two promi- nent Mobridge businessmen íiegan pushing their vicinity as the prime location for a dam and generating plant." Dominick C. DeVany, editor of the Mohridge Weekly Tribune, boosted the project in weekly editorials and coined the motto "Mobridge 15,000 Ipeople] in 1925," a reference to the economic activity the project would stimulate.^ Joining DeVany was Julius Skaug, a local lawyer, amateur historian, and president of the Mobridge Commercial Club. Both men were personal friends of Parmley and enlisted his aid in promoting the hydroelectric facility, which included plans for a bridge. ^'^ At the same time, proponents of another site near Wheeler, in the south-central part of the state, also began an earnest campaign for the dam. The editor of the Platte Tribune argued that the facility logically belonged in southern South Dakota because from there transmission lines could easily supply elec- tricity to the state's larger cities of Sioux Falls, Mitchell, Yank- ton, and Vermillion. Mobridge interests countered that a state engineer's study had determined their site to be better, based on construction costs and the potential markets of Aberdeen and Bismarck. DeVany, Skaug, and Parmley spent the next two years campaigning for a dam at Mobridge. Their efforts, com- bined with the state engineers arguments, eventually con- vinced the South Dakota Legislature to support the Mobridge location.

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