9 Aug, Wednesday
Drive from Council Bluffs, IA, to Yankton, SD
For most of the three-hour trip, we continued up I-29 until we crossed the border into South Dakota, and then we headed to a Corps of Engineers campground called Nebraska Tailwaters, located just south of Yankton.
Nebraska Tailwaters
After checking in with a local camp host, we filled the camper with fresh water at the dump station and set up camp. This campground was located on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River just downstream from the Gavins Point Dam and Lewis & Clark Lake. This segment of the river, between Gavins Point Dam four miles west of Yankton, and Ponca State Park in Nebraska, has been designated by the U.S. National Park Service as the Missouri National Recreational River because it is on one of the last free-flowing, natural stretches of the Missouri River. All the campsites are riverfront, and the golden, chalkstone-lined Missouri River Valley surrounds the campground. It was a beautiful campsite which was made even better by the few campers that were there.
Meridian Bridge
After we set up, we crossed back over the Missouri River into South Dakota and the city of Yankton. Because we could not find any nearby breweries or interesting restaurants, we had dinner at a Culver’s restaurant, where we could enjoy some custard for dessert.
On the way back to the camper, we stopped at Yankton’s Riverside Park and walked to the middle of the lower span of the historic double-decker Meridian Bridge. It is notable as the first permanent river crossing in the Yankton vicinity and as one of the final links in the Meridian Highway, an early north-south route from Winnipeg, Canada, to Mexico City, Mexico. The bridge was constructed in 1924 by a private group of investors. It was originally built as a toll bridge to carry vehicle traffic on the upper deck and rail traffic on the lower level. It also had a vertical lift structure for Missouri River boat traffic. The bridge was sold to the City of Yankton in 1946, and since the tracks on the lower level were never used, it was converted in 1953 to allow the bridge to carry one-way traffic on each level. In 1984, the lift span was deactivated, and the mechanism for lifting the 220′ span was removed. After the nearby Discovery Bridge was opened in 2008, it was converted into a pedestrian bridge, which opened in 2011.
We enjoyed the view of the river and all the fancy locks left by others. We decided to bring our bicycles the next day so we could drive over the bridge’s full upper and lower span.
When we returned to the camper, we enjoyed watching the wildlife and fish jumping in the Missouri River during the sunset.
10 Aug, Thursday
Meridian Bridge
We put our bicycles into the truck the following day and headed back to the Meridian Bridge. We enjoyed riding over the upper and lower spans and then along the Riverfront Park. It was not a large park, but we enjoyed the several sculptures and statues. Several interpretive signs highlighted the city’s heritage as a political and transportation hub. A replica of the first Dakota Territorial Capitol to celebrate its history as the territorial capital of the Dakota Territory from its formation in 1861 until the legislature decided to move the capital to Bismarck in 1883. Unfortunately, it was locked up, and we could not go inside.
Mead Cultural Education Center
After, we drove up to the Mead Cultural Education Center. We had to drive through the Federal Prison Camp to get to the museum because of all the road construction in the area. The museum was housed in a building constructed in 1909 by Dr. Leonard C. Mead to serve as part of the women’s ward for the Dakota Hospital for the Insane. It continued to be used as a mental health hospital until the 1980s. Today, it houses the Dakota Territorial Museum, which the Yankton County Historical Society keeps. The Mead Building has been slowly restored over the years and features pillars and a grand staircase, although we saw that it still needed much work on the outside balcony.
We enjoyed walking through the various displays on two floors that mainly consisted of informational boards. First, we saw a display on the Native Americans, which strangely did not have much about the local Yankton Sioux but instead talked about trade throughout all the tribes in the Americas. There were also displays on the Lewis and Clark Expedition that stopped in the area, the hospital’s history, women in history, and some highlights of local history. It did not have the usual county museum collections. Outside, they had some old buildings that had been moved to the grounds, but we just looked at them from the balcony.
Depart for Fort Thompson, SD
We returned to the camper and ate lunch when we left the museum. We finished packing the camper and headed toward Fort Thompson, SD, around 1 pm.