The Verendrye Lead Plate: France Claims the Plains
Near Pierre, South Dakota
On a bluff above the Missouri River overlooking Fort Pierre, two French-Canadian brothers made one of the most enduring marks on the northern Great Plains. On March thirtieth, seventeen forty-three, Francois and Louis-Joseph Verendrye buried a small lead plate in the earth, inscribed to claim the region for France under the reign of King Louis the Fifteenth. They were among the first Europeans to explore this stretch of the continent.
For one hundred seventy years, the plate lay hidden underground, until February sixteenth, nineteen thirteen, when a group of local teenagers digging on that same hill pulled it out of the ground. They nearly sold it to a print shop for scrap lead before a sharp-eyed observer alerted the state historian, who recognized its significance. The plate now rests at the Cultural Heritage Center across the river in Pierre, while a monument on the bluff marks the spot where it was buried.
The site is a National Historic Landmark, one of the few sites tied to the first European exploration of the upper Missouri, though some historians question exactly where the plate was originally buried.
