BROOKINGS – More than 700 roadside historical markers dot the state, and each one has its own story to tell anybody who takes the time to pull aside for a few minutes. In those few minutes, sometimes the story the sign has to tell can really make a connection, as did one near Egan for a couple new to the Brookings area.
When Jim and Mary Jarussi moved to Brookings from the Twin Cities in August 2017, they worked to become more familiar with their new surroundings through one of their favorite pastimes: driving along backroads. During an October outing last year, they spotted a historical marker at the intersection of County Highway 34 and 474th Avenue between Interstate 29 and Egan, and they pulled over to read it.
The problem was that it was difficult to read, as a lot of the paint had been worn off through the years. Worse yet, the sign seemed to be on its last legs, only being supported by two bolts instead of its original 12. It was in rough shape.
The marker was put up to preserve the memory of a now long-gone cottonwood tree known as the Lone Tree. According to the marker itself, the cottonwood tree had been planted in the hole left behind by a survey stake put in September 1869 of the corner of the quarter section that would be homesteaded by George Cameron in 1880. His wife, Julia, planted the seedling in 1881, “little thinking that the tiny seedling would grow into a stately tree which would be a beacon signal in a blizzard to save the life of a teacher, Emma Clancy, and her 12 students,” as the marker tells it.
A road was added at some point, and in the 1940s, a gas station and bus depot were added.
The tree would continue to grow, but it was the paving of the road that did the tree in. In a September 2016 piece to the Argus Leader about the Lone Tree, Alice Chamley wrote, “Controversy arose when a paved highway came under the shelter of the tree’s broad branches. Concrete from the highway caused a drought for the roots, causing the tree to die.”
She added that the tree was cut down in 1960 and cuts from the trunk were placed in the South Dakota State Historical Society Museum in Pierre and the Moody County Museum in Flandreau.
For Jim, it was the part about the school teacher that connected with him. He grew up in Fishtail, Montana, and had several aunts who had taught in little one-room schools in the area.
“It was a very small town, … and those teachers were rugged individuals. If you read the story about this woman, I can just see her keeping these kids together,” Jim said.
He went above and beyond what was required of him at this point, not putting the worn-out old sign behind him to continue to degrade. Rather, he started to try to get the thing fixed up again, good as new.
His first step in getting the sign repaired was to try to figure out who was responsible for it. He spoke with the state historical society and with the South Dakota Department of Transportation in the process, as the two groups work together in the joint program that oversees these markers.
“They were helpful, but long story short, one thing about these historical signs is that local people typically put them up,” he said, and as far as he could tell, all those people responsible for the Lone Tree marker were long gone.
They had tried their best to find someone for about six weeks, going to the Moody County Museum in Flandreau and to the courthouse to try to find out who it belonged to.
As Mary explained, “We tried to track it down to just make sure we weren’t stepping on any toes or doing something we shouldn’t be doing.”
When they tried to take it down in November 2017, it put up a fight. The remaining two bolts keeping it fastened to its stand held much better than they anticipated, and the Moody County Highway Department lent a hand with a cutting torch.
At first, Jim wanted to handle as much of the repairs himself as he could, but he soon realized that the task called for more experience than what he had.
He first brought in Midwest Media in Sioux Falls to have it media blasted in order to remove corrosion, paint and other debris, getting it back down to the bare metal.
The next step was welding work on the aluminum sign.
“There were a lot of hairline cracks in it around the collar and the base of the marker. You got to have a lot of skill to fix those,” Jim said.
So, he took it to Bill Knutson at Monteith Welding in Brookings.
Then it was on to the guys at Mr. V’s to apply a commercial grade base paint to the sign.
The last part of the process was getting the lettering and the emblem painted, and Jim had Larry Bunderson of Sioux Falls take this on.
“I wanted something that would last another 50 years, and all these people are really skilled and did a great job,” Jim said.
With help from the Moody County Highway Department, the refurbished historical marker was put back in its place a couple weeks ago.
In the meantime, some motorists did notice that the sign was missing. One person even sent an email asking about the missing sign and there apparently was some talk on Facebook about it, too.
“So, people do know the sign is out there and are interested in it,” Mary said.
It was an expensive undertaking, certainly since both are retired, but they don’t regret taking on the project.
“It’s a piece of art, I think,” Jim said.
The pair hope that now that their work on the historical marker is complete that others are inspired to do the same “because there are others that are in bad shape,” as Mary noted.
Regardless of whether people decide to adopt a historical marker, they recommend paying greater attention to these roadside storytellers; you just might find one that really speaks to you, too.
