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Pierre
Capital of South Dakota, on the Missouri River
Pierre is the second-smallest state capital in the country, set on the east bank of the Missouri River almost exactly at the geographic center of South Dakota. That central position on the great river was the whole reason it won the capital, chosen at statehood in 1889 over rivals to the east — a midpoint reachable from both the settled east and the ranch country west of the river.
The Missouri here divides the state physically and culturally: the rolling farmland of "East River" from the drier ranch and reservation land of "West River." Pierre sits right at that seam, a small government town on the open plains, with the Oahe Dam's great reservoir stretching upstream just to the north.