Palisades State Park

Palisades State Park. Palisades Townsite, also, Patten's Mill, also, The Gristmill. , Palisades State Park , Palisades State Park began with an initial gift of 20 acres from Mrs. Winona Axtell Lyon in 1947. During the next twenty years, smaller tracts were added to the park as money to purchase them became available. In 1969, 50 acres were purchased, bringing the total park area up to 110 acres., On July 1, 1972, Palisades was officially designated by the South Dakota legislature as a state park. It has the distinction of being the smallest state park in South Dakota and is dedicated to preserving the ancient and beautiful rock formations along Split Rock Creek for the enjoyment of all., Palisades Townsite , The village of Palisades once stood in the field directly across the gorge from this sign. It grew up as a result of C.W. Patten's mill, which was completed in the early 1870s., As Patten's was the first flour mill in the region, settlers from a large area hauled their grain here by ox drawn wagons to be ground. A small village called Pleasant Valley soon grew up around the mill to meet the needs of the visiting farmers., In 1882 the small village was renamed Palisades in recognition of the handsome pink cliffs bordering the young town. By 1888 the town had, along with the mill, a hotel, grocery store, livery stable, drugstore, newspaper and two other stores. Its prosperity, however, was short lived. The following year the Sioux City and Northern Railroad by-passed Palisades and junctioned a couple of miles north at the present location of Garretson. The residents quickly moved their businesses and homes to this junction, leaving only a few foundations and anchor bolts to mark the location of the old town site of Palisades., Patten's Mill , C.W. Patten, one of the first homesteaders in this area, arrived in 1865. Using lumber shipped overland from Elk Point and salvaged lumber from old Fort Dakota, he built one of the first feed and flour mills in the region just across the creek from this sign., To furnish water power for the mill, he constructed a dam across Split Rock Creek. The dam consisted of a frame constructed of heavy timbers and filled with large rocks. It was wide enough for a team and wagon to drive across., A mill race was constructed of locally quarried stone with gates that permitted water to turn the water wheel as needed. The water wheel was at the west end of the mill race and was connected by a cable belt that ran through a tunnel and up to the mill house. It was this cable, connected to the water wheel, that turned the millstone grinding wheel., High waters, ice, boulders and vegetation have over the decades erased most of the signs of the old mill dam and race. Iron stakes, however, drilled into solid rock can still be seen on both sides of the river. These stakes probably served as anchors for the mill dam. The old stone tunnel, through which the cable belt once ran connecting the water wheel to the grinding wheel, is intact and visible., The Gristmill , One of the first projects undertaken in a milling operation was the construction of the mill dam to create a head, or force, of water. A portion of this water was then channeled through a mill race and onto an overshot wheel, which was turned by the falling weight of water. By means of gears and drive shafts (or drive cables) water power was transferred from the water wheel to the millstones that performed the actual grinding.