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City Of Mobridge

114 1st Avenue East
605-845-3521

About Us:

Long before the white man came, the site of mobridge was inhabited by mound dwellers, after which came the woodland indians, followed by the mandan and arikaras. These indians were farming people who lived in permanent villages made up of earth covered lodges. The arikara or rees were specially partial to the bend in the river around mobridge. Smithsonian and other archeological crews have named over 30 major village sites within a 10 mile radius of the city.

There are many smaller sites that have never been named. the sioux came here later from the east, roaming from place to place and living almost entirely on wild game. Their homes were tipis made of buffalo skins, easily moved. In the late 1800's white settlers began to move onto the land that is presently mobridge. building the mo. Bridge mobridge stands on land that was once owned by general s. E. Olson. A thought came to him when he was goose hunting here in 1885 that here was the place the milwaukee railroad would cross the missouri river because of the geographic location. He remarked to his friends that this would be a grand crossing for the milwaukee.

The phrase "grand crossing" stuck and a corporation was formed named grand crossing and improvement company. Grand crossing boulevard is the imposing name of the portion of highway 12 that is within the mobridge city limits. a railroad town was formed a telegrapher's dots and dashes gave mobridge its name when the town was formed as railroad crews were building the railroad bridge across the missouri river. He ended his telegraph transmissions with m. O. Bridge. The milwaukee railroad reached mobridge on september 9, 1906, and the first lot sale occurred on october 3, 1906. a.h. Brown a. H. Brown, mobridge's first tycoon, contributed materially to make mobridge a convention center and market place.

Substantial monuments to brown are to be found in town -among them the a. H. Brown library, the mascot theatre, the mobridge wholesale building, the brown palace apartments and several other brick structures on main street. There is a monument to a. H. Brown in the greenwood cemetery -a bronze figure of the man and his labrador retriever which stands near the brown mausoleum.