The Chief Standing Bear Memorial Bridge is a bridge across the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

at the

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

–

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

border. Located near

Niobrara, Nebraska Niobrara (; Omaha: ''Ní Ubthátha'' ''Tʰáⁿwaⁿgthaⁿ'' , meaning "water spread-out village")Dorsey, James Owen (1890)''The Cegiha Language: Contributions to North American Ethnology'' 4. Washington: US Department of the Interior: Governme ...

, not far downstream from the confluence of the

Niobrara River The Niobrara River (; , , literally "water spread-out horizontal-the" or "The Wide-Spreading Water") is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. Many early settlers, such as Mari Sandoz, referred to the rive ...

with the Missouri, it joins Nebraska Highway 14 to

South Dakota Highway 37 South Dakota Highway 37 (SD 37) is a state route that runs across eastern South Dakota. It begins at the Nebraska border northeast of Niobrara, Nebraska, as a continuation of Nebraska Highway 14. It runs to the North Dakota border north of H ...

. The bridge is named for

Standing Bear Standing Bear (–1908) (Omaha-Ponca language, Ponca official orthography: Maⁿchú-Naⁿzhíⁿ/Macunajin;U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885 Ponca Indians of Dakota other spellings: Ma-chú-nu-zhe, Ma-chú-na-zhe or Mantcunanjin pronounced ) was ...

, a

Ponca The Ponca people are a nation primarily located in the Great Plains of North America that share a common Ponca culture, history, and language, identified with two Indigenous nations: the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma or the Ponca Tribe of ...

chief born and buried nearby, who was the plaintiff in ''Standing Bear v. Crook'', a landmark 1879

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

case that established the legal rights of Native Americans to move about freely.

History

Before the bridge was constructed, Highway 14 ended at the Missouri. Travellers who needed to cross the river had to detour downstream to the Meridian Bridge at

Yankton, South Dakota Yankton is a city in and the county seat of Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. It became a city in 1889. The population was 15,411 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in South Dakota, 7th most po ...

, or upstream to

Fort Randall Dam Fort Randall Dam is a earthen dam which spans the Missouri River and impounds Lake Francis Case, the 11th-largest reservoir in the U.S. The dam joins Gregory and Charles Mix counties, South Dakota, a distance of 880 river miles (1,416 km) ...

near

Pickstown, South Dakota Pickstown is a town in southern Charles Mix County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 230 at the 2020 census. It was named after U.S. Army General Lewis A. Pick, former director of the Missouri River Office of the United States ...

. A seasonal ferry, closed in the winter, crossed the river at Niobrara for some time; but it ceased operation in 1984. Local residents had sought a bridge since the 1920s. Construction of a toll bridge began in 1931; but it was ended by the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. In 1939, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

vetoed a bill passed by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

that would have allowed construction to proceed; in 1940, he signed a revised bill to permit construction, but the shortage of materials caused by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

thwarted it. A third effort was stymied by the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

; a fourth attempt failed in the early 1980s. With the support of U.S. Representative Doug Bereuter of Nebraska, funds continued to be appropriated intermittently for the bridge. In 1995, the U.S. Congress passed a transportation appropriations bill that gave Nebraska and South Dakota enough money to complete the bridge. The project was attacked by television journalist

Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of Today (American TV program), ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anch ...

, in a series titled "The Fleecing of America", as an unnecessary expenditure of federal money. However, funding survived and construction proceeded. Of the bridge's $17 million cost, about $14 million came from the federal government; the remaining $3 million was supplied by the two states. The groundbreaking ceremony for the bridge was held on April 20, 1996; dedication ceremonies were held on August 29, 1998. During the

2011 Missouri River floods The 2011 flooding event on the Missouri River in the United States was triggered by record snowfall in Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming along with near-record spring rainfall in central and eastern Montana. All six major dams along the ...

the bridge became a dead end on the Nebraska side when that approach was flooded. Many Nebraska residents who worked at the

Mike Durfee State Prison The Mike Durfee State Prison is a South Dakota state prison for men on the campus of what was University of South Dakota at Springfield, United States. History It is named for Mike Durfee who was a standout athlete and teacher at the school. ...

on the South Dakota side took to using makeshift motor boats, kayaks, chest waders and a homemade “swamp bikes” to commute between the bridge and their cars out of the flood area—a process which took 30 minutes or more.

Tourism

The bridge is a part of the Missouri River Trail, within the

Missouri National Recreational River The Missouri National Recreational River is a National Recreational River located on the border between Nebraska and South Dakota. The designation was first applied in 1978 to a 59-mile section of the Missouri River between Gavins Point Dam and ...

along with the

Vermillion–Newcastle Bridge The Vermillion, South Dakota, Vermillion–Newcastle, Nebraska, Newcastle Bridge is a Nebraska and South Dakota Border crossing of the Missouri River. It joins Nebraska Highway 15 to South Dakota Highway 19. The Dedication Ceremony was held ...

south of

Vermillion, South Dakota Vermillion (; "The Place Where Vermilion is Obtained") is a city and the county seat of Clay County. It is in the southeastern corner of South Dakota, United States, and is the state's 12th-most populous city. According to the 2020 census, the ...

, and the Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton. The "Bridging the Shores" celebration of the bridge is held annually in Niobrara.

External links

Chief Standing Bear - U.S. National Park Service

References

Williams, Grant.
"Quest for Bridge Spans 70 Years."''Chicago Tribune''.
1998-10-01. Retrieved 2011-03-09.

Village of Niobrara, Nebraska website.
Retrieved 2011-03-09. "N14 over Missouri River".Uglybridges.com.
Retrieved 2011-03-09. {{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Chief Standing Bear Memorial Bridge , bridge signs = {{jct, state=NE, NE, 14/{{jct, state=SD, SD, 37 , upstream =

, upstream signs = U.S. 18 / U.S. 281 , downstream = Gavins Point Dam , downstream signs = Crest Road Road bridges in Nebraska Bridges completed in 1998 Buildings and structures in Knox County, Nebraska Road bridges in South Dakota Steel bridges in the United States Girder bridges in the United States

History

Tourism

See also

External links

References