Could the Black Hills have become a separate state? One hundred and seven years ago the mineral rich Black Hills were proposed as a separate territory in a bill that reached the U.S. Senate. Unhappy miners began the movement for eventual statehood for the Black Hills in the gold rush days of 1876. Because the capital of Dakota Territory was located at Yankton, and that remote river city proved unsympathetic to the concerns of the Hills.
The Black Hills gained some concessions from the "Yankton Ring" by threatening to form a district territory of El Dorado. The separatists later named the proposed territory Lincoln, and sent a delegate to Washington, D.C. to push their cause. Several members of Congress were interested, but a bill to create the new realm eventually failed.
When a question of admitting Dakota Territory into the Union came to surface in 1886-89 there was again support for a separate state for the Black Hills, There was also a movement to admit the entire territory as on sprawling state. These concepts for dividing up the territory yielded to the idea of sister states called North Dakota and South Dakota. Yet it's interesting to reflect on how close we came to living in a state called Lincoln.
10/01/03