McKinley: First President to Visit South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
A historical marker recounts the day in October 1899 that President William McKinley arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, got off a train, and welcomed local soldiers who'd just returned home from America's undeclared war in the Philippines. It was the first time that a sitting President had ever visited South Dakota. Teddy Roosevelt had been in South Dakota years earlier, but he wasn't President yet -- and wouldn't be until McKinley was assassinated two years after his brief-but-historic South Dakota visit.