South Dakota Bureau of Land Management

Fort Meade Recreation Area

10/2/2019 Heading back to Fort Meade, we circled around on wet dirt roads (making a real mess of our car) to hit the first of some sites in the Fort Meade RA, a BLM unit. The 6,700 acres of forest and grasslands is managed to protect, preserve, and enhance its cultural, historic, recreational, and wildlife values. This stop was a very whelming little reservoir - we had a bit over-researched this RA. We continued to the fort area proper to view some of the original buildings of the fort established in 1878 to protect the new settlements in the northern Black Hills. This is also the site where the Star-Spangled Banner first became the official music for the military retreat ceremony, long before it became the National Anthem. We next stopped at some informative signage, and again at a trailhead with info on the Centennial Trail, established for the SD state centennial with one end on Bear Butte. Heading back towards Rapid City on the Fort Meade Back Country Byway (more dirt) we stopped at the original Fort Meade National Cemetery, then completed the Byway at a nice BLM sign.

The sign for ...

... the Fort Meade Reservoir

Original Fort building

Star-Spangled Banner info

RA Info ...

... and Byway sign

Info on the Centennial Trail

The National Cemetery

Panoramic view ...

... and one stone

Nice sign as we exited