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Article: South Dakota
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SOUTH DAKOTA
SOUTH DAKOTA
entered the union during 2 November 1889 as the fortieth state, and ranks sixteenth in size among the fifty states. Approximately 77,047 square
miles of land form a rectangle that tilts from northwest to southeast and contains elevations above sea level between 1,100 feet in the southeast corner and 7,242 in the Black Hills at Harney Peak, the highest elevation in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. A varied terrain contains the geographical center of North America
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located near the middle of the state, close to Pierre
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and the only true continental divide. From the northeast corner, water flows through the Red River to Hudson's Bay, ...