1869. Faulk succeeded by John A. Burbank. "Wild and woolly period." Great factional Moody-Brookings fight begins.
1872. First railroad in South Dakota; Dakota Southern built from Sioux City to Yankton.
1873. Northwestern railway built to Lake Kampeska.
- Gen. Edwin S. McCook, secretary of Dakota Territory, shot and killed by Peter P. Wintermute, result of factional political fight.
1874. Burbank succeeded by John L. Pennington.
- Gold discovered in Black Hills.
- Second invasion of grasshoppers.
1875. Black Hills treaty commission fails. Rush of miners to Custer.
1876. Gold discovered in Deadwood Gulch. Stampede from Custer. Miners establish law and order.
- Great Sioux war. Battles of Rosebud and Little Big Horn. Custer's army destroyed.
- Black Hills relinquished by Indians. All agency Sioux dismounted and disarmed.
1877. Great Dakota boom begins.
1878. William A. Howard succeeds Pennington.
1879. Great boom waxes strong. Railroad building begins.
1880. Northwestern railway builds to Pierre; the Milwaukee reaches Chamberlain.
- Great October blizzard.
- Governor Howard dies and is succeeded by Nehemiah G. Ordway.
1881. Awful floods on Big Sioux and Missouri.
- Spotted Tail, noted Brule Sioux, killed by jealous warrior.
- Yankton College established by Dr. Joseph Ward.
1882. Capital removed from Yankton to Bismarck.
- State University established.
1883. Division and admission movement earnestly prosecuted to save school lands. First Sioux Falls constitutional convention.
- Presbyterian University opened at Pierre. Removed to Huron as Huron College, 1899.
- Sioux Falls College founded.
- Agricultural College founded at Brookings.
- Madison Normal School founded.
