Old Vermillion

Early settlers in Vermillion built their homes and businesses below the bluff beside the Missouri River, leaving the town vulnerable to flooding. In the winter of 1880, an early freeze was followed by an early thaw that rapidly melted ice on the Missouri, forming ice gorges that collapsed in late March and sent ice and water across the plain and through Vermillion’s streets. An early April blizzard and rising water made rescue work more difficult. The flood destroyed 132 buildings and carried many of them downriver, leaving Vermillion almost completely washed away by the Missouri and the Vermillion River, which swelled to unusual size. Before the flood, the Missouri flowed along the Vermillion bluffs, but during the flood it cut through a neck of land from Nebraska, removed a long bend, and eventually settled into a new course three miles south of town near the Nebraska bluffs, while the Vermillion River flowed down the old channel.

Vermillion, South Dakota · United States