In February 1871, President Grant approved an 82,000 acre parcel of land measuring nine miles by fifteen miles as the Fort Sisseton Military Reservation. The land was set aside for use by the military for training exercises and hay ground for livestock. As settlements encroached on the military reservation, government engineers surveyed the area. First lieutenant Faber led an eight-man crew using two four-mule wagon teams to mark the boundary on the military reservation. Because the military reservation and the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation intersected, five iron markers were used to make the military reservation boundary. They then placed wooden posts every mile along the boundary. The original iron markers have been located and two have been brought back to Fort Sisseton.