Medicine Creek flows just north of here through the center of Lyman County and empties into the Missouri River 27 miles to the northeast. In this part of central South Dakota, place-names reflect early state history: Medicine Creek took its name from a butte in eastern Lyman County reputed to be the site of Indian ceremonials. County and community names also reflect territorial politics and plains expeditions. Lyman County was named for Major W.F. Lyman, a member of the 1872 Territorial Legislature that created the county, although he never lived in the area. Hughes County, across the Missouri to the north, was named for another territorial legislator. Mellette County, to the southwest, honored the last territorial and first South Dakota governor. Stanley and Sully Counties, both north of here, were named for army generals of the pioneers era, while Jones County to the west was named by settlers after their home county in Iowa. Railroads also shaped local names: the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul followed a westward route across South Dakota that generally paralleled the route later taken by Interstate 90, and many towns that sprang up along it received railroad names. Vibian, three miles west, was named for the wife of a Milwaukee railroad representative, and Draper, 17 miles west, is one of the few towns in America named for a railroad conductor. To the northwest, an approximate 20-by-20 mile area of the Fort Pierre National Grassland preserves the side-open look of the original Dakota prairie. Thirty-five miles north, Fort Pierre and Pierre recall the fur traders who preceded settlement along the Missouri, taking their names from Pierre Chouteau, Jr., an agent of the American Fur Company in the 1930s. Fort Pierre on the west bank of the Missouri has been continuously occupied since 1817, first as a fort or fur post and later as a shipping center and cattle town. Pierre, the state capital, was founded on the east bank of the Missouri in 1880 when Chicago and Northwestern Railroad tracks reached the river.