South Dakota's western heritage appears here in forms drawn from Lakota and pioneer traditions. Eight pillars merge in the framework of a tipi, the Plains Indian home, with one-by-one and one-half foot concrete lodgepoles rising fifty-six feet and weighing six-and-one-half tons each, executed in an architectural manner reflecting the spartan lifestyle of the nomadic Lakota (Sioux) Nation. Beneath each tipi, several concrete isosceles triangles, a basic design of the Lakota Nation, are set in a pattern to form a thunderbird, another traditional Indian symbol. The building is fashioned after the sod houses and dugouts that dotted the South Dakota prairie during pioneer days. Four miles north, Salem reflects the railroad's role in opening Dakota Territory to settlement. Named after the Massachusetts community, Salem was platted in 1880 and for the next two years was the most important railroad point between Sioux Falls and Mitchell. The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway reached Salem in the fall and winter of 1880-81, but the blizzard of 1881 prevented the line's immediate use. During the summer of 1883, the Dakota Central division of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway was completed through the town. In 1882 Salem, then called Melas, became the third county seat for McCook County in four years, a status it has retained. Although the railroads no longer have the influence they once did, communities such as Salem show how railroads often led, rather than followed, settlement.