Quoting an article in the Watertown Public Opinion by Bob Mooney written for Saturday, Sept. 18th, 1982.
"Fifty years ago today, the ship's bell from the USS South Dakota was dedicated in its newly created berth at Memorial Park on the northwest side of Lake Kampeska.
The Bell that serves as a lasting reminder of a once proud fighting ship never belonged to the battleship that prowled the Pacific Ocean during WWII, immortalizing itself in naval history as the legendary Battleship X.
The bell at Memorial Park belonged to a ship whose memory has been overshadowed by its younger counterpart. By the time the 1st USS South Dakota was disposed of by the US Navy in 1930, it had long been renamed the "Huron".
It' original name was taken away in 1920,so that it could be given to another battleship that was to be launched in the future. The second ship to bear the name "South Dakota" never sailed. Following WWI, the Washington Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armaments restricted the number and types of naval ships countries could have and the second South Dakota, already 38.5% complete was scraped.
The 3rd ship called the South Dakota was launched on June 7th, 1941, and became a legend for its exploits in WWII
THE FIRST USS SOUTH DAKOTA; was an armored cruiser whose history dates back the first months of the 20th century. On June 7th, 1900, Congress gave permission for the ship to be constructed. it was built at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco and carried a pricetag of $3.75 million.
On July 21, 1904, the 502-foot-long ship which displaced 13,680 tons, was launched. It had a cruising speed of 22.24 knots and its wartime armament included four eight-inch guns, four six-inch guns, a dozen three-inch guns, and a pair of 18-inch torpedo tubes.
It wasn't until Jan. 21st 1908, that the South Dakota was placed in commission and following a shakedown cruise, she was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The South Dakota's early years were spent cruising off the Mexican and South American coasts. In 1911 she became part of the Pacific Torpedo Fleet and a year latter sailed to the Philippines and China. Following her return in 1913 the South Dakota resumed patrolling the coast of Mexico.
In 1916, as WWI raged in Europe, the South Dakota entered the navy yard at Puget Sound Wash. for repairs. When the ship returned to duty in the spring of 1917, it was quickly ordered to the east coast of South America. From there it was re assigned to escort mercantile convoys across the North Atlantic.
The South Dakota made two trips across the Atlantic during the war and on two occasions fired its weapons at suspicious objects in the water. Although no official determination was ever made as to what the objects were, it was believed they might have been German U-boats on the prowl.
After the war, the South Dakota made two more trips across the Atlantic serving as a troop transport for returning American doughboys and, in those trips brought back 3,463 American soldiers from France.
The last of the South Dakota's glory days started in July 1919, when she was designated as the flag ship for the Asiatic Fleet. She served in this capacity until taken out of service.
On March 3, 1929, after carrying the name "USS Huron" for nine years, the ship arrived at Bremerton Wash., and was taken out of commission. The next year, the ship was sold and eventually dismantled. Before the ship was taken from service, however, it's bell was removed. Members of Codington County American Legion Post #17 began work to have the bell shipped to Watertown where it could be displayed at the newly created Memorial Park.
The setting was an appropriate one, because South Dakota's American Legion played a key role in convincing the State Legislature to provide legislation allowing county commissioners to levy taxes to help build memorials to those who served in WWI. The first board in the state to take advantage of that legislation was the Codington County Board of Commissioners, which used the money from the levy to establish Memorial Park."
Sometime after the writing of this article, the land at Memorial Park which was owned by the American Legion was donated to the county. At that time the bell from the Flagship USS South Dakota was moved to the north lawn at the Codington County courthouse where it still resides to this day and serves as a reminder of the ship that first carried the name South Dakota around the globe.
