Fort Sisseton, South Dakota: The Lady in White, the Little Boy and a Buffalo Soldier

Fort Sisseton sits on the Coteau des Prairies, the long plateau of lakes and grassland in the far northeast corner of South Dakota, about 13 miles by road from Lake City. For 25 years it was an Army post; today its officers’ quarters, barracks, guardhouse and powder magazine stand around a parade ground in one of the best-preserved frontier forts on the northern plains, run as a state park.

What makes Fort Sisseton unusual among haunted places is who tells the stories. South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks publishes the fort’s ghost stories on its own website, and park staff lead lantern tours and Haunted Fort weekends every October. We go through the real history, each of the fort’s ghosts and where the stories come from, and everything you need to plan a visit.

History of Fort Sisseton

The Army built the fort in 1864 as a frontier outpost, choosing a spot on top of the Coteau des Prairies for its natural defenses and for everything a post needed close at hand: lime and clay for making brick, water from the surrounding lakes and timber. The post was named Fort Wadsworth.

On August 29, 1876, the Army renamed it Fort Sisseton, because there was already a Fort Wadsworth in New York. The new name honored the Sisseton band of the Dakota, whose men served the post as scouts. Cavalry and infantry companies rotated through for a quarter of a century, building and rebuilding the brick and fieldstone buildings around the parade ground.

In May 1884, after Fort Hale on the Missouri was abandoned, Companies E and G of the 25th Infantry, one of the Army’s African American regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers, were sent to Fort Sisseton. They stayed until 1888, and the names of some of the men who worked on the buildings can still be read on the bricks of the guardhouse. The Army closed the fort in 1889.

Seventy years after the soldiers left, the state made the site a historical park in 1959, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 with 15 contributing buildings and 9 sites. A long restoration followed, including work in the 1990s, and today 14 original buildings stand on about 35 acres. Each June the park holds its Historical Festival, when cavalry and infantry reenactors set up a military encampment on the grounds.

The ghosts of Fort Sisseton

The Lady in White

The fort’s most famous ghost dates, by the park’s account, to the late 1870s, when the post was overrun with bed bugs. Every night a servant in a nightgown went from room to room holding a candle along the walls to burn the bugs out, a chore that park manager Ali Jo Tonsfeldt told 605 Magazine fell to the women of the camp. Visitors say she still makes her rounds.

She is seen in the upstairs window of the commander’s house, moving between the windows of the officers’ quarters and walking the boardwalk. The park says she also appears during the Historical Festival and other big events. Travel South Dakota adds that one visitor claims a physical encounter with her, and that people hear footsteps behind locked doors.

The little boy

A small boy is said to wander the parade ground, take visitors by the hand on late-night walks and look for children to play with. 605 Magazine says he has been reported since the 1920s. “He will play with children in the parade ground,” the park manager told the magazine.

The park’s own account of him comes from the 1990s restoration, when inmates from a work program helped rebuild the fort. One of them was on the payphone by the schoolhouse library, calling his wife, when he felt a boy tug at his pant leg. He refused to go back to work and, the story goes, spent three weeks in solitary confinement rather than return.

The Buffalo Soldier

During the same restoration, a guard talking on a payphone outside the guardhouse felt a tap on his shoulder, turned and found a Buffalo Soldier staring at him. The guardhouse is where the names of the 25th Infantry men who helped build the fort are carved into the bricks.

Park staff have given the ghost a name: J.C. Smith, believed to have served in Company E, whose name is among those on the guardhouse. According to 605 Magazine, Smith was later sentenced to death elsewhere, and he is said to march past the guardhouse; staff count him as the fort’s third most popular spirit. We could not find an independent record of Smith’s later life, so treat that part of the story as the park’s tradition.

The cavalryman

The rarest of the fort’s ghosts is a soldier on horseback, seen, the park manager says, fewer than ten times, and always during events and special occasions, when the grounds are full of reenactors in period uniform.

Where to look

• The commander's house: Watch the upstairs window: this is where the Lady in White is most often reported.
• The officers' quarters and boardwalk: The long stone building with its porch and dormers, where she is said to pass from window to window and walk the boards.
• The parade ground: Where the little boy is said to take visitors’ hands late in the evening.
• The guardhouse: Look for the Buffalo Soldiers’ names in the bricks, and for the soldier said to march past.
• The schoolhouse and library: Site of the payphone where the restoration worker felt the boy tug his leg.

Visiting Fort Sisseton

Fort Sisseton Historic State Park is open all year. From the third weekend of May through Labor Day the visitor center is open daily from 10 AM to 6 PM, with guided tours at 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 4:00 PM; the rest of the year it is open on weekdays from 10 AM to 4 PM, and tours can be arranged by appointment. You need a state park entrance license: $10 a day for residents and $15 for nonresidents, or an annual license.

You can stay the night in the park’s campground, with electrical sites, non-electrical sites and camping cabins; from October through April the showers and flush toilets may be closed. The Historical Festival takes place on the first full weekend in June, and the park holds Haunted Fort events and lantern tours in October, when the stories are told after dark on the grounds. Check the Game, Fish and Parks events calendar for this year’s dates. The park does not allow independent ghost hunts, so join an October event if you want to be there at night.

• Visiting State park open year round; park entrance license required
• Tours October Haunted Fort events and lantern tours
• Hours and season Visitor center daily 10 AM to 6 PM in summer; guided tours at 10:30, 1:30 and 4:00
• Tickets Daily park license $10 residents, $15 nonresidents
• Ghost hunting No public ghost hunting; join the October events instead

Tips for your visit

• Plan around the October Haunted Fort weekend or the lantern tour if you want to hear the stories on the grounds after dark.
• Book a camping cabin and walk the parade ground at dusk, when the little boy is said to appear.
• Take the 4:00 PM summer tour and ask the guide to show you the names in the guardhouse bricks.
• Bring layers: the Coteau is open, windy prairie even in summer.
• Combine the trip with Sica Hollow State Park near Sisseton, in the same corner of the state, for a second legend.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted places in South Dakota: Sica Hollow, Easton’s Castle in Aberdeen and the rest of the state
• Herrick Hotel, Gary: a haunted former school for the blind you can stay in, farther south on the Minnesota line
• Haunted hotels in South Dakota: where to stay with a ghost story
• Haunted places in South Dakota

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks: Ghosts of Fort Sisseton
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks: Fort Sisseton Historic State Park
• 605 Magazine: A night of thrills and chills, Haunted Fort Sisseton (2021)
• Travel South Dakota: Haunted outdoor places in South Dakota
• Wikipedia: Fort Sisseton Historic State Park