Fort Meade (South Dakota)

Fort Meade, originally known as Camp Sturgis and later Camp Ruhlen, is a former United States Army post located just east of Sturgis, South Dakota, United States. The fort was active from 1878 to 1944; the cantonment is currently home to a Veterans Health Administration hospital and South Dakota Army National Guard training facilities. Much of the former reservation is now managed by the Bureau of Land Management as the Fort Meade Recreation Area. It is also home of Fort Meade National Cemetery. Fort Meade was established in 1878 to protect illegal white settlements on the Great Sioux Reservation in the northern Black Hills, especially the nearby gold mining area around Deadwood. Several stage and freighting routes passed through Fort Meade en route to Deadwood.

For most of the past 130 years, there has been some military presence at Fort Meade, near Sturgis, South Dakota. Many cavalry and infantry units were stationed here, including the 7th U.S. Cavalry after the Battle of the Little Bighorn; the Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th U.S. Infantry; the 4th U.S. Cavalry, which saw the transition from horses to mechanization; and the 88th Glider Infantry Regiment during World War II.

Fort Meade was designated a National Historic District on May 22, 1973, the first location in Meade County, South Dakota, to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, it functions as a public museum.