This old blacksmith shop stands a lot closer to an old school house and settlers log cabin that it would have done in Dakota's Territorial Days!
This shop is open during a summer festival for blacksmithing demonstrations, but when Blasters visited Yankton, the super cool Museum was unfortunately closed for the day.
From the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan: (
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"Old Blacksmith Shop, Tools Featured At Dakota Territorial Museum
By Loretta Sorensen
P&D Correspondent
Aug 16, 2008
Jeff Tobey, a University of South Dakota history and anthropology major, refurbished the blacksmith shop at Yankton’s Territorial Museum this summer. His work made it possible for the museum to reopen the historic structure. (PHOTO: Loretta Sorensen)
Charles Christian August Cook (Koch), a German immigrant who set up a blacksmith business between 1882 and 1900 on his homestead five miles north of Yankton, would probably be surprised to know that his tools and the shop he worked in are now part of Yankton’s Dakota Territorial Museum.
The building and tools inside it were donated to the museum in 1981. The shop was repaired and opened to the public for the first time in 1982. Museum intern Jeff Tobey recently took on the task of refurbishing the interior of the building after it was closed for some time."
Also from the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, m ore history of this shop: (
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"Museum Pieces: Local Blacksmith Legacy Is Forged In Memories
BY CRYSTAL NELSON
Dakota Territorial Museum
Jul 12, 2018
Forged from the fires of man. Hot metal cooled by the waters. Blacksmithing has been a craft of the ages that for a time seemed nearly extinct. Fortunately, the art of blacksmithing seems to be going through a revival as of late that is taking the talent to a whole new level
The role of a blacksmith is and always has been one of diversity. Historically, depending on where you lived the blacksmith may also serve as horse dealer and a doctor or dentist. A village or town’s survival may have relied on the skills of their blacksmith. Besides shoeing horses, fixing broken wheels and what-not, a good blacksmith also produced eating utensils and could serve as a carpenter.
The Yankton County Historical Society is fortunate to have collection pieces from three blacksmiths that called Yankton home at one time or another over the past 156 years — Charles Cook, Raymond Sparks and Ed Coulson.
Over the next several weeks, Dakota Territorial Museum volunteers will become intimate with the hand tools of these masters of steel. Trained volunteers will soon begin packing up the blacksmith shop, along with the object collections in other historic buildings at the Westside Park campus, in preparation for the next phase of the move.
In a recently discovered notebook, past museum director Joseph Vinatieri noted in March 1967 that a contribution from the family of Ed Coulson was made. Among the items listed were a hand anvil, blacksmith hot sheers, silversmith dies and hammer, and horse collars. Edward Coulson, whose grandfather was a brother and business partner to the famed Commodore Sanford B. Coulson of the Coulson Packet Line, was born May 11, 1900 in Yankton. Blacksmithing was in Edward’s blood. As far back as his great-uncle James, blacksmithing had been a family trade. Edward passed away in 1978.
The blacksmith shop we have was once operated by Charles C. Cook. He was born in Germany in 1845. At the age of 21 he immigrated to the United States and settled in Missouri, where he worked for two years as a blacksmith. He then walked (you read that right) to California and spent the next several years honing his craft and working as a journeyman blacksmith. Around 1872 he travelled home to Germany, but after 6 months, realized America was the place he wanted to be and he returned to Missouri.
By 1881, Cook and his young family moved to Yankton and they purchased 160 acres just north of town. Cook took pride in his new community. Besides working as a blacksmith, he also served on the school board of District No. 15 (the Gunderson School now also among the historic treasures at the museum) from 1885-1908. He also farmed. By the time he passed away in 1912, Cook owned 400 acres of land.
Trades like blacksmithing have been passed down over the years. As we have uncovered, a descendant of Charles Cook resides in Yankton County, and in recent years has chosen to strike the anvil as Charles once did.
In 1981, the Dakota Territorial Museum was fortunate to receive the building that Cook used for his blacksmith shop as a gift from the Cook Estate, through efforts of Cook’s grandson Clifford Cook and friend Larry Ryken.
According to records we could find, it was around the same time that the children of Raymond Sparks also donated their father’s tools.
Sparks was born in 1904, one of 12 children raised on the family farm also located north of Yankton. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Sparks did work for the Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) during the construction of Highway 50 West, worked as a farm hand, and also as a blacksmith. He was employed by Fanslow Brothers, a large blacksmith operation in Yankton.
In 1936, Sparks purchased land west of Yankton and opened his own operation — Ray’s Blacksmith Shop. Among his many jobs, he also did repair work on the Meridian Bridge. Over the next few years his business grew and by 1947, Sparks decided to return to the family homestead and purchased 80 acres — but he didn’t move his family there until 1951 when he purchased the rest of the acreage from the original farm. Besides welding, Sparks began farming and he opened a gravel pit — run by his son, Earl.
After an unfortunate accident in 1958 that almost cost him his arm, Sparks had to retire from blacksmithing. He passed away in 1975.
Years later, Sparks’ children — Melvin, Verna Hojem and Earl — donated tools including an anvil and trip hammer. The trip hammer can be easily seen in the blacksmith shop exhibit at the Dakota Territorial Museum. It was used to strike with massive force on an iron object – in other words, they lifted the “hammer” high, then slammed it into hot iron using only gravity.
It is going to be bittersweet to see these massive collections in the historic buildings packed up and brought inside for processing. Many of these items have not been out of their buildings since the early 1980s. But it is all a part of the process, isn’t it … dusting off the old, cleaning them up, and breathing new life into them so that future generations can enjoy and learn the stories of our past. And you never know, just maybe we will find a future blacksmith in those who come visit."