BISMARCK, N.D. — The winners of the annual North Dakota State-South Dakota State rivalry football game get an unusual honor: hoisting a 78-pound trophy for all to see. The Dakota Marker is a rock — and it is heavier than it looks.

“When you get a chance to run over and grab it, you better be ready,” former North Dakota State player Landon Lechler recalled.

The trophy is a small-scale replica of the hundreds of large, pink, quartzite markers survey crews planted in the early 1890s to delineate North Dakota from South Dakota, one every half-mile for 360 miles. The two states were established in 1889 from the Dakota Territory.

“The boundary between North and South Dakota was the only one in the nation that had these monuments every one-half mile on the entire border,” said Gordon Iseminger

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