# Yankton South Dakota

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 27, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658 "2015-09-27T00:42:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nightfall1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@Nightfall1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightfall1)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/1 "2015-09-27T00:42:35Z")

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My wife and I were on vacation a couple of weeks ago and we stopped in Yankton South Dakota for a couple hours to stretch our legs. We’re from Rockford Illinois. We walked across the bridge between Yankton and Neb. We saw dozens of padlocks attached to the bridge. My wife said it might be a tradition for high school graduates to put a lock on the bridge. Would she be correct?

I sent this to the city of Yankton, to their library, to one of their radio stations and received no reply so I’m asking the teeming millions here. Does anyone know the reasons for the padlocks?  
Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/2 "2015-09-27T00:56:20Z")

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[Love locks?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_lock)

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/3 "2015-09-27T01:01:04Z")

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“Lord, we’d have bully times in Yankton” - unsuccessful suitor pleading case with Carol Kennicott (who eventually settled in Gopher Prairie, Minn., in the novel _Main Street_ - a place in which there were no bully times).

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**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/4 "2015-09-27T01:01:47Z")

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As **kunilou** says, they are “Love Locks”:  
[Love Locks Appearing In Yankton](http://www.yankton.net/community/article_1f509494-03f6-11e4-a5f1-001a4bcf887a.html)

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**Author:** ![Nightfall1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@Nightfall1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightfall1)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/5 "2015-09-27T01:25:34Z")

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Thanks everyone, very cool tradition. 🙂

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**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankton-south-dakota/732658/6 "2015-09-27T08:56:29Z")

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Not everywhere would agree:

> [@](#):
>
> Paris city officials have started to remove padlocks symbolically fastened to one of the French capital’s main bridges by loved-up couples.
> 
> Tying a “love lock” on to the Pont des Arts before throwing the key into the River Seine beneath has become a tourist tradition in recent years.
> 
> But part of the bridge’s railings collapsed under the weight last year.
> 
> Close to one million locks - weighing 45 tonnes - are due to be cut off over the next few days.
> 
> [Paris 'love locks' removed from bridges - BBC News](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32960470)