Today's New York Times has an excellent article on how states have become addicted to gambling revenues. Nevada relies on gambling for 42% of its state budget; South Dakota at 13% is a distant second. The article quotes State Senator Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls. He was the governor's chief of staff when video lottery monies were directed to a property tax program in the 1990s. Now, as a legislator, Knudson has offered legislation to do away with video lottery.

S.D. State University in Brookings honored the Nachtigals of South Dakota as its Family of the Year.

We know lots of Nachtigals, and in our book they deserve the honors. They're all nice people who love South Dakota and most have stayed right here.

Emil Nachtigal went to SDSU in 1915. All six of his kids and about 14 of his grandchildren have graduated now. They're teachers, businessmen, veterinarians ... and then there's Ralph, the renegade journalist in Platte.

After graduating from SDSU Ralph landed a dream job on the sports staff of the big Argus Leader in Sioux Falls. But soon after he started the paper's corporate fathers instituted a new dress policy that required a jacket and tie. Ralph said he just didn't want to wear a tie. They said he had too. He said he wouldn't. So he left.
He went home to Platte, where the local editor said he could do a little writing to help out. Within a week or two, the editor sold the paper to Ralph. He must have thought he looked ok without a tie.

The Argus Leader editor called about a month later and basically admitted they couldn't find anybody good who would wear a tie, so they would amend the dress policy. Ralph said not to bother.

He ran the Platte Enterprise for many years, and it became one of South Dakota's great weeklies. His "Bottom of the Barrel" column, which he still writes though he sold the paper to an employee, is a huge hit throughout the region.

Congrats to Ralph and all the Nachtigals.

I was working on a barbed wire fence in the hills last weekend. Whenever the sun came out from behind the clouds, meadowlarks appeared. Intrigued by their singing and dancing, I researched them a little today. Did you know the 'larks antics in spring are mostly to attract mates? The male approaches with his beak in the air, showing off his fine yellow breast. He flicks his wings and leaps up and down. Yes, that would get any lady's attention. It makes more sense than the expensive cars ($100 and up) and striped bell bottoms we used for the same purposes in the 1970s.

I also found a web site where you can hear a meadowlark's song.

Yankton's landmark will one day be closed to cars.


Our magazine office is just four blocks from one of America's most interesting and historic rural bridges, the double-deck Meridian Bridge. It was built by private funds in the 1920s. Tolls were collected until the debt was paid in 1953.

Northbound cars cross the Missouri River into South Dakota on the top deck; southbound cars enter Nebraska on the bottom. A heavy cottonwood grove prospers on the wild south side. Yankton's old business district welcomes you on the north.

However, the bridge is old and too narrow for today's trucks so city and state leaders have talked the U.S. Congress out of $22 million for a replacement bridge to be build a few blocks to the east.

We're hopeful that the old bridge will be retained as a walking path between the two states .... possibly as part of a long trail that could start around Ponca State Park in Nebraska, wind along the last wild stretch of the Missouri, and end somewhere west of Yankton along Lewis & Clark Lake.

The new bridge will probably be up by 2008 so if you're driving our way, be sure to drive across the old Meridian Bridge. It's quite an experience, and one that will be lost to motorists within a few years.

Luke Warm Water makes us laugh ... and think.



The Native American community can boast of many outstanding visual artists, but fewer who've made a name with the written word. That's unfortunate because we have much to learn from the Indian culture.

Now there's a rising star in the poetry community, an Oglala Lakota by the name of Luke Warm Water. He is popular in regional poetry slams, especially because he doesn't take himself too seriously, he works in a lot of humor, and while you're laughing you realize you just got sold a message. One of his two books is titled "John Wayne Shot Me."

Luke is on the liberal side of life, but he has fans of all stripes. We were told of him by one of the crustiest old conservative ranchers ever to live in West River.

At one reading, Luke gave a grim description of the reservation casino, of Indian dealers dressed like turn-of-the-century Indian School students, of the "chorus/of slot machines/The cacophony of whistles and bells." He concluded:
The ghost of Captain Fetterman
now seems to be boasting
'Give me 80 slot machines
and I could ride through
the Sioux Nation victorious.'

He'll be at Prince & Pauper in Rapid City (902 Mt. Rushmore Road) from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 16.

'Napoleon Dynamite' producer is Sean Covel of Edgemont



Some young people say if you want to know what teens are thinking and feeling today, see the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," which is gaining a cult-like fan base.

The star is a geeky, morose, anti-social, smart, sullen kid from a small town in the West. He's not that likeable (as many teenagers can sometimes not be) but they say the movie is funny and enlightening in a weird way.

If you see bits of smalltown South Dakota in the movie, it's because the producer, Sean Covel, grew up in Edgemont. He graduated from high school there in 1994 and went on to success in Hollywood. He lives in Encino, Calif.

Covel came back to Hot Springs for a showing of the film last fall. "My ego enjoyed the ride!" he said about his homecoming. There's a chance he may attend the South Dakota Book Festival this coming September in Deadwood. If he does, there'll be a showing of the film and a discussion.

Cassie Wessels met her dad for the first time when he flew home with the 740th transportation unit on August 1, 2004, into Milbank. Cassie is two years old and her dad Jeff left for Iraq when she was just a baby. Although Cassie was shy at first, she gave him a hug by the end of the day. Jeff and his wife Stacey live in Brookings with their two daughters Amanda and Cassie. Photo submitted by Lynn Mebius.

We asked Randy Parry of Howard and here's what he told us.



"The variety and number of emails and phone calls we have received from across the country took us somewhat by surprise ... but not really," said Parry of the WSJ article. "While we were anticipating that there would be people interested in what we’re doing in Miner County, hearing from the corners of the country in support of our work is really gratifying. Calls came in from former residents, businesses, possible investors, and other newspapers and reporters. Overwhelmingly the calls have been very positive. We’ve received words of support for the importance of the work here, including comments that if people don’t do this work for rural places they will simply cease to exist. Rural places will return to the frontier and with them will evaporate a quality of life we’ve come to cherish. This affirms our idea that rural places need to be maintained and nurtured in new and innovative ways.

"It’s not easy work but it needs to be done. It’s not about downsizing the dreams; it's really more about having a dream for the future and a vision of what that future might be. Communities have to be very intentional about bringing together the people of like minds and hearts to implement the strategies to achieve the vision," Parry said.

"The WSJ article should encourage and motivate the people of Miner County. Without them the work of revitalization cannot be accomplished. Our residents hold the pioneering mentality of hard work, of working together and of being willing to work to keep Miner County the kind of place young people choose to return to raise a family, start a business, or build a home. It’s not easy but it is important and that’s invigorating."

Click here to link to the Miner County web site.