Pierre is best known for the geese that hang around Capitol Lake, but on Monday the riverfront was thick with sea gulls, especially around LaFramboise Island. Yesterday we mentioned Farm Island. LaFramboise is also a great place to enjoy nature .... and it is just a short walk from downtown Pierre. No community in South Dakota has done a better job of capitalizing on its riverfront. Pierre has a marina right in the city. It has a beautiful park along the Missouri. The American Legion has a restaurant and club with a river view. Boating and fishing docks are available. And LaFramboise Island is the kind of treasure that big river cities like St. Louis wish they could develop. Don't go to Pierre without enjoying its river and islands.

Longtime South Dakota lobbyist and Stockgrowers Association chief Jack McCullough spoke on Custer's journey through Harding County at the West River History Conference, which I attended last weekend in Rapid City. Harding County is a lovely paradise -- part forest, part badlands and the rest prairie. All westerners love its beautiful panoramas. So Jack researched Custer's journals to see if he felt the same way. Apparently not. It seems he came through on a hot afternoon, just after the Indians had burned the prairie grass to black tinders so Custer's horses and mules wouldn't have any fuel.

Also at the conference, historian/journalist Dale Lewis told me how to find the spot were Sitting Bull was killed -- something I've been meaning to do. I'd heard it was marked with a copper plate sometime after his death at the hands of Indian policemen on Dec. 15, 1890. Dale got the directions from Will Robinson, the great state historian of yesteryear. Robinson said to go to McLaughlin and go south on the road until you see an old Indian walking. Ask the Indian and he'll tell you. If the Indian isn't walking along the road then you aren't going to find it.

I've been to Pierre many times, but never walked the trails of Farm Island until yesterday when I had a few hours to kill while waiting for a Taste of South Dakota event at the Pierre Street Emporium. I figured if I walked a mile or two I could do a lot more tasting.

So I drove out to Farm Island, just east of town along Hwy 34. In the 1930s, CCC workers carved the trails, built a few stone structures and an earthen bridge to connect the heavily forested island to the Missouri shore. Half the trail skirts the river. You can walk any distance of course .... a half mile to three miles or more. The island is rich with wildlife and you may see carp jumping in the river. Huge cottonwood trees and skinny cedars fight each other for sunlight. It is solitude at its best in South Dakota.

We've seen some little towns that really threw some big centennial blasts, but I don't know if South Dakota is ready for Wasta's hundredth birthday party. They plan to make a year out of it, literally. The "Live Little Town on the Cheyenne" (as they once called themselves) intends to hold at least one big event every month!

Wasta, a town of about 400, is just west of Wall in the big, beautiful Cheyenne River valley. We'll keep you posted on the developments.

We also learned today that Mount Vernon is readying for its 125th birthday party. They are humbly planning a weekend event with an all-school reunion.

I got a science lesson this morning while attending a breakfast convo here in Yankton with Gov. Mike Rounds, who wanted to explain the state's efforts to land the National Science Foundation's DUSEL (Deep Underground Science Experiment Lab). One thing I learned is that you won't need rulers or weights and measures or probably even glass test tubes in this lab. They will be using nanotechnology, measuring particles that can be 1/10,000ths of an inch. These particles are shooting through space and time, flying through matter. If we study them, we may learn about the stars, ourselves, and who knows what. Here's a link to a good story that explains the science. Of course, the lab would go in the underground mine where Homestake once dug for gold, beneath the little city called Lead. The governor needs the legislature's authority to spend about $19 million to build and open a lab at the 4,800 foot level to show scientists and the NSF that we have the public support and desire to host a lab at 8,500 feet.

I'm all for the lab. As the governor said, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the next best time is today. We are sorely lacking in science and high tech jobs in South Dakota. Here's our chance to catch up.

But I won't be working there. I went down deep into the old gold mine. I didn't mind the blackness, which I assume they'll fix anyway. And the dampness wasn't that bad. But my head wasn't built for that air pressure. I had an instant and terrific headache when we were a mile down under. I would have preferred to have swords stuck from ear to ear than spend more time a mile down there. I wonder if they'll test applicants to see if they can stand to work that deep .... or if you get used to it?

First Dakota National Bank in Yankton recently included a South Dakota Magazine in a care package to soldiers of the 147th serving in Iraq. This week they received a very appreciative letter, with only one complaint: "The Iraqi soldiers we work with stole the South Dakota Magazine you sent with the last batch of reading material ....."

This is a good time to remind our web readers that we are always happy to send free copies of the magazine to soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and other places. Just send us their APO address. Email it to me at bernie@iw.net. If you are sending a care package you may pick up copies at our Yankton office or email us your address and we'll get them to you.

We'll even send magazines to Iraqi soldiers if they'd just ask. We're happy to be able to spread some of South Dakota's peace and beauty around the globe to those troubled places.

A few weeks ago at breakfast in Yankton, I met a fine young couple who are native South Dakotans, Brent and Tiffany Bradley. They are currently in Japan, where Brent is stationed at the Misawa Air Force Base. They said they enjoy keeping in touch with South Dakota through South Dakota Magazine. They recently sent us this photo (above) of the Bradley family, including Tyler and Grace, while camping (and reading our favorite publication) at Lake Tazawa in Japan. Below is a picture of women working in a rice paddy. It will remind older South Dakotans of how hard some of us used to work in the hay fields and bean fields of South Dakota. The Japanese women are hanging the rice to dry.

Although not a South Dakota photo, we feel ok posting this because it was taken by our state's best aerial photographer, Dave Tunge of Yankton. And, we'll admit the fall foliage on the north shore of Lake Superior is spectacular. Dave took this shot while out flying with his daughter on Oct. 1.