I'm packed and leaving for the South Dakota State Historical Society's annual conference in Pierre. I'm going to take the laptop computer and if the Ramkota's wireless system allows it I'll post some updates from there. But if there's the slightest hitch (do I have to plug something in?) then you'll have to wait breathlessly until Monday for my report. This year's conference focuses on the Great Depression and the New Deal and how they continue to impact South Dakota life today, 70 years later.

Garrison Keillor, the humorist from Minnesota, will broadcast his Prairie Home Companion show live from USD in Vermillion on Saturday, April 29. If you want tickets, call 800-333-0789. Garrison has become more political and controversial in recent months. And some people I meet think his rural observations ring just a little tinny since he really doesn't live that life anymore for the most part. But I bet he draws a big and happy crowd. I think I'll go.

Word on the street is that he'll be doing a fundraiser for Rep. Stephanie Herseth while in Vermillion.

We live in such an interesting state. Today's Wessington Springs True Dakotan has a picture of a Mexican family loading four quarter horses on the Dean ranch. Harold Dean and his brother Roscoe (a beloved physician in the community) started raising registered horses more than 50 years ago on their place along Crow Lake Road west of 'Springs. The Orozcos, the buyers, couldn't speak English. They have a ranch south of El Paso. The Deans don't speak Spanish. But they agreed on what makes a good horse and everybody looks happy in the picture. The Orozcos paid in $100 bills.

I wish they'd have stopped by Yankton. I have an extra horse that wouldn't cost very many of those bills.

Kevin Woster's column in today's RC Journal is about Frank Farrar, South Dakota's 77-year-old Iron Man. Frank is well-known to many South Dakotans because he was governor (1968-70), unseated by an upstart Richard Kneip.

Farrar didn't retreat from life after his defeat. He has remained an active resident of his little town of Britton –– but he has traveled the state, active in banking and the law.

Kevin's report on the old Iron Man is quite inspirational.

Every Tuesday afternoon at 3:15 CST we visit with Grant Peterson (above) of KJJQ Radio (910 AM) on South Dakota issues. Today, Grant was wondering where you can go in South Dakota to hear a good echo. There must be a few canyons in the state where your voice really gets a good bounce. Anybody know of any?

I suspect there are lots of good echo spots in our cities but most of us don't want to howl in town, so the lonely canyons and creek bottoms are often considered to be the best.

Also, do we have any places with Echo as a place name? None are listed in the 1940s South Dakota Geographic Names book, the bible of places names.

Most rural counties in the West are losing population (see previous post), but not on the Indian reservations of South Dakota. Why are young people staying (or coming home) to the reservations. My theory is that the Indian youth feel a sense of place. They have a rich history that they are proud of. Many truly love their connections to the past – and they feel that gives them a future. They feel connected to that place’s past and future.

So their young people find it to be a place of value even though it is hard to find good work and there are few movie theaters or good restaurants – no book stories, no Starbucks, no clothing stores. Not even a Wal-mart.

Still the young people stay. Or they go and see the world and then they come home.

The Lakota civilization’s rich heritage is passed along by stories, many of them oral stories that have never been written on paper. The Lakotas are storytellers. Some of the very best. They proudly tell stories of their people.

Compare that to our white immigrant culture that dominates most rural counties in the West. How many stories do you know from your grandparents and great-grandparents? Too many of them seemed to want to forget both their triumphs and hardships. They were not storytellers. That part of our culture needs to develop; we can take a cue from our Indian friends.

The March 27 Newsweek has a Periscope item on p. 15 called "Saying Goodbye to the 'Burbs. It suggests pepole are not only fleeing the cities but also the suburbs. Coastal areas are the big winners.

Interestingly, most of the Missouri River valley from North Dakota on through South Dakota and Nebraska and on into St. Louis is doing better than the rest of the Midwest in retaining or gaining population.

South Dakota, by the map, is doing much better than North Dakota, the plains of Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas. Of course, we benefit from the Black Hills, metro Sioux Falls and the Missouri River valley.

But South Dakota also gets a dark green (population spike) in most of our reservation counties. Although Yankton County gained just 66 people since the year 2000 (if you believe the estimates?), Todd County gained 832. Shannon gained a whopping 1,200 and Dewey gained about 200. Here are South Dakota counties' numbers. I have a theory on why our reservation counties are gaining population despite the poverty and other problems that exist there. I'll write about it tomorrow.

I'm on my way to join the South Dakota Council of English Teachers for their annual convo at Cedar Shores, across the river from Chamberlain. It was probably an English teacher that accounted for the start of South Dakota Magazine so I was happy to accept today's invitation.

When I was about 17, a red-haired teacher we called Miss Vivian decided to have a poetry contest. She said she'd print the winning poem on a postcard and sell it to raise money for something good. I don't remember what. So we all wrote a poem and she chose mine. I remember thinking, "That was a lot easier than putting up hay."

Well, I've never gotten another poem published. Not even in South Dakota Magazine. But a little encouragement at just the right time makes a lot of difference. So I'll be thinking of Miss Vivian tonight. She was a crazy woman but that didn't keep her from being a good teacher.