Sorry for the short notice, but the annual Gary Cattle Drive is Saturday (Oct. 31). Cowboys think the cows and calves will be coming through town about mid-morning.

The drive is an annual event. For many years, a Minnesota ranching family has summered their stock in South Dakota and brought them through the Main Street of Gary on the way home for the winter. It became somewhat controversial in the 1990s but some regulations were put in place regarding cleanup (use your imagination) and the drives were legalized and continued.

How the townspeople built a mini-celebration around it. There'll be a soup lunch and crafts sale downtown after the cows depart for Minnesota. Everybody's welcome.

Note: Gary is east of Brookings and Watertown on the Minnesota border.

By John Andrews

Some of us are in the Halloween spirit at South Dakota Magazine. Our costumes may or may not be scary, depending on how you look at it, but they are festive. Last night a few staffers toured several haunted places in Yankton. Everyone reported to work today, so we know no one was snatched by a ghoul, but we can't say that will be the case tomorrow night when townspeople across South Dakota prepare to scare the living daylights out of their neighbors. Here are a few suggestions if you are still planning your South Dakota Halloween. Keep in mind that some of these events are not recommended for kids.

• Deadweird. There's a city-wide costume contest at the Lucky Nugget with over $5,000 in cash and prizes, haunted house and parade of costumes in Deadwood, one of South Dakota's most historic towns.


• Haunting of the Museum. The historic 1881 Courthouse Museum in Custer becomes a three-story haunted house. There will be games and treats for kids.


• Centerville's Haunted House. They know how to scare people in Centerville. Townspeople turn the old funeral home into a haunted house. Children are encouraged to attend early because it gets scarier as the night progresses.


• Ride the Fright Train "from Hill City to Oblivion." The popular 1880 Train gets spooky with wine potions and scary entertainment.


• Fort Fear. This might be West River's best haunted house. It's south of Rapid City near Reptile Gardens. Definitely not for the feint of heart.

There are plenty more frightful attractions, so check your local calendar and don't be afraid to be afraid.

By John Andrews


Our current issue includes a feature about the endangered species of South Dakota. Our state has 11 federally threatened or endangered plants and animals, and we nearly had 12, but the feds decided earlier this month that the American dipper isn't quite in the "needs federal protection" range just yet. The state Game, Fish and Parks department considers the bird threatened, but a recent effort by conservation groups to include it on the federal endangered species list failed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the Black Hills population was not distinct.We know that American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) have lived in the Black Hills since at least 1874 when George Bird Grinnell, a paleontologist on Custer's Expedition, documented them. The small, gray birds are found across the western United States, Canada and Mexico and are North America's only aquatic songbird. Relying on streams for survival, a small population lives along the waterways of the Black Hills, especially Spearfish Creek, which boasts the area's highest concentration. Their trademark is diving deep beneath rushing water and plucking tiny insects and larva from the riverbed to eat. They have been known to dive into water as deep as 20 feet and walk around the river bottom scrounging for food.

If you'd like to learn more about American dippers, read this excellent article by Doug Backlund of the state GF&P.

Mitchell businessman Jeff Logan is hoping to restore a historic downtown building in the Corn Palace City, according to a story by Seth Tupper in the Mitchell Daily Republic. As part of a grant application to seek funds to help with the renovation of 110 E. 2nd Street, Logan notes that famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright once drove through Mitchell and paused to admire the building.

Wright spent some time in South Dakota in the 1930s, and some of his stops have been well documented. He was recruited to rebuild the lodge at Sylvan Lake but some personality differences kept that from happening. He also toured the Badlands and then wrote a powerful essay about architecture, art and nature:

Let sculptors come to the Bad Lands. Let painters come. But first of all the true architect should come. He who could interpret this vast gift of nature in terms of human habitation so that Americans on their own continent might glimpse a new and higher civilization certainly, and touch it and feel as they have lived in it and deserved to call it their own. Yes, I say the aspects of the Dakota Bad Lands have more spiritual quality to impart to the mind of America than anything else in it made by man's God.

There was a man with opinions.

By John Andrews

I'm in the middle of a week-long reconnection to my South Dakota State University roots. I was in Brookings Saturday night to see SDSU win the Dakota Marker for the third consecutive year by topping rival North Dakota State 28-13. And I'll be back next weekend for the Hobo Day parade and matchup against Northern Iowa.

I was reminded that our mascot, the fierce Jackrabbit, is in the middle of a contest too. He's competing against 11 other university mascots in the 2009 Capital One Mascot Challenge.

Each week Jack Rabbit squares off against a different mascot. The one receiving the most votes each week wins. Since voting began Aug. 31, Jack has a 4-3 record, one win behind the creepy red thing from Western Kentucky but in sixth position overall based on total votes, so a hearty South Dakota get-out-the-vote effort is in order. You can vote here once every day. After 11 weeks the top eight mascots advance to the playoffs.

Should Jack Rabbit win, he'll join an elite group of past winners that includes CY from Iowa State University, Zippy from the University of Akron, Nebraska's Herbie Husker and two-time champ Monte the Grizzly from Montana.

Also, in the "unrelated but still interesting" category, check out this article written by Chuck Cecil. It's about a 1943 SDSU graduate who completely restored the venerable 1912 Bummobile.

The New York Times has an excellent article on an episode from the Dirty Thirties when the Roosevelt administration was accused of hyping the drought in the Dakotas by the use of certain photos — the most famous being a bleached cow skull lying on a sun-baked prairie.

We Have a Winner!

South Dakota's parks have more than the usual swing sets, merry-go-rounds and picnic tables. We've seen petrified wood, antique farm equipment and lots of other unusual stuff.

But as far as we know, there's only one town in South Dakota with a scale set in concrete in the town park. I don't know why it's there. Maybe someone will tell us.

Guess the town with the scale in the park and you're the winner of our book, "South Dakota Photographed," or a one-year subscription to the magazine. Take your pick.

Click on the picture for a closer view. Anyone's eligible. No rules.

Monday morning hint: A famous actor has the same name as this town.

By John Andrews

It takes a lot of patience to spend four years working on a project, but staff at Crazy Horse Memorial Museum are glad John Grey did. His handcrafted, incredibly detailed canoe is one of the museum's newest additions.

The Georgia canoeist crafted the vessel from cedar, deer skin, rabbit and beaver fur. He says it contains influences of both the Cree (its long body design) and Chippewa (the wave breaker and partially covered back) Indians. And it is seaworthy. Grey navigated portions of the Missouri, Muskegon (Michigan) and Chattahoochee (Georgia) rivers with it.

It was a labor-intensive project, Grey writes. "At one point I wondered if I would ever finish it. It took 7 red cedar trees about 17 feet long. I cut them in strips on a table saw. Then I bent the ones set aside for the ribs with a turkey fryer and a long aluminum tube with towels on top so steam did not escape. Once the ribs were soaked and steaming I bent them to shape by hand and tied them off in a bow-looking curve. After they dried they were drilled and wood pegged into place. Half the time the red cedar strips would snap while they were being bent because of knots in the wood. The smell that came off the cedar was incredible. It was like intense perfume that permeated the air so thick that your eyes watered."

When it was finished last June, Grey secured it to the top of his tiny Saturn using an old bed frame as a rack and made the 1,600-mile cross-country trek himself. It resides on the main floor of the museum.