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September/October 2023
Hiking Palmer Gulch in the Black Hills is an autumn tradition for Stephanie Palmer of Pierre. Photo by Chad Coppess
Beautiful Delusions of Autumn: Three pretty, quiet drives.
Guardians of the Stratobowl: Caring for a historic meadow.
Remaining Ranchland: Wildlife will ...
Travel Like It’s 1938
... photographers and journalists.
Part of the project involved a “See America First” program. Writers in each state were gathered to create a comprehensive travel guide. M. Lisle Reese, a young Pierre journalist, was offered $2,300 a year — a fine salary in a time when the average American earned $1,750 — to lead the South Dakota effort.
Reese’s first job was to recruit writers. ...
A 66-County Tree
... thoughts turned to Christmas at the Capitol. My wife Marietta and I rarely missed the annual festival in which dozens of colorful and brightly illuminated Christmas trees fill the halls of the Capitol in Pierre. I thought, “I wish I could decorate one of those trees.”
My boredom collided with inspiration. What if I made a collection of wooden Christmas ornaments, crafted out of wood gathered from ...
The Modern Storyteller
... traditional style he had learned there in favor of a more abstract method. His new paintings, marked by bright colors and pristine lines, helped push the boundaries of Native American art.
Howe taught at Pierre High School until 1957, when he was named artist in residence and professor of art at the University of South Dakota. He remained there until his retirement in 1980. In the early 1960s, he launched a ...
The Cowboy’s Artist
... laboring on a 3/4 life size sculpture of Spearfish native and four-time PRCA world saddle bronc riding champion Clint Johnson. When it was unveiled in August of 2019 at the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Center in Fort Pierre, it became the third and final piece added to the center’s sculpture garden, which is a tribute to South Dakota’s amazing history of exceptional saddle bronc riders.
Chytka has been on a ...
For the Birds
... different birds. My grandmother in particular was a bit of a birder, and that was passed along to all of her kids. I think those of us who grew up on the farm took it for granted. Our cousins who came from Pierre and Northfield, Minnesota, maybe didn’t take it for granted quite so much.”
The Sand Lake area that Lars and Oline Herseth knew changed dramatically thanks to their son Ralph, who was born ...
Goodnight, Mrs. Pierre
... couldn’t have said who she was — she never gave her name over the air but once, from the time she started broadcasting in 1922 until the time she sold the station in 1962. They called her Mrs. Pierre.
Her name was Ida McNeil. She was a widow by then, broadcasting from a studio in her house in Pierre, just the way her husband, Dana, had taught her when they were puzzling out this new gadget, radio, ...
Serenity in the Pocket
February 14, 2022
... generations.
The Pocket is tucked to the west of the Missouri River's Big Bend. Illustration by Mike Reagan.
Most people drive by The Pocket without knowing it exists. Traveling east from Pierre along Highway 34, it is the expanse of land south of the road where the Missouri River disappears, only to re-emerge at Fort Thompson or De Grey. There is one main road, 316th Avenue, which horseshoes ...
The Ironman Governor
... Savings Bank is across the street at the end of the block.
The Farrar family, which included (from left) Sally, Jeanne, Pat, Anne, Frank, Robert and Mary, moved into the governor's mansion in Pierre in early 1969.
Many South Dakotans are descended from homesteaders who emigrated from Europe in the 19th century, but Farrar can trace his maternal ancestry to George Soule, who crossed the Atlantic ...
From Coach to Congress
... William Williamson when Abdnor was a child, and M.Q. Sharpe — governor when Abdnor was a young man. The Lyman County courthouse sat on a hill on the south side of town, and the state capitol at Pierre was only an hour’s drive to the northwest.
Abdnor believed small communities had value, but he knew the economics of rural America were challenging, so he supported the Kennebec grain elevator ...
Jazz on the Prairie
... road or your office mate. Most local jazz musicians have other jobs.
Take, for example, Eric Knutson. He flies a fighter jet for the Air National Guard and plays trumpet. Jim Szana, jazz pianist, is a Pierre dentist. Cade Calder managed a Best Buy store, and Scott Olson is a farmer near Yankton; both play the trumpet. Speirs is executive director of Arts South Dakota. For these musicians and others, jazz ...
Clams of Buffalo Gap
June 16, 2021
... scattering them hither and yon to confound the trackers on his tail. You be the judge.
Marine fossils can be found in certain geological formations throughout the Western Interior Seaway region, including the Pierre Shale, which is notoriously fossiliferous. Ancient sea monsters like plesiosaurs, prehistoric sharks and big fish like Ichthyodectes have been plucked from its obsidian mounds. There are also beautiful ...
Baseball at Four Corners
Story by John Andrews
Photography by Matt Gade
The Four Corners baseball field sits at the junction of three highways about 40 miles west of Pierre.
To say baseball is the only game in town at Four Corners would be misleading, mostly because there is no town. Four Corners is simply the junction of highways 14, 34 and 63 about 40 miles ...
High Plains Heaven
April 15, 2021
The springtime dance of prairie chickens and grouse — blended with the sights and sounds of the Fort Pierre National Grasslands — is a feast for the senses.
Chasing Cats
... heavier — using crawfish and chub minnows for bait. “He cast from the bank into a spot that he was pretty familiar with,” says Marc Rasmussen, a senior vice president at BankWest in Pierre and Groves’ great-grandson. “He knew there had been some fish out there, but he wasn’t having a very good day. He sat there for a long time and only picked up one carp. He kept having ...
Peninsula Paradise
March 3, 2021
... final descent there were swan-feather fields of foxtail and other hairy grasses.
Then it was there — the pool that softens the point of the V. Jade swells surround, here and there sheered down to Pierre shale, cobalt above and below. Gulls perched on a narrow sand bar. I lingered a bit and began the way back, up the spine of the main stalk where you can see every caterpillary appendage burrow into the ...
Wise and Wonderful
February 10, 2021
... This large white owl lives and breeds in the arctic tundra, but every few years large numbers of them descend southward in what is called an irruption. I first saw a snowy in 2011 near Okobojo, north of Pierre. In 2018, northwest Sioux Falls had three snowy owls that hung around for at least two weeks. One crisp Saturday, I watched nearly all morning as a snowy sat preening, stretching and snoozing atop a light ...
Our Favorite Eats
December 21, 2020
... one is plenty, especially if you just finished the buffalo burger.
HOT ROAST BEEF at any of South Dakota’s livestock auction barns, because you dare not serve average beef to ranchers. Fort Pierre, Burke and Sisseton are a few favorites.
STRAWBERRY PIE, the standard at Al’s Oasis in Oacoma for decades, is still available in season but Chef Donnie Dominiack ...
We Winter With Eagles
December 15, 2020
... the river. Apparently, one of the local eagles tackled a fish bigger than he could carry and dropped it on the sidewalk.
The noble birds are adapting to living near humans. Particularly in Yankton and Pierre, they roost in cottonwoods or other large trees in parks along the river, watching parka-clad pedestrians on the paths below. Still, it’s best to keep your distance. They may be napping or fishing, ...
The Count Goes On
December 11, 2020
... laura_hubers@fws.gov
Dec. 16: Madison. Email Jeffrey Palmer at jeff.palmer@dsu.edu
Dec. 19: Aberdeen. Contact Gary Olson at olsonfam@nvc.net
Dec. 19: Sturgis. Contact Victor Fondy at rotciv31@gmail.com
Dec. 19: Pierre and Fort Pierre. Email Ruben Mares at ruben.mares@usda.gov
Dec. 19: Brookings. Contact Margy Pearson at margypearson1@gmail.com
Dec. 19: Sioux Falls. Contact Chris Anderson at canderson1@sio.midco.net
Dec. ...
