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Kicking Tires in Pierre
January 16, 2019
By Roger Holtzmann
Nobody thinks South Dakota is perfect, but most of us would agree it seems to get along pretty well from day to day. Which makes me wonder what our legislators do in Pierre. Each year, 105 of our best and brightest gather for the session. Most of them are conscientious sorts so they work at least 10 hours a day, if you count the after-hours schmoozing. That's 42,000 woman/man ...
Stories Beneath the Stones
... provides the stark white gravestones emblematic of national cemeteries. Photo by Ryan Clayton.
Public memorials have been constructed in many South Dakota towns, including the state capitol grounds in Pierre where life-size statues represent all branches of the military. Thousands of grateful people will visit those locations to remember fallen and surviving soldiers this Veterans Day, and many will also ...
Inspired by a Prairie Garden
September 11, 2018
... can watch below. If you live East River and would like to see Blue perform live, she is traveling this weekend to several venues with Spearfish musician Jami Lynn. Here’s the schedule:
Sept. 13: Pierre Music Store, Pierre, 4:30 p.m.
Sept. 14: Fernson on 8th, Sioux Falls, 7 p.m.
Sept. 15: AME Church, Yankton, 7 p.m.
Sept. 16: Good Roots Farm, Brookings, 6 p.m.
The Man Who Saved the Buffalo
... not have been any buffalo for Philip to save.
In a sense, I began this article years ago, when I first heard of Fred Dupree. I didn’t get far on my research until the funeral for Evie Nystrom, of Pierre, in 2003. Evie had originally come from Dupree’s country, the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. At lunch following the funeral, I was telling the folks sitting at my table how I had tried, without ...
Paddling the Cheyenne
August 8, 2018
By Michael Zimny
Floating down the Cheyenne River is like a meander through time.
Prickly pear and yucca tap the seams between multi-hued geologic age-layers, like fossil-rich black Pierre shale and the Spearfish Formation's red racetrack. Dinosaur bones and coiled ammonites sleep off their extinction in rock cocoons.
On a particular stretch, curious wild stallions may follow you ...
Summer Swirl
August 2, 2018
... state. B&G is limited to just the Sioux Falls area. Both are excellent destinations for cool, summer ice cream treats. Personally, I almost always get the sherbet of the day when visiting Zesto in Pierre and love a strawberry twist cone from B&G Milky Way.
The 25 other write-in locations shouldn’t be ignored. I am keeping them all in mind for my jaunts back and forth across the state. There ...
Major or Not?
July 10, 2018
... The folks in Hot Springs enclosed a picture postcard of Evans Plunge, and I knew for a fact that the postcard cost more than the postage stamp I sent them. But what truly amazed me was how someone in Pierre penned a little note at the bottom of a form letter, addressing me by name and wishing me the very best as I composed my theme. Incomprehensible! Someone in a government office in a state capital took ...
Naming Jett
A boy from Pierre is connected to his ancestry through a traditional Native American ceremony. Photo by Keith Hemmelman.
The Turtle on Snake Butte
May 2, 2018
The story behind this stone effigy near Pierre remains a mystery. Photo by John Mitchell.
Angels Along the River
... River Paddlers — has made a huge difference for water travelers and for South Dakotans willing to help them around a dam, or offer a place to sleep or a hot meal. Pat Wellner, a kayak racer from Pierre, thinks the uptick in paddlers doing the trip is noteworthy, but that the Facebook page, created by paddling enthusiast Norman Miller of Livingston, Mont., has made a big difference in spreading the word.
“The ...
Almost-Spring Journal
April 25, 2018
... April.
April 3
Lake Oahe’s ice near Mobridge was just coming off and many geese and other waterfowl were hanging out on or near the ice edge at sunset.
April 5
I booked a blind at Fort Pierre National Grasslands to observe and photograph the prairie chickens dancing in the early morning light.
There was still a little bit of snow as the meadowlarks sang and the chickens danced.
April ...
Bad Roads, Good Roads
... the early 20th century, section line roads became a travel grid. In 1905, 10 years before he became governor and a champion of road building, Peter Norbeck bought a new Cadillac and drove it from Fort Pierre to the Black Hills on dirt roads.
State Representative Joseph Parmley of Ipswich introduced a bill two years later to make road construction the duty of county commissioners. His proposal was ridiculed ...
Reminders of Our Outlaw Days
April 17, 2018
... famous Robin Hood of the Rosebud country. The shackles worn by Lame Johnny on his last stagecoach ride (vigilantes stopped the coach and hanged him) are now split between the State Historical Society in Pierre and the 1881 Custer Courthouse Museum. Potato Creek Johnny's 7.75 ounce gold nugget can be seen at the Adams Museum in Deadwood. And you can still sleep at Poker Alice's house in Sturgis.
Doane’s Favorite Places
By Paul Higbee
Doane Robinson began his career in law, but eventually he became a poet, writer, publisher and state historian.
It’s an eight-minute walk in Pierre from Doane Robinson’s former home on Wynoka Street to the state capitol building, where he once had an office. Eight minutes, that is, if you walk with a sense of purpose.
And it is impossible ...
Have Scoop Shovel, Will Travel
March 21, 2018
... work kicked into high gear. As soon as the commencement ceremony wrapped up, the trio hopped into a borrowed 1936 Chevy sedan and pointed it west on Highway 14. Around Huron the snow hit. East of Pierre, snow flew with such fury that drivers couldn’t discern the road’s edge. But a pedestrian could, so the boys and a stranded soldier they picked up took turns being pedestrians, running ...
Navigating the Wild Missouri
... eastward by the unyielding bluffs, the Missouri sweeps down the 7-mile-long Sandhill Reach, one of the longest relatively straight reaches on the river. (The longest is the 16-mile Steamboat Reach, near Pierre.) Here, at Mile 785R, the Far West tied up for the night. With some 32 miles to go and the most hazardous crossings yet to be traversed, caution dictated a stop while the day's experience was evaluated ...
My Day at the Track
... the day before I left to attend my first horse race. It wasn’t my money. It was simply to help immerse myself in South Dakota’s rich horse racing culture, which takes center stage in Fort Pierre and Aberdeen for just six weeks every spring. It shouldn’t have mattered if I lost every penny. Still, the thought of losing $100 (and I just knew I would lose it, because going to the racetrack ...
Pollock’s Stone Idols
February 7, 2018
... people have a long history in present day South Dakota. Archaeologist William Strong suggested that pottery fragments found at the Arzberger archaeological site — a fortified village near Pierre, occupied in the 13th and 14th centuries — showed "a general resemblance to historic and protohistoric Arikara wares." Surveys at the Vanderbilt site show that during that era indigenous earth ...
Judging a Junk Man
... be a fair recommendation for any candidate … ”
The eccentric junk man tallied 1,496 votes — a respectable showing but not enough to win a seat among the bland, suit-and-tie crowd in Pierre. Instead, he returned to his business of finding and selling used goods. Now somewhat of a local hero, he became even more popular in local parades. He put a new canvas on his covered wagon for the territorial ...
A Capitol Christmas
December 20, 2017
Christmas at the Capitol has been a holiday tradition in Pierre since 1981 when volunteers decorated 12 trees. This year, nearly 90 brilliantly-lighted and specially-themed trees fill the rotunda and hallways on three floors. Visitors can peruse the trees from ...
