Highway 18 Color

By Bernie Hunhoff

Leaves may look the same wherever you go in autumn — red, gold and yellow — but every country road has its own personality.

Travelers on Highway 18, which dips and ducks above South Dakota’s shared border with Nebraska, probably don’t choose the route for fall colors. But the highway’s rural charm of cowboy culture, small towns and Indian reservations makes it an always-interesting drive that takes on a special aura in late autumn.

The terrain and the flora are especially scenic as you come and go from the spacious Missouri River valley in Bon Homme, Charles Mix and Gregory counties. Going from east to west, the farms grow into ranches. Trees, towns and people all become fewer, though no less colorful.

The river itself is a good place to stop and stretch. A beautifully manicured pioneer cemetery with 158 graves lies just west of the Fort Randall Dam, near the old yellow chalkstone chapel. A marker by the front gate lists not only the usual names and dates of the deceased, but also the causes of their deaths: pneumonia, lightning, scurvy, horse accident, drowned and — in the case of Herman A. Greening in March of 1886 — “found dead on prairie.”

What a beautiful place to spend eternity, or better yet to just explore on an autumn afternoon.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2024 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.