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Moved by Water

By John Andrews

The Missouri River forms the western border of Campbell County, in the far northwest corner of what South Dakotans call East River. The Big Muddy has affected the lives of everyone living along its course through South Dakota, but the river’s role in shaping Campbell County is unique. The Missouri’s bank was home to an early Plains Indian village that is still studied today. It’s where explorers Lewis and Clark first heard a curious Indian legend. And its waters caused an entire town to relocate.

Indigenous people have inhabited the Great Plains for thousands of years. Archaeologists study their lives at various village sites, one of which remains on the shore of Lake Oahe in Campbell County near Pollock. Called the Vanderbilt Archaeological Site, the village dates to about 1300. When it was first examined in 1979, researchers found 22 depressions believed to be house rings, trash pits and collected over 200 pieces of ceramic, stone chips, tools and other projectile points. Archaeologists say that despite erosion due to wave action from the lake, they’ve been able to learn a lot about the movements and living patterns of the region’s earliest inhabitants.

Campbell County’s stone idols stand among the hills of the Missouri River valley near Pollock.

More than 500 years later, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their Corps of Discovery paddled into present day Campbell County. On Oct. 10, 1804, the explorers met with the leaders of three Arikara villages and presented them with clothes and flags. Three days later, Lewis and Clark first learned of the Stone Idols.”Two stones resembling human persons and one resembling a dog are situated in the open prairie,” Lewis wrote in his journal for Oct. 13.”To those stones the Arikaras pay great reverence, make offerings whenever they pass. Those people have a curious tradition of those stones. One was a man in love, one a girl whose parents would not let marry. The dog went to mourn with them. All turned to stone gradually, commencing at the feet. Those people fed on grapes until they turned, and the woman has a bunch of grapes yet in her hand. On the river near the place those are said to be situated, we observed a greater quantity of fine grapes than I ever saw at one place.”

The stone idols are there today, though it takes a bit of work to find them. Take Highway 1804 a mile south out of Pollock to the West Pollock Resort. Take the road through the cabins and you’ll see the idols on the northeast corner of the resort.

Spring Creek, renamed through the years, runs through Campbell County.

Lewis and Clark camped along Stone Idol Creek, which doesn’t appear on maps today. That’s because at some point in history, it was decided that the creek needed a new name. For reasons unbeknownst to us, it became known as Hermaphrodite Creek. Eventually someone else came along and renamed it Spring Creek, which is what maps show today. The residents of Campbell County remain eternally grateful.

Campbell County as we know it today was organized in 1873 and named for Norman B. Campbell, a territorial legislator from Bon Homme County. Campbell remains somewhat of a mystery. He served in the legislature in 1872-73 and died quite young. His father was the Civil War Brigadier General Charles T. Campbell, founder of the town of Scotland.

The county seat was originally located at La Grace, along the Missouri River. The election of 1888 transferred that status to Mound City, where it remains despite the town’s current estimated population of 65. That makes Mound City one of the smallest county seats in the nation. Townspeople fought battles with nearby Herreid in the 1960s over the possible relocation of certain offices, but they stayed in Mound City. Perhaps politics is simply in the blood of Mound Citians. The town’s most famous daughter is Alice Kundert, who served as state auditor from 1969 to 1978, secretary of state from 1979 to 1986 and then ran for governor. She lost the election, but went on to serve in the state House of Representatives from 1991 to 1994. She died in 2013.

The construction of Oahe Dam and the resulting Lake Oahe forced the relocation of the town of Pollock.

The federal government’s attempt to tame the Missouri River in the mid-20th century led to a life-altering decision for the people of Pollock. The town had been founded in 1901 along the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Saint Marie Railroad. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unveiled plans for a series of dams along the river, the resulting reservoir that became Lake Oahe would inundate the town.

On Jan. 27, 1953 a town meeting was held to determine the fate of Pollock. A vote was taken to determine which direction the town should move. The results were: west, 2; north, 20; east, 39; south 139. A second unanimous ballot was cast for the southern site, which was one mile away on a hilltop. E.L. McKay, editor of the Pollock Pioneer, cleverly used the headline,”A city built on a hill cannot be hid” as part the next week’s newspaper.

After the new town site was platted, people made their lot choices and sealed them in an envelope. Lots were assigned by drawing, and only a handful of duplicate choices were settled by a coin toss.”Nearly everyone was satisfied,” reported the Pioneer.

Pollock’s brick schoolhouse was demolished before the original town site was flooded.

The official groundbreaking of the new town took place on June 4, 1955, making Pollock one of the only towns in America that celebrates two founding dates. The community celebrated its centennial in 2001, and then followed with a 50-year celebration in 2005.

Not surprisingly, Pollock today is a fishing community, nestled between Lake Pocasse (named for one of the Arikara leaders who met with Lewis and Clark) and Pollock Bay, which leads into Lake Oahe. The Pollock Visitor and Interpretive Center houses an impressive collection of historical artifacts and memorabilia from the town of 217.

Though Mound City is small, it’s hardly sleepy. For decades, Bernie’s Beefstro served meals so good that diners drove 60 miles just to eat there. Longtime owner Bernie Huber decided to sell the bar in July after 40 years of ownership, but hopes to help the new proprietors make the transition.

Mound City is also home to the headquarters of Wild Dutchman sunflower seeds. Three generations of the VanderLaan family run the business that began as a fluke. Wayne VanderLaan started by dehydrating small batches of seeds on his wife’s stovetop. Today their seeds are found throughout the Upper Midwest. The exact recipe is a secret, but part of Wild Dutchman’s appeal comes from the low salt content.

Inside the Campbell County courthouse in Mound City.

If you think you might like to live in Campbell County, check out the town of Herreid, pop. 403. The town’s economic development corporation offers up to $5,000 for families purchasing an existing home or building new. Once you’ve relocated, you can research a Campbell County mystery we’ve been trying to solve for years.

We first heard about the Kiss Me Quick Hills in a book called South Dakota Geographic Names. They supposedly rise east of Pollock and are named for the”series of short, sharp rises in the road, which almost cause a person to meet himself.” Several years ago, a South Dakota Magazine editor was traveling through Campbell County. He asked a local about the Kiss Me Quicks.”I’ve heard them called lots of other things by people trying to get over them, but never that,” he replied.

So our writer came home without so much as a kiss. Here’s hoping you’ll be luckier.

Editor’s Note: This is the ninth installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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The Spirituality of Hanson County

By John Andrews

At 435 square miles, Hanson County is the third smallest county in South Dakota. But what it lacks in area, it makes up for in spirituality. The lazy James River quietly runs through the southwestern quarter, past the graves of two men who died defending their staunchly held religious beliefs. In Alexandria you’ll find a shrine dedicated to a modern miracle. And in between the lakes, fields and streams provide ample opportunities to reconnect with nature.

Most visitors will arrive in Hanson County driving 80 mph on Interstate 90, but that’s the fastest pace you’ll find here. Exit at Alexandria and spend a few quiet moments at the Fatima Family Shrine, an elaborate exhibit of Catholic statuary started in 1987. It pays tribute to the 1917 appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal. The shrine features an image of Mary modeled after the statue at Fatima. At the base is Portuguese rock and soil from the very ground by the oak tree on which Mary was seen.

St. Mary of Mercy Church in Alexandria.

The shrine is next to Alexandria’s historic St. Mary of Mercy Catholic Church. Across the street is a cloistered convent called the Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy, where 14 Carmelite nuns work and pray for world peace in relative isolation from the public.

Another powerful spot is burial site of Michael and Joseph Hofer, two Hutterites who died after refusing to fight during World War I. They rest in the cemetery at Rockport Colony, 8 miles southwest of Alexandria. The Hofers were drafted in 1918, but as pacifists they were conflicted. After consultation with elders, they decided to report for training but to abstain from any activity that furthered the war effort.

They were jailed, taunted, beaten and starved until they both contracted pneumonia inside the prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Hofers died within days of each other. Their bodies were returned to Rockport and buried in the tiny colony cemetery.

Today the story of the Hofers is well known among the North American Hutterite community, though few others are aware. Hutterite children learn about the brothers as schoolchildren, and families from across the continent come to Rockport to pay their respects at the grave.

Michael Hofer’s gravesite at Rockport Colony.

Rockport Colony sits on the very first townsite in Hanson County. The first settlement grew in 1865 when the U.S. military sent soldiers to keep peace between Indians and encroaching settlers. The men used quartzite, which is plentiful along the banks of the James River around Rockport, to build Fort James, one of the only stone cavalry forts in the West.

Fort James was occupied for only two years. All that remains are quartzite foundations and a marker placed at the site following an archaeological investigation of the area several years ago.

Hanson County was originally created in 1871 and named for Major Joseph R. Hanson, one of Yankton’s earliest residents. Hanson was born in New Hampshire and moved west seeking better business opportunities. He arrived at Sioux City in 1858, crossed into Nebraska and set up a winter camp just across the Missouri River from present day Yankton. At the time, only four white men lived in the area, and all worked at the Frost, Todd and Company trading post.

Fort James was occupied in 1865 and 1866.

Longtime state historian Doane Robinson credits Hanson as being the second actual settler of Yankton behind John Holman, who had built a cabin there a month before Hanson’s arrival. He served two years as chief clerk of the territorial legislature and helped secure the fledging town against Indian raids by direction construction of the Yankton stockade in 1862. Hanson became a prominent citizen with a successful farm just east of town.

The first civil settlement in Hanson County occurred at Rockport, when Peter, Samuel and Michael Bloom, Jerry Flick and Frank Foster arrived in 1872. A small post office was built and a town platted in 1878 in preparation for Rockport’s designation as county seat. But the county’s boundaries were adjusted in 1879 and the railroad chose a route through Alexandria. Voters moved the county seat to Alexandria after the election of 1880. Rockport became the site of a Hutterite colony in 1894 and remained so until 1918, when nearly all Hutterites in North America moved to Canada in opposition to the war. The present Rockport Colony was created in 1934.

Lake Hanson, southwest of Alexandria. Photo by Christian Begeman.

In that same year, the Depression-era Works Progress Administration built a dam along Pierre Creek 2 miles southwest of Alexandria. The resulting impoundment became known as Lake Hanson, a popular spot for water recreation. Another fishing hole is Long Lake, just north of Farmer. Anglers catch bluegill, sunfish and largemouth bass there.

Hanson County is largely rural. Alexandria is its largest town, at about 630 people. Emery, just southeast along Highway 262, is a town of 450 people. In Fulton (pop. 94) sisters Mary Wipf and Elizabeth Soladay run Con Brio Studio, a business specializing in restoring and re-hairing bows for stringed instruments. Only 10 people call Farmer home, but the community still manages to hold a grand antique tractor parade the weekend following Labor Day. Their slow procession contrasts starkly to the traffic zooming along I-90 just 5 miles south. Maybe those cars should get off the freeway and experience the laid back and reflective life that Hanson County can offer.

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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South Dakota Road Adventures

By Katie Hunhoff

We have a feature in our current South Dakota Magazine (July/August) on traveling Old Highway 16. At first I wanted to title it “Highway 16: The Perfect S.D. Road Trip” but my fellow editors talked me out of that. It sounds like the perfect road trip to me, but probably isn’t for those who don’t want to go off-roading for a few miles here or there. Our photographer nearly collided with a longhorn cow in Haakon County.

Luckily, we have several other summer travel recommendations for those who like their roads more civilized. Here are some basic recommendations for road-tripping 16, and a few other highlights from our summer travel issue.

Highway 16 covers a 400-mile stretch between our east and west borders, connecting Sioux Falls with Rapid City and several smaller communities along the way. It was part of a 1,600-mile passage between Detroit and Yellowstone National Park that was linked nearly a century ago. A group formed in 1919 to promote the journey in South Dakota, which intersected at times with Highways 14 and 20.

Take time to travel the back roads that are now Highway 16 and you’ll find many remnants of its heyday, including places that made the transition to Interstate 90 such as Wall Drug, the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo and Reptile Gardens. There are also some great restaurants, like Al’s Oasis, Hutch’s in Presho and the Back 40 near Kimball, a renovated Highway 16 gas station.

For a complete guide to 16, see our July/August issue. Or, like the article’s author, you can play it by ear and see if you can piece together the old roadway on your own. Old 16 enters South Dakota from Minnesota as 262nd Street at Valley Springs, just east of Sioux Falls. The highway is easier to find on the other side of the state because it is still known as U.S. Highway 16.

Our current issue also highlights our state’s 13 National Natural Landmarks, any of which would make a great summer road trip. The U.S. Interior Department began the program in 1962 to highlight our country’s biological and geological diversity. “The sites help tell the story of our nation’s natural heritage through representations of different features,” says Heather Eggleston, a regional National Natural Landmark coordinator. “Those included in the program are the best examples of those features still in existence.”

South Dakotas 13 designations include glacial lakes and sloughs, timeworn buttes and prehistoric rock. Some of the 13 landmarks are well known, such as Bear Butte, and others were a surprise even to our staff, such as Red Lake (Brule County), Buffalo Slough (Lake County) and Snake Butte (Jackson County).

Snake Butte is 23 miles south of Interior on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It features one of the world’s best collections of sand calcite crystals. In fact, South Dakota is one of only a few places on the globe where the crystals are found. They form when water containing dissolved calcite seeps through sand beds. Over time, the calcite forms crystals that surround the sand, between 15 to 20 inches in length. The butte is located in a beautiful sloping and wide-open area of the Pine Ridge, which is worth the drive itself.

South Dakota sweeping landscapes, amazing geological diversity and friendly communities make it an ideal place to get on the road and see what adventures you’ll find. We hope our summer road recommendations inspire you to hit the road — but if it’s Highway 16, be sure to yield to the longhorn cattle.

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Rocks, Rolls and Rivers

By John Andrews

If you took a road trip around South Dakota with the goal of seeing one — and only one — thing in each of South Dakota’s 66 counties, where would the intrepid editors of South Dakota Magazine send you in Moody County?

We asked ourselves that very question in the summer of 2011, when we wrote an extensive travel feature based on the idea of seeing one unique spot in every county. There were some fascinating places: 19th century cabins and churches, wildlife refuges, public art displays and beautiful sections of the Missouri River known only to locals.

And what did we select for Moody County?

A rock.

Yes, a rock. But it’s a really big rock with a story that’s 1.8 million years old. Lone Rock is one of millions of stones deposited by glaciers as they scraped across present-day South Dakota, but this one stands out. The boulder is 25 feet high and is estimated to weigh 100 tons — and that’s just the part you can see. Locals think another 50 to 75 tons remain buried beneath the prairie. Lone Rock became a travelers’ landmark and a favorite picnic spot for locals since the late 1880s. If you want to see the king of glacial erratics, Lone Rock lies in a pasture near the corner of 487th Avenue and 235th Street, southeast of Flandreau and less than a mile from the Minnesota border.

Lone Rock has been a landmark in southeastern Moody County for centuries.

Who knows if Gideon Moody ever saw Lone Rock, or how much time he actually spent in the county that was created and named for him in 1873? Moody was one of several territorial politicians for whom counties were named, but he was probably the only one who narrowly avoided a knife fight with a colleague. It happened while Moody served in the Indiana legislature in 1861. The body was debating states’ rights, an especially controversial pre-Civil War issue. One legislator attacked the governor and Moody came to his defense so vociferously that he was challenged to a duel using bowie knives. They crossed the border into Kentucky to consummate the challenge and were promptly arrested and fined $500 each. The bowie knives remained in their sheaths.

Gideon Moody.

Moody’s fighting spirit (at least in the physical sense) abated when he came to Dakota Territory with his family in 1864 to supervise construction of the Sioux City to Fort Randall military road. When he discovered the road could be built for far less than the money already appropriated, he paid the farmers he had recruited to work on it double the money originally intended. It raised the ire of the federal government, but he earned the respect of thousands of South Dakotans.

Moody served in the House of Representatives, was a judge in Deadwood and became one of our first U.S. Senators in 1889. He cultivated an unparalleled reputation for honesty. During one court case in Deadwood, litigants worried over the trial’s probable outcome against them tried to find someone who would bribe Judge Moody. They found an old law partner of Moody’s from North Dakota and brought him to town. When he heard their plan, he shouted,”My God, men! Do you expect me to tackle that man on any such proposition? Why, I should be in the penitentiary in 48 hours. If that is what you got me here for, I might as well leave for home on the coach tomorrow.” And he did.

Grace (seated) and Gabby Flute Player enjoy a front yard decorated with pipestone in Flandreau. Their father, Rick Flute Player, uses the stone quarried from the Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota, to create ceremonial pipes.

When he faced defeat in his bid for re-election to the Senate in 1891, several legislators suggested supporting Moody in exchange for certain privileges.”He told them that if one dollar were used in buying a vote for him he would refuse to qualify for the office or accept it, and more, that he would assist in prosecuting both the man offering the money and the man accepting it,” wrote state historian Doane Robinson.

Moody ultimately lost the election. He practiced law before moving to California in 1900. He died four years later.

Today about 6,500 people call Moody County home. Its biggest city is Flandreau, where the citizenry is a mix of the descendants of European homesteaders and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. After the Dakota Uprising in Minnesota in 1862, several Santee Sioux were relegated to the Santee Agency in Nebraska. Seven years later, a delegation of them left and decided to settle on a bend in the Big Sioux River.

Flandreau boasts both public and Indian schools, and the Royal River Casino and Hotel draws people from hundreds of miles. If you are passing through, don’t miss the Long John’s at the Flandreau Bakery or the large paintings inside the auditorium by Brookings artist Dorothy Lyford, who was commissioned to illustrate the city’s history. The historic St. Vincent Hotel has also been restored. It’s where John Dillinger stayed while planning his robbery of the Sioux Falls Security National Bank in 1934.

The Big Sioux River’s shallow depths make it an easier river to kayak. Photo by Greg Latza.

Take advantage of the outdoors by paddling the lazy Big Sioux River, which snakes through Moody County. Kayaking enthusiast Jarrett Bies told us the river is perfect for paddlers of all skill levels.”The Big Sioux is a pretty easy river to paddle, because if you have a mistake or you tip over, your number one strategy is to just stand up because you’re probably in knee-deep or waist-deep water,” Bies says.”If you tipped on the Missouri, you’d face a much more complex rescue.”

One of his favorite stretches follows the big horseshoe bend. Start at the access point at the pow wow grounds about a mile north of Flandreau on Highway 13. The river flows east toward Minnesota before curving south and west, past the Flandreau city park to a low-head dam in town.”It’s a five minute drive from the pow wow grounds to the dam, but you get a three-hour paddle on 12 to 14 miles of river,” Bies says.

Jim and Joan Lacey’s Little Village Farm is an eclectic collection of farm equipment and memorabilia.

You can also portage around the dam and continue south for another three-hour paddle to Egan. Stop at the access point in the city park, or continue south to Dell Rapids. This course features farmland, abundant wildlife, woodland areas and rugged red quartzite canyons.

Outdoorsmen like to stay at the River of the Double Bend Campground and Outfitters near Trent. Owner Morris Kirkegaard is a life-long Big Sioux River rat, full of stories about his experiences.

Another unique destination just outside of Trent is Jim and Joan Lacey’s Little Village Farm. The Laceys have moved several large barns onto their property to house the enormous collection they’ve amassed over the years — tractors, windmills, cream separators, lightning rods and other farm equipment.

A day in Moody County might begin with rolls at the Flandreau Bakery, then a round of golf at Sunrise Ridge Golf Course on the south edge of Colman. Spend a quiet afternoon at the city park in Egan and have a thick, juicy steak at the Feather’s Nest in Ward. Finish it off with a float on the Big Sioux or a campfire with the Kirkegaards.

And if you see any other rocks you think we ought to know about, give us a call.

Editor’s Note: This is the sixth†installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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Taking Chances

By John Andrews

If you like rodeo, golf, art, windsurfing and playing poker, then you’ll feel at home in Sully County. It’s an interesting mix — maybe not one you’d expect to find in the middle of South Dakota — but the county’s small towns, prairies, Missouri River bluffs and the wind and waves on Lake Oahe provide the perfect setting for all those interests to converge.

Sully County was created in 1873 and named for Gen. Alfred Sully, who commanded cavalry troops during the Indian Wars of the 1860s. Following one particularly brutal battle near Whitestone Hill in 1863, several of Sully’s troops marched south and built Fort Sully just east of Pierre. Soldiers abandoned the fort in 1866 due to scarcity of resources and a new fort was built 30 miles upstream on land near the present-day Fort Sully Game Refuge. It remained occupied until 1894. A marker was placed there in 1929 and moved to the Sully County Courthouse in Onida in 1962 before water from Lake Oahe inundated the site. Farm Island Recreation Area lies on the site of Old Fort Sully now, and markers indicate its one-time location.

Onida’s Smoky Joe Mendel was once the world’s fastest man.

At one time, Sully County was a refuge for African Americans fleeing from racial persecution in other parts of the country. Norvel Blair, born into slavery in Tennessee, established the Sully County Colored Colony in the 1880s.

Blair’s sons Benjamin and Patrick arrived in Dakota Territory to scout land in 1882. They settled near the town of Fairbank, one of several towns to emerge in Sully County after its official opening for settlement in 1883. Norvel, his wife Mary, and their other children soon followed.

The Blairs wanted to share their freedom with other African-Americans. In 1906, Ben Blair and others met in Yankton and created the Northwestern Homestead Movement, designed to relocate blacks from Southern states to farms in South Dakota and around the Upper Midwest. The Blair family even pledged 1,700 acres upon which to build an agricultural college.

The group considered colony locations in four counties but only Sully County’s became successful, thanks to Norvel’s daughter Betty. She worked for a real estate company in Iowa and is credited with selling much of the land.

The Sully County Colored Colony had as many as 200 members, and remained a bustling community for over 50 years. By the 1950s only a handful of people still lived in the area. Today only scattered buildings and the Blairs, resting in their family cemetery, remain as a reminder of the sanctuary Sully County became for men and women seeking freedom.

Lake Oahe is a prime spot for windsurfing.

Onida is the Sully County seat and has a reputation of producing talented athletes. Professional golfers Curt and Tom Byrum grew up there as did Smoky Joe Mendel, who briefly held the title of”Fastest Man in the World.” Mendel was a student at Yankton College in 1931 when he ran the 100-yard dash in 9.5 seconds, which tied the world record. Mendel had been a track and field star at Onida High School. During his senior year he single-handedly won the state title for his team over Sioux Falls Washington.

You can still find speed in Sully County, but you need a surfboard and wetsuit. Several years ago we met Randy and Michelle Brich, who had built an energy-efficient home on a bluff overlooking Okobojo Creek. It provided fantastic views of the Missouri and an easy vantage point to monitor the winds. When they blow from the south-southeast (against the river’s current), conditions are perfect for windsurfing. Brich called the area”ground zero for windsurfing in South Dakota, and perhaps the entire Great Plains.”

The Sully County Courthouse anchors Main Street in Onida.

North of Okobojo is the Little Bend of the Missouri River. The Sully County peninsula that juts into the river is home to the Fort Sully Game Refuge, a state-owned wildlife preserve. It lies near the spot where Lewis and Clark camped on their voyage up the Missouri River on Oct. 1, 1804 and again on Aug. 24, 1806 as they returned.

The bluffs have changed since Lewis and Clark passed through, not just because of the Missouri River dams. Man has molded them in many ways, including a world-class golf course. Sutton Bay in the northwestern corner of the county is a private retreat that offers hunting, fishing and an 18-hole golf course designed by internationally acclaimed architect Graham Marsh. Membership comes by invitation only, so cross your fingers if you hope to one day enjoy its breathtaking views of the Missouri.

Michael Moore paints the landscapes of Sully County.

If it’s not in the cards, you can enjoy the scenery of Sully County through the landscapes of Michael Moore. He splits his time between California and a farm 10 miles west of Agar, which he and his wife purchased in 2001 without ever having been to South Dakota. Moore is also a championship poker player. He won $220,000 and a gold bracelet at the 2013 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Raising rodeo stock has different pressures than playing cards for a small fortune, but the Sutton family has been doing it successfully in Sully County for decades. It began in 1926 when the Ed Sutton family staged a rodeo on their home ranch. Sutton saw the opportunity for profitability and joined a touring rodeo company.

Moore, who lives west of Agar, is also a champion poker player.

In the 1950s, James Sutton partnered with Erv Korkow. Their stock was selected to perform at the first National Finals Rodeo in 1959. Today, through five generations, the Sutton Rodeo Company has produced rodeos at every level: 4-H, high school, college, Indian National Finals, South Dakota Rodeo Association and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

They pride themselves on the high quality of their bucking stock. Given enough time, maybe they’ll learn to ride a surfboard, play Texas Hold’em or swing a five iron. They can do it all in Sully County.

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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Badlands and Good People

By John Andrews

This place isn’t Shannon County any longer. That’s because the members of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation didn’t want to live in a county named for a man complicit in the woes of their people. So they got out the vote and picked a new name, one more representative of the 13,500 people who live here. This is now Oglala Lakota County, and if you visit you’ll see the vibrant Lakota culture juxtaposed against places that tell the sometimes sad story of their past.

The county was formed from neighboring Fall River County in 1875 and named for Peter Shannon, chief justice of the Dakota Territorial Supreme Court from 1873 to 1881. After his judicial career, Shannon found his way onto a committee with former Gov. Newton Edmunds and James Teller, of Ohio, to negotiate land sales with tribes on the Great Sioux Reservation west of the Missouri River. They endeavored to acquire 11 million acres. In return the government promised 25,000 cows and 1,000 bulls to be divided across the remaining reservation land.

“The commission had to obtain 3/4 of adult male signatures per tribe,” says Jesse Short Bull, who helped lead the name-changing effort.”It was not a popular concept. The interpreter, Samuel D. Hinman, was accused of intimidating people to sign or face military removal. Hinman also acquired signatures from children as young as 5 years old at area day schools on the Pine Ridge Agency.”

It took the efforts of two more commissions before the signatures were finally obtained and the land transferred. Short Bull says it seems like Shannon was the odd man out on the commission, but he nevertheless played a role in shaping Lakota life.”When you think of the line of incompetent military officers to ill prepared Indian agents that the tribes had to deal with, Shannon was not in their category. He was a smart man, and vowed no wrong doing on his part when the Edmunds Commission was being questioned. With that being said, he was still part of the driving force that changed the course of history for the tribes and everything that came with that — the breakdown of Lakota culture and the introduction to a new way of life.”

So after 140 years of the Shannon name, the issue was placed on the November 2014 general election ballot. Residents voted overwhelmingly (2,161-526) for the change. After several legislative formalities, Shannon County officially became Oglala Lakota County.

Big Bat’s is the busiest gathering place in Pine Ridge.

The county contains the Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota Nation. It’s consistently ranked among the poorest counties in the nation, but there are bright spots. Mark Tilsen and Karlene Hunter created Native American Natural Foods in 2005. Headquartered in Kyle, they produce the Tanka Bar, a mix of cranberries and ground bison modeled after a traditional food called wasna. They began the venture with four employees, but now 16 people work on various Tanka products including Tanka Dogs, Tanka Bites and Tanka Wild, a derivation of the buffalo and cranberry bar that includes wild rice.

You can’t pass through Pine Ridge, the county’s largest city, without a stop at Big Bat’s. Sure, you can get gas, oil and junk food at this convenience store, but its walls also contain art by Lakota artists like Donald Montileaux. A fire devastated the store in 2001, but Bat and Patty Pourier invested $1 million and rebuilt the busiest gathering place in town.

You can find even more art inside The Heritage Center at the Red Cloud Indian School. Its annual summertime art show runs through Aug. 9 and features more than 50 Native artists each year.

Pow wows feature dancers in brightly colored regalia. They dance in several categories, including traditional, fancy and grass.

Summer is also pow wow season on South Dakota’s reservations. They feature men and women in traditional regalia dancing to the beat of the drum. Oglala Lakota College’s Graduation Wacipi is June 19-21 in Kyle, and the annual Oglala Lakota Nation Wacipi Rodeo and Fair is July 30-Aug. 2 in Pine Ridge.

If you want to explore nature and are up for rugged adventure, the Stronghold Unit of the Badlands National Park lies in the northern part of the county. Most travelers zooming across South Dakota on Interstate 90 only see the Badlands from a loop that runs south of Wall. The Stronghold is less developed and contains a mix of parkland and private land. Its 133,000 acres of rugged badlands and mixed grass prairie was used as an aerial gunnery range during World War II. It was added to the park in 1976.

Paved roads are few and far between in the Stronghold, but they are nonexistent in an even more remote section of the Badlands called the Palmer Creek Unit. It’s nearly inaccessible for vehicles and surrounded by private land. Only exploration on foot is recommended, but you must seek permission from landowners before crossing their land on the way to Palmer Creek.

Oglala Lakota County contains two remote regions of the Badlands. Photo by Carl Johnson.

One of the most visited spots in Oglala Lakota County is the Wounded Knee Massacre Site northeast of Pine Ridge. This is where, in December 1890, 300 men, women and children belonging to Big Foot’s band of Lakota died at the hands of the Seventh Cavalry. They are buried here in a mass grave.

It’s a sad chapter that people here will never forget, but with entrepreneurs like the Pouriers, Tilsen and Hunter the future is bright. After all, if you can change the name of your county then anything seems possible.

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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Major or Not?

By Paul Higbee

When I was asked to write about Hot Springs a few years ago, I flashed back to fifth grade, green mimeograph paper and talking my way out of an academic jam.

In elementary school I lived in another state but was a fervent wannabe South Dakotan. To my thinking, at age 11, Hot Springs seemed like South Dakota’s most impressive city. And yes, by that point in my life I’d visited acknowledged major U.S. cities, namely Denver, Des Moines and Minneapolis. That Hot Springs perhaps didn’t fit that category never crossed my mind. To my knowledge those other places had no vast, glowing hotel made of sandstone like the Evans. For sure they didn’t claim the world’s largest indoor naturally heated swimming pool.

Still Hot Springs didn’t make the list of suggested cities my teacher shared for our writing assignment. She did say, however, that there were certainly good candidates in addition to her examples. As I recall New York, Washington and Los Angeles were listed, and most definitely Baltimore. This teacher loved Baltimore. After my class pondered major U.S. cities for a couple days (not that I recall anyone pondering too strenuously) we announced our places of choice aloud. New York and Washington went fast. Los Angeles wasn’t far behind. When I said Hot Springs, my teacher nodded OK. Nobody chose Baltimore, which seemed to perplex her.

We had to write three pages and cite two sources. One source, we were told, would be easy: a set of encyclopedias on shelves at the back of the classroom.

This being decades before the Internet, we’d access our other source by mailing letters. In this way we learned about chambers of commerce, travel bureaus and historical associations. We were instructed to enclose a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) with our information requests, but we were skeptical anyone would write back to a kid, SASE or no SASE. To our surprise, though, everyone got a reply, and in pretty short order.

In fact I got two responses, one from the South Dakota Highway Department and the other from the Hot Springs chamber of commerce or commercial club. I didn’t tell anyone but I wrote two letters in order to have two sources because Hot Springs wasn’t included in the school’s encyclopedia. Now it was my turn to be perplexed because my friend Matt found six full pages in the encyclopedia about Detroit, plus several more describing the city’s car industry.

All these years later I recall several things about the letters I received. It was an era of great letterhead art. My friends got letterheads featuring skylines, bridges, and complex municipal seals. But from the South Dakota Highway Department came my letter depicting Tootsie the Coyote howling at the moon.”Oh yeah,” I thought,”that’s the South Dakota I know.” One of my sources sent me a brief history of Hot Springs mimeographed on green paper, and as I wrote about the Fall River County town I found myself wishing I’d kept that historical overview. 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 time to tell me good luck!

As it turned out I needed good luck. The letters came to us at school, intercepted by our teacher, who noticed mine came from South Dakota.”I thought you meant Hot Springs, Arkansas, which isn’t real big,” she said.”But at least I’ve heard of it. I haven’t heard of this little place in South Dakota.”

I started sweating because I knew what would happen within two minutes if I didn’t think fast. I’d be handed the address of the Baltimore chamber of commerce and told to write for information.

“I think my Hot Springs is major because people from all over the country know about it and visit,” I blurted.”It has the biggest indoor swimming pool in the world where water comes out of the ground already heated.”

I could tell by my teacher’s eyes I had her interest.

“If you look at cars parked outside the pool,” I continued,”you’ll see license plates from every state you can think of.”

She”allowed” my town as major on the condition I mention all those visitors from all those states in my theme. I did. When we shared papers aloud a couple weeks later, Hot Springs was a hit. Everyone thought Tootsie made the coolest letterhead and my classmates were impressed by the cave that blows wind, and the town where water bubbles out of the ground warm enough for a comfortable shower.

I learned I could smooth-talk my way out of misinterpretations of school assignments, a valuable skill later in high school and college. I also discovered that in terms of character, history and unique natural features, small towns could be as major as New York, Los Angeles and Baltimore.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the September/October 2013 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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The Land and the Sea

By John Andrews

Look at a detailed road atlas of Marshall County in northeastern South Dakota and you’ll see a distinct divide. The western half is an almost undisturbed patchwork of county roads leading to towns like Britton, Langford, Kidder and Amherst. East Marshall County is pockmarked with glacial lakes, ponds and sloughs, meaning the distance between Lake City and Fort Sisseton as the crow flies is much different than actual drive time.

We talk much about the cultural differences between West River and East River South Dakota, but I doubt they pertain to Marshall County. This is farm country through and through, although the lakes do add recreational fun and historical mystique.

Marshall County was created in 1885. Day County, which then extended north to the 46th parallel, was cut nearly in half. The new northern county was then named for Marshall Vincent, a New York native who homesteaded near Andover in 1881 and was a county commissioner at the time of the split.

An 1886 history of the area credits Charles Bailey as the first occupant of Marshall County; he homesteaded in Victor Township in 1881. But of course Plains Indians inhabited the region for centuries. In fact, the western boundary of the Lake Traverse Reservation runs diagonally north to south through the eastern quarter of the county.

Families glimpse 19th century life at Fort Sisseton. Photo by S.D State Parks.

Legends passed through oral history are an important part of Native culture. Several lakes in eastern Marshall County have names with origins rooted in ancient stories. Emma Lake lies along the Marshall and Roberts County line, just north of Highway 10. It is named for Emma Mato, who had a lodge on the lakeshore. One winter her lover tried to walk to her home across the frozen pond but fell through. Emma paced the shoreline for months calling his name, but he never returned. Locals began calling it Emma’s Lake.

A huge buffalo herd became trapped in the thick trees around a chain of lakes in southeastern Marshall County during a four-day blizzard. Pleased with their kill, Indians named the place”The Buffalo Hunt in the Woods,” later shortened to Buffalo Lakes.

Long Lake near Lake City could hold buried treasure. A Santee named Gray Food told his sons on his deathbed in 1910 that he buried a flour sack full of gold coins worth $56,000 between two willow trees on the lake’s east shore. His sons tried many times to find the gold, but always left empty handed.

The Indian presence in the area was the reason behind building Fort Sisseton in 1864. The fort lies southwest of Lake City and hosts an annual historical festival (June 5-7). Visitors can walk the grounds and step inside the original officers’ quarters, stone barracks, guardhouse and other buildings. New this summer is the display of a rediscovered 38-star post flag. The staff believes it was the last flag to fly over Fort Sisseton before it was decommissioned in 1889.

There are other unique places to visit around Marshall County. Several years ago a writer stopped in Eden, pop. 91, and discovered that the bar and grill called Club Eden hosted an all-you-can-eat bullhead fish fry every Friday night. Since then, about 20 local investors bought the business and replaced the bullheads with chicken wing Wednesdays.

If you look hard enough in Britton, you’ll find the 1930s.

A farm just outside of Langford features a tribute to a young homesteader who died aboard the Titanic in 1912. Ole Olson’s parents were from Norway and homesteaded near Langford. He grew up there and later moved to Canada. He was returning from a trip to Norway when the Titanic sunk.

In 2003, Olson’s grandnephew Harlan was refurbishing the granary when he found Ole’s name carved into the wall. They figure Ole did it sometime between 1885 and 1912.

We were surprised in Britton one day when we encountered an entire 1930s Main Street. There was a saloon, hotel, bank and gas station with vintage cars parked outside. It’s the creation of Don Schumaker, who runs Schumaker Home Furnishings. He and his wife Norma operate the unique setup as Apple Valley Rentals.

“I’m a sucker for clouds,” Marshall County photographer John Front told us. “I often don’t go out unless there are clouds.”

We’ve met plenty of interesting people from Marshall County including Frank Farrar, who served as governor of South Dakota from 1969-71. The 85-year-old was the subject of a recent television news story about his athletic and aerial exploits (he’s a pilot and triathlete). We’ve been meaning to get to Britton to catch up with Frank.

Another was John Front, who provided a window into Marshall County through his photographs. When we met him in 2004 he was 85 and had a collection of about 30,000 images, many of them taken in his home county. You’ll see John Front photos hanging in businesses around Britton today, and we used several of them to illustrate a book called South Dakota Farmscapes. He showed us why landlubbers and sailors alike enjoy their time in Marshall County.

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in an ongoing series featuring South Dakota’s 66 counties. Click here for previous articles.

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Not Just Ranches and Rodeo

By John Andrews

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles profiling each county in South Dakota. Click here to read other installments.

Two things came to mind when I started thinking about Perkins County: ranches and rodeo. It worked out perfectly for alliteration’s sake, but as I investigated further I realized there’s much more.

Perkins is one of 10 West River counties created after statehood, and one of six organized in 1909. The county is named for Henry E. Perkins, a Vermont native who moved to Deadwood in 1883 to take a job with Seth Bullock and Sol Star at their hardware store. By the end of the decade he had settled in Sturgis as bookkeeper of the Meade County Bank. Perkins eventually became mayor and served several stints in the South Dakota Senate. He was instrumental in passing legislation to carve what would be called Perkins County from Harding and Butte counties in 1908.

Perhaps no one had greater influence on the area than Ed Lemmon, a rancher and founder of the town that bears his name. Lemmon was born in Utah and trailed cattle from Canada to Texas as a teenager, but he found a home in western South Dakota.

Cowboy Ed Lemmon helped create the town that bears his name in 1906.

As the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad snaked west, Lemmon bought several thousand acres of land along the proposed route, hoping to cash in on a new town site. His first choice was about four miles east of the present-day town, but it sat in North Dakota, then a dry state.”In order to make Lemmon a real boom town, the saloon with its attendant evils would have to be tolerated,” he later wrote. The town ended up on the South Dakota side.

Lemmon died in 1945, but his legacy is still evident in town. The Grand River Museum sells copies of The West As I Knew It, a collection of newspaper columns Lemmon wrote for the Belle Fourche Bee from 1932 to 1936, and another book called Boss Cowman. The town’s annual summer celebration borrows Lemmon’s nickname. Boss Cowman Days, held every July, includes a supper, fireworks, parade and a three-day rodeo.

Boss Cowman Days pays tribute to the town founder with a three-day rodeo. Photo by S.D. Tourism.

Spend more time digging around Perkins County and you’ll discover an artistic spirit that you may not have expected. In the 1930s, amateur geologist Ole Quammen had a vision of an outdoor museum that would showcase the region’s unique stones and fossils. It may have been a low priority for others living through the Great Depression, but money became available through federal programs designed to put men to work. Soon Quammen and a team of workers were gathering petrified wood, unusual rocks and fossils and bringing them to downtown Lemmon. They built cone-shaped trees, waterfalls and other oddities. Today Quammen’s Petrified Wood Park is among the biggest tourist attractions in northwest South Dakota.

Lemmon is also the hometown of John Lopez, an artist who has become known for his uncanny ability to turn scrap iron into lifelike sculptures. Our current issue has a lengthy feature on Lopez and photos of many of his creations, including Triceratops Cowboy, which stands outside the Grand River Museum.

Ole Quammen’s Petrified Wood Park is like a moonscape in the middle of Lemmon. Photo by Paul Horsted.

Twelve miles south of Lemmon on Highway 73 near Shadehill Reservoir stands another unique sight. Frank Rosenau and his son, Joel, used a crane to lift a Cessna 310 to the top of an old radar tower. It could be the world’s largest wind vane.

Head south and west and you’ll find Bison, population 338 and the Perkins County seat. People across the county took notice of Bison in 2007 when a book called Bygone Days was published. It featured the photography of John Penor, then 97 years old and living in the same sod house in which he’d grown up. The photos provided a glimpse into everyday life in Perkins County all the way back to the early 1920s. They showed picnics, parades and local youth goofing around. They were charming in their innocence, and caught the attention of celebrities from New York to Los Angeles. But he didn’t attend book signings in either place.”It’s no place for an old sheep herder,” he told us, before saying he’d never been east of Minneapolis or west of Montana.

Perkins County has also been the setting for two of South Dakota’s great literary works. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography captures the essence of rural life. The book is based on the experiences of Kathleen Norris, who moved into her grandparents’ home in Lemmon in the 1970s and immediately became immersed in the nuances of small town life.

Hugh Glass’ ordeal began near Shadehill Reservoir, a 5,000-acre lake created in 1951. Photo by Lemmon Economic Development Corporation.

Lord Grizzly, by Frederick Manfred, is a novel based on mountain man Hugh Glass’ extraordinary fight for survival after being mauled by a grizzly bear. Glass was part of a fur trading expedition along the Grand River when the bear attacked. Glass was gravely injured, and the rest of his party left him for dead. Incredibly, Glass crawled 200 miles across West River to Fort Kiowa along the Missouri River. To see the historical marker, take Highway 73 south of Lemmon for 13 miles, watching for Hugh Glass Road. Go west about 3 1/2 miles. The monument will be on the right, overlooking the Shadehill Reservoir.

One thing you won’t find in Perkins County, or anywhere close for that matter, is a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. Several years ago I discovered that people in Perkins County lived farther from the nearest McDonald’s than anyone in the country. I guess they still do, since no one has seen any golden arches going up in Prairie City. Don’t let that dissuade you from a visit, though. A thick steak beats a Big Mac any day.

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New Geocache Hunt Begins

South Dakota Magazine has once again hidden a geocache somewhere within the state. Explorers have found our hidden treasure inside Old Papineau’s cabin at Geddes, high atop the Coughlin Campanile on the South Dakota State University campus in Brookings and inside a replica of Dakota Territory’s first schoohouse in rural Bon Homme County.

This year’s hunt takes you to a historic village dedicated to Dakota’s homesteaders. You’ll find our tin box with a notebook so you can record your name, date and notes from your journey, and a small card that features local travel tips.

The geocache remains active through Labor Day.

Coordinates are:

N 43∞ 31.263
W 096∞ 44.361