Category: editor-notebook

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The Answer is Tyndall Bakery

Lots of folks call or write us with questions about South Dakota. But they don’t ask about the Missouri River so much, or Mount Rushmore or the Badlands.

Usually it’s about food. Where to eat. Who makes the best beef jerky. What town has the best fish fry.

And today the query is about kolaches. A reader from Missouri wants to know if anybody in South Dakota makes the old-style Czech kolaches and would ship them to him.

“My mother’s family was raised in Armour, near Lesterville, and of course were very Bohemian. Great cooks and bakers, and I remember well as a little boy, standing in my Great Aunt’s kitchen waiting for the kolaches that they were baking to cool enough so I could have one or probably more.”

Of course, Tabor is the Czech Capital of the region and in June the ladies there make more kolaches than there are fish in the nearby river. But kolaches are not so easy to come by in the little town during the other 11 months of the year, so we directed the reader just a few miles down Highway 50 to Tyndall Bakery — run for many decades by the Reub family and now operated just as splendidly by Ed and Carol Radack.

Ed says they’d be happy to ship kolaches to Missouri or anywhere. They make them every day. But please, he said, call before 10 a.m. CST (605-589-3372) and ask for Carol. (We didn’t talk to Carol, but I’m assuming she’s ok with that?)

As for me, I’ll just stop on our next journey west.

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Jesse James Was Here. We Think.


Carvel Cooley stopped in our magazine office today. He’s a great old fellow from Bon Homme County, a gentleman farmer historian.
He brought a “new” picture of Jesse James.

The James brothers have long been linked with southeast Dakota Territory and northeast Nebraska but there’s been little proof and some James historians doubt that the two had much of a connection to this part of the West.

Their most famous sighting is of course at Garretson, north of Sioux Falls, where Jesse supposedly jumped Devil’s Gulch on a stolen horse in September of 1876 as he and his brother Frank were fleeing from the Northfield, Minn., bank job. As the story goes, Frank was on the west side of the gulch and Jesse on the east. As the posse closed in on Jesse, he reportedly spurred the old nag and persuaded her to leap an 18-foot chasm.

Family stories in our part of the old territory have kept alive many other sightings. There’s hardly a 19th century barn standing that Jesse didn’t sleep in; hardly a 19th century farmhouse, for that matter, where he didn’t dine. All the stories tell of a kindly young man who caused no harm and sometimes even extended a courtesy or maybe left a horse.

Mr. Cooley says there are records showing that Jesse might have fathered a child at Santee, Neb., south of Yankton, in 1870. The child was supposedly baptized Jesse James Chase in March of 1870. He says Jesse was present at Devil’s Nest, an outlaws’ hideway about 30 miles west of Yankton on the Nebraska side of the river, in 1869, 1871 and 1876.

Mr. Cooley lives on the Bottom Road west of Springfield, across the river from Devil’s Nest. He brought us this undated picture of the James brothers, hanging out with a couple of young men from Nebraska. It is further proof that the James boys were making acquaintances in our part of the country. If you have more evidence, let us know. We’ve started a file.

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Newspapers & Tornadoes

By Bernie Hunhoff

I’ve never lived in Wessington Springs, but we read the town’s weekly paper, the True Dakotan, every week at the magazine office because we’re fans of the Wenzel family publishers.

I’ve always appreciated the way they capture in black and white and occasional color the pulse of their town.

Since a June 18th tornado devasted the community, we’ve watched with ever-more appreciation on how the Wenzels lovingly record the long road back to normalcy. First, they published all the emergency news that had to be known. Then they took stock of what was lost and what was left. Now they’re highlighting and encouraging the restoration. This week we learned that the Zion Lutheran Church, a skyline landmark to the town, stands strong enough to be repaired. It is 98 years old. “And the heart of the church, the people inside worshipping every Sunday for the past 100 years hopefully will continue for many years to come,” wrote Duke Wenzel.

South Dakota has some 150 weekly newspapers. A good share of what you read in those papers cannot be found in daily papers. It won’t be found in blogs like this. It won’t be anywhere online in any trusted and easily-available format. All the above media have a place — but I’ve yet to see how the online world can do what the Wenzels do in any sustainable fashion.

I can’t imagine the comfort that the True Dakotan has provided to the people of Wessington Springs in the past five weeks. A terrible tornado changed their world, but some degree of reality came back around on Tuesday when the paper came to their mailbox. And the next Tuesday. And the next.

We’re a little partial to magazines, naturally. But I can only dream of providing the community service that the Wenzels have given since June 18 — and long before June 18.

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Whereizzit in South Dakota?

Thanks to all who participated in our July 2014 Whereizzit in South Dakota contest! Look for this old water tank next time you’re in the Oelrichs area.

We drew Maynard Britain’s name at random from the list of correct guesses, so he’ll be receiving an assortment of South Dakota Magazine products in the mail soon.

Be sure to watch for a new Whereizzit contest in our September/October issue!

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Hunter: Eight Years Later

Eight years ago, we wrote several times on our magazine Web site about a little fellow from Alpena who was in the fight of his life. Hunter Mees was just eight years old, and the boy was fighting off Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

It didn’t seem fair. He was as cute as an 8-year-old could be with a big smile and more grit than a kid should ever have to show.

But some good came out of Hunter’s lymphoma. We don’t know the whole story because we mostly observed it from a hundred miles away, but first we watched as the Wenzels at the Wessington Springs True Dakotan spread the news about the boy’s plight.

Then the story hit the Internet, thanks in part to our then-new Web site which was little more than a blog. Jerry Hinkle’s Holabird Advocate, a community blog, spread the news. So did our old friend Grant Peterson, who had a popular radio show in Brookings.

The story of Hunter caught fire. Teachers, high school students, friends, relatives and strangers began to shave their heads to show solidarity with Hunter. Even the Dakota Wesleyan baseball team went bald.

A single fundraiser, promoted by all the above entities, raised $20,000 on a Friday night and the money kept coming in to help Hunter’s family with the expenses that surround such a fight. Everyone wanted to help Hunter, especially those who’d seen his smile.

Hinkle, who still writes his blog, says Hunter changed his life. It pushed him to pursue social media as a means of building community, and that led him to study at DWU. “Whenever I’m faced with a difficult or seemingly impossible job, I think of the 8-year-old boy who kicked cancer in the teeth and I keep plugging away.”

Yes, Hunter’s cancer went in remission. He kicked it away in 2007.

We got word in May that Hunter just celebrated his 16th birthday. He’s healthy and an active student at Woonsocket High School. We thought our longtime readers would want to know.

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Watch for Mary in the Black Hills

The beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota are a fascinating part of South Dakota, but they are 350 miles away from our publishing offices in Yankton so for more than two decades we’ve relied on Spearfish writer Paul Higbee as our Black Hills editorial correspondent. We still make many trips West, but Paul is there always.
However, we’ve still struggled to provide full services to our advertisers in the Hills.
That is changing. We now have an “advertising correspondent” to join Paul. She is Mary Wickler Peterson of Rapid City. Mary is a longtime resident of Rapid, and she has considerable experience in advertising so she’ll be a big help to our advertisers.
Mary isn’t really new to some of our team. Before she moved out West, she worked with our publisher Bernie Hunhoff at a Yankton shopper and newspaper in the early 1980s (Mary must have been a grade schooler???) so this is a happy professional reunion for the two of them, and we’re all looking forward to working with Mary. She is a longtime reader and fan of the magazine, and she has the enthusiasm for South Dakota that makes our “work” so much fun.
Thanks, Mary, for your willingness to work with us to give South Dakota the best magazine we possibly can.
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Meet Emily, Our Newest Staffer

If you called our office over Christmas time about your gift subscriptions, chances are you spoke with Emily VanDerhule. Lucky for us, we got her to stay for good. She’ll be assisting with sales and marketing at the magazine. First task, answer these five tough questions:

1. What is your favorite South Dakota eatery?
I’ve been all over the state, but I have to say Tastee Treat here in Yankton. If someone else is buying, I really love Brule in Vermillion.

2. When living in Denver, what did you miss most about your home state?
Being near the river. I’m a river town kind of gal. I also missed the humidity.

3. What or who inspires you?
My immediate family; Ross, Brooke, Jeff, and Polly.
Reading anything by Charles Bukowski. His words really reach out and grab me. They kind of punch me in the face and shake me. Very powerful.
Art supplies. Anything in miniature.
Tape. All kinds.
4. How do you like to spend a frigid winter day?
In my living room, watching documentaries or listening to music while working on an art project. Watching out the windows for deer or wild turkey. Having some snacks.
5. What’s on the top of your “South Dakota To-Do” list?
A zig-zag photography trip through the state with someone who knows it well and doesn’t talk too much. Camping in the Badlands. Jumping in Lake Sylvan. Hiking around Camp Placerville. Spending a winter weekend out in the middle of Winner with my siblings.
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End of the Deerfield Chapter

By Bernie Hunhoff

Deerfield Store had been shuttered for 10 years we met Tom Sawyer in 2005. He was living in the old building, deep in the Black Hills, with a tabby-colored old tom cat. His wife, Sherrill, had died a few years earlier.

A “Closed For Good” sign hung out front but it didn’t deter old customers and friends from stopping to say hello. Tom’s living room was the main store. Shelves still rose above the old wood floors. A piano, once the center of attention at many impromptu parties, was gathering dust in the corner.

Sherrill, who had studied music in California, was the spark of the tiny community. She would play for anyone, anytime. She could cuss as well as anyone if the situation warranted, but she was clearly the first lady of Deerfield. “She was hell for the first 25 years but she got soft later,” Tom joked.

Tom said the store began its decline in 1972 — 40 years ago. And it wasn’t because of competition from Rapid City or Hill City. It was a stupid, stupid murder.

Tom and Sherrill raised two sons at Deerfield, Mike and Jim. The boys loved the excitement of the store, where good times flourished. “I don’t think the folks ever planned the parties,” said Mike, many years later. “Local people and the visitors, the fishermen and hunters, would just show up and everybody would have a few drinks and have a good time. Mom was good on the piano.”

Mike still raises cattle in the Deerfield community, among other things.

Jim was a Custer policeman who helped the Southern Hills on the night of the tragic flood of 1972. He was so busy that he didn’t sleep in a bed for the next three nights.

On the fourth night after the flood, the young policeman was called to investigate a break-in at a Custer saloon. The suspects were still there, and they took the young officer hostage. On a nearby hillside, he was shot with his own gun. The murderers escaped with $37 and a saddle.

They were later caught and given life without parole. But of course the damage was done. Tom and Sherrill and Mike were grief-stricken. Sherrill closed the piano cover and the store changed.

“That was pretty much the end of her piano playing,” Tom told us in 2005.

A dozen years later, the store closed. The Sawyers had run it for 42 years.

Tom regained his good nature. He held court at the closed store for a few years before moving to Rapid City. He died this week at age 92, ending a chapter in Black Hills history.

Today, visitors get their fuel, bait and beer at the Deerfield Lake Resort, two miles east of the old store. It’s a nice place, run by very friendly folks. But there’s no piano.

Change is inevitable, and it often hurts. But for $37 and a saddle?

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Wherewazzit Winner

Think you know where this fun scene was photographed? Tell us in our January Wherewazzit contest. To participate, leave a comment with your guess. On Feb. 3, we’ll select a winner from the correct guesses. The winner will receive a collection of South Dakota Magazine products.

We have a winner!

Congratulations Greg Dean of Pierre. He was one of many who correctly responded to our January Wherewazzit contest. The location was indeed Stony Point at Lake Kampeska. Look for our next Wherewazzit contest in our March/April issue.