The Grambihler family carved over 200 pumpkins for their yearly display north of Pierre. John Mitchell photographed their display Wednesday night. It will continue throughout the week. To find the fun and spooky display, go three miles north of Pierre on Highway 1804. Then turn right on Grey Goose Road for another 4.5 miles north.
The giant Clydesdales strut slowly, taking a single step for every three steps of the Shetlands. Donkeys and dogs and mules. Colorful flags. Wood-wheeled wagons and rubber, too. A mile long or more. Such is the South Dakota quasquicentennial wagon train that gathered in Yankton on the night of Sept. 3 and then departed on an 18-day journey to Pierre to celebrate the state’s 125th birthday. Here are some pictures of the kick-off event and the first leg of the trip.
How do you find a star in a cottonwood twig? What’s the most ferocious winged predator of the plains? Kids discovered the answers to those questions and many more at the very first Missouri River Outdoor Expo in Yankton’s Riverside Park. Local Boy Scouts organized the event, which featured a hands-on look at the flora and fauna of the mighty Missouri. Photos by Bernie Hunhoff.
Canoe ownership has been my husband’s dream for years. Jeremy searched endlessly on Ebay and Craigslist for the perfect one at just the right price. And he couldn’t drive by a garage sale without wondering,”Any canoes?” Me? I’ve always been against one. I tried canoeing when I was 16 and I remembered tipping. A lot. But when Jeremy found an old 14-foot aluminum canoe for just $250 I gave in.”It’ll be fun,” Jeremy said.”And if we don’t like it we can sell it. I bet we’d even make money off of it in this river town.” How can you argue with that?
April 12 was supposed to have a high of 73 degrees so we took our inaugural paddle that morning on Lake Yankton. I was nervous as we eased the boat along the dock into the little lake below Gavins Point Dam. Unsteadily, I got in first. Then Jeremy told me I had faced the wrong way.”Why didn’t you tell me before I got in?” I exclaimed, rocking the boat as I scooted around.”I hate this!” I yelled, mostly joking.
Jeremy seated himself with little fanfare and we found a rhythm to our paddling. Lake Yankton is around 250 acres and is generally calm since motorboats aren’t allowed. Surprisingly we were the only boat that beautiful day; I thought for sure there would be kayakers. We rowed into a narrow area with no breeze and glided under a tree where two bald eagles perched. Jeremy offered to paddle alone as I sipped coffee. Painted turtles sunned on logs, ducks and geese flew by, a turkey trotted along the bank and frogs serenaded.”O.K. I don’t hate this,” I admitted.”I love it! I was totally wrong. Good job buying a canoe!”
I paddled to help when we decided to turn back.”What a beautiful morning,” I thought, smiling to myself as we slipped into shallow water. But suddenly we started rocking and — you guessed it — tipped. No wonder there was no other canoe or kayak on the water. The water was cold!”What happened? I didn’t do anything! What happened?” I exclaimed, scrambling to stand up. It took Jeremy a moment to admit he had dug his paddle into the lake bottom in an effort to move us faster. It seemed like a good idea until his paddle got stuck and he lost his balance.
I don’t know if you’ve tried to right a canoe while it’s still in the water, but I believe it’s impossible. We nearly lost a paddle, ruined a smartphone and tipped again before dragging the canoe to shore and walking about a mile to our car on frozen feet. I hope the people fishing from shore got a good laugh, because we did … eventually. I’ll go canoeing again, but not until July.
Pat Baird had houseguests during the 2011 Black Hills Stock Show when she became sick with the flu.”My husband got the company out of the house for the day and I went to bed. Around midafternoon I came downstairs and looked at my computer,” Baird remembers.”There was an email that said, ‘Watch the Oprah Show today. There’s a young couple from South Dakota who will be on. The husband was severely injured in the war.'” Baird checked the clock. The show started in 1 minute so she pushed record and went back to bed. A few days later they watched the episode featuring Yankton’s Corey Briest, a soldier gravely wounded while serving in Iraq.”Heart strings were tugged and we said, ‘Wow. We’ve got to do something,'” Baird says.
The couple, both retired military, soon founded Operation Black Hills Cabin. The non-profit organization provides a free, or nearly free, weeklong vacation to qualifying combat-wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. OBHC hosted its first family June 2011 in a borrowed cabin, but coordinating donated time-shares was difficult. An OBHC board member suggested purchasing a Governor’s House after the city of Custer donated land on the edge of town.
“It took us six months to order the house because we were so scared of this huge bill,” Baird says. But the group fundraised enough to dissuade fears and ordered a three-bedroom house built by prisoners at Springfield’s Mike Durfee State Prison.”They don’t even build the three-bedroom house anymore, but they did that just for us,” says Ione Fejfar, a board member also from Custer.”Then they contacted all of their normal suppliers and said, ‘This is what we’re doing. Can you help us?'”
Many businesses were inspired by their mission and donated upgrades like a fireplace, sprinkler system, vaulted ceilings and air conditioning. Patriot Guard Riders escorted the 1,200-square-foot, handicapped accessible home to Custer in March 2013.
Board members expected to write a large check upon arrival but found they owed nothing.”The house was granted to us by the governor through the South Dakota Housing Authority,” says Carol Johnson, a board member who helps remotely from Watertown.”Then the furniture was donated and then the window treatments were donated. It’s incredible how anybody who hears about the cabin is inspired by it. It really is South Dakota’s thank you gift to our wounded veterans.”
Contributions have come from across the state for upkeep, insurance, taxes and snacks for each family. Local quilters provide a Quilt of Valor and Black Hills attractions donate free admission and meals. But guests don’t have to sight-see. They can just relax, Baird says.”We had a quadriplegic from New Orleans come up. He said that as he was sitting on the deck and listening to the pine trees that this was the first time he had peace since he came back from the war.”
The most recent donation is the Healing Hike planned by volunteers from Ellsworth Air Force Base and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Veterans Club. They’ll build a path behind the cabin this spring with inspirational messages, a wheelchair accessible picnic table and benches.
And remember that email Baird received telling her to watch the Oprah Winfrey Show? Baird couldn’t remember who sent it, so she went back to check and couldn’t find it.”There was no email,” Baird says.”Everything with this project has fallen into place like that.”
Update 07/31/15: Operation Black Hills Cabin welcomed its first South Dakota family in June. Jason Meyer, an Iraq War veteran, visited the cabin with his wife Amanda and their two daughers. The organization hopes to serve more South Dakota families in the near future.
Operation Black Hills Cabin is open May 1 through September 30. For more information or to download an application for consideration, visit www.operationblackhillscabin.org.
Update 07/31/15: Operation Black Hills Cabin welcomed its first South Dakota family in June. Jason Meyer, an Iraq War veteran, visited the cabin with his wife Amanda and their two daughers. The organization hopes to serve more South Dakota families in the near future.
In December of 1996, Dallas and Mary Dietrich had their future planned. The Keystone couple owned four businesses in the Black Hills. Their daughter Dawn and son-in-law Joe Krutzky would soon move from Orlando to manage the couple’s two souvenir shops. Their son Deric, a junior at the University of South Dakota, planned to run their Rapid City and Spearfish ski equipment shops after graduation. But a horrific accident changed all of that.
On Jan. 4, 1997, the entire family was taking Dawn and Joe to the Omaha airport, but blizzard conditions on Interstate 90 made visibility difficult. Dallas drove 35 miles per hour as they neared Alexandria and Mary unbuckled her seatbelt to watch the shoulder. Suddenly, a semi rear-ended them at 75 miles per hour.
“He scooted us one-and-a-half football fields after he hit us,” Dallas says.”So all three of the kids were killed in the back seat and I was crushed between the steering wheel and seat.” Mary suffered non-life threatening broken and cracked ribs, but Dallas had no radial pulse.”They pretty much saved my life in Mitchell with the operation they did on my chest,” Dallas says. He was flown to Rapid City Regional Hospital the next day and rehabbed back and spinal cord injuries for six weeks. Dallas had some use of his legs for a while but now uses a wheelchair.
“With our plans kind of down the toilet, we were sitting around wondering what to do,” Dallas says. He had often dreamed of creating a children’s summer camp”up in the hills.” Mary saw the old Otho tin mine, 4 miles southeast of Keystone, for sale in a real estate magazine.”She said, ‘Why don’t you just buy yourself a town?’ She was joking but I didn’t know that,” Dallas says.”I couldn’t sleep; I just thought about it and thought about it. We came out here and thought, ‘What better way to memorialize the kids than to purchase this place and have people enjoy it for generations to come.'”
The couple bought the mine, established in 1892, dilapidated buildings and all.”Oh man, they were in bad shape,” Dallas recalls.”There were four of them: the bunkhouse, cookhouse, supervisors’ cabin and office. We put foundations under them and my father-in-law and my dad both said, ‘What are you doing? Just level them and start over again.’ But I just felt that this was history.”
As Dallas and Mary worked on their little town, their vision and mission changed. Dallas had long advocated for the disabled. Since 1979 he’s helped organize Black Hills Ski for Light, an event that allows people with disabilities to enjoy cross-country and downhill skiing. The couple recognized the need for accessible vacation options and felt obligated to make their resort available to anyone.”But to get the buildings on the National Historic Register and, at the same time, make them fully accessible was quite a trick,” Dallas says.”It took a lot more time and effort and a lot more money that I ever anticipated, but we got the job done.”
The first group stayed at the resort, now called Meeting the Need, in September 2003 and the Otho tin mine was added to the National Historic Register in 2004. Grants, donations, and volunteers made it possible, and they still operate with no paid employees.
The resort has 23 beds in the original buildings and two new walled tents, but they can accommodate more. There are places for tents and small RVs. Wooden boardwalks connect everything.”Recently we finished the tree house that’s 12 feet in the air. It’s got a 200-foot ramp so little kids in wheelchairs can wheel up and spend a night there, so that’s pretty cool.”
The Dietrichs charge $25 per person per night and guests have access to the fire pit and a few horses.”We have a number of tourist facilities, like Reptile Gardens, the 1880 Train and Crazy Horse, that provide free participation to our guests. And we own an old time photo place so that groups that have disabled family members can get an old time photo,” Dallas says.”It’s pretty affordable for most folks and, of course, if there’s somebody with disabilities that can’t afford it then we would waive all charges.” He’d specifically like to offer free stays to South Dakota’s disabled veterans as a way of giving back.
Meeting the need is open May through September and they still have openings for this summer. Able-bodied guests are welcome, but they give preference to those with disabilities. Call (605) 666-4610 or email dallasdietrich@hotmail.com to make reservations.
February is National Bird Feeding month, and with this year’s extremely cold temperatures it’s a great month to supplement bird food supplies.”During winter months it is really important that birds have enough food to keep their fires burning,” says K.C. Jensen, associate professor in the Natural Resource Management department at South Dakota State University.”Bird metabolism is extremely high, average body temp is 105 to 107 degrees, so they need lots of fuel.”
Seeds are one of the best sources of carbohydrates, and the more fat the better.”I like black-oil sunflower seeds because they’re readily available, relatively inexpensive and the birds really go for it,” Jensen says. They’ll attract most winter birds like black-capped chickadees, white and red-breasted nuthatches, and downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers. Other backyard favorites like blue jays, American gold finches, purple finches, common redpolls and pine siskins also like mixed seeds. And many winter birds enjoy suet.
Ricky Olson, South Dakota Ornithologists Union president, says he’s often asked if we really need to feed birds in winter.”A lot of people say, ‘birds were here before we were and they would survive without us,’ but I don’t believe that’s so true in many areas anymore,” Olson says.”I live in Pierre and there are very few wooded areas left as habitat has been changed for development and housing. I don’t know if there’s enough natural stuff to sustain much of the population, especially in hard winters.”
Inspired by this info and the national Great Backyard Bird Count set for February 14-17, I decided to make birdseed ornaments for my backyard trees. In honor of Valentine’s Day I made them heart-shaped. This recipe uses coconut oil in place of the usual suet, so it only works for wintertime use. Coconut oil melts at temperatures above 76 degrees.
Heavy-duty aluminum foil
Non-stick cooking spray
About 6 metal cookie cutters
1 cup coconut oil
1 — 1 Ω cups birdseed
Small saucepot
Twine or string
Coat cookie cutters with non-stick spray. Lay each cookie cutter on two squares of foil, then wrap foil up around the cutter’s sides. Thread a 10-inch piece of twine through the cutter. Melt 1 cup coconut oil on medium heat then mix in at least 1 cup bird seed. Let cool so mixture begins to thicken, but is still pourable. (This took a long time, so I set the pot outside for a little while.) Pour the mixture into the cutters until it almost reaches the top. Let harden at room temperature, then place in the freezer, or set outside, for 1 hour. Finally pop the ornaments out of the cutters and tie to your tree. Make sure to tie near other branches so birds have somewhere to perch while they eat.
Spirit of the Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in Spearfish was founded in 1999 by Michael Welchynski to provide a permanent home for unwanted and abused animals. The sanctuary is home for a variety of species, from African lions to potbellied pigs. Around 300 animals live there, and he plans on taking care of them for the rest of his life, without pay. He uses donations to pay for food and care for the animals and is grateful for volunteers who help with manual labor. Photos by John Mitchell, Pierre. View more of his photos on Facebook and at sodakmoments.com.
Scott Korsten shared these photos from the 22nd annual Sioux Falls Parade of Lights on November 29th. View more of his photos at inspiredbynatureimages.com.
