Tag: lake

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Changing Pace

Photography by Stephen Gassman

Story by Katie Hunhoff

Kayakers float past the rocky shores of Sylvan Lake. Granite surrounding the lake is over 1.7 billion years old.

Dramatic granite spires border several Black Hills lakes, adding an atmosphere of permanence and serenity. Kelly Lane of Rapid City has been floating beneath the granite for over 50 years. But the veteran kayaker knows better than most of us that nothing lasts forever.

Kelly Lane credits kayaking for keeping him out of a wheelchair.

Lane was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 21 years ago. Today, at age 64, he credits his passion for kayaking as the reason he isn’t in a wheelchair full-time.”You have to reassess your life when you have Parkinson’s to find value in it, because it takes away what appears to be valuable for you. I refuse to allow it to do that. I have to find value in my life.”

Lane taught science for 20 years before Parkinson’s forced him to retire. Kayaking our mountain waters has been his salvation. He began the sport when he was just 12 years old. He wrote a guidebook in 2013 and is bursting with knowledge on all Black Hills waterways.

Even though most of the lakes are manmade, he says a Black Hills kayaker sometimes feels as if he’s a frontier explorer because of the solitude, framed by rock and pines. As the seasons change, he says,”There is always something new to marvel at, a different angle of light, a new beaver dam, a newly downed tree.”

Thirty-three lakes are hidden in the deep valleys of the Black Hills. Five are natural; most of the rest were formed by dams built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Lane says every drop of water in the Black Hills eventually drains into the Cheyenne River as it flows northeasterly to the Missouri.

Matt Howards, of Madison, Wis., lands a rainbow trout on Coxes Lake just outside of the Black Hills.

Lane loves kayaking the lakes because of the solitude.”There are so many lakes around the hills and so few people that, when paddling on them, you almost never have to share the lake with another boat,” he says. He often kayaks with his wife, Becky, a math teacher and avid outdoorswoman, and their twin daughters.

Sylvan Lake is a frequent destination.”It’s just beautiful. There’s no shore, it’s just lined with rock. But then you can go down the road to Legion Lake and there is mud and soft grass surrounding the lake. Completely different. And Coxes Lake sits just outside the Black Hills but you feel like you’re in the middle of the prairie.”

Lane’s favorite is Pactola, the largest reservoir in the Hills.”It’s our home lake. We paddle it in all seasons, even sliding on the ice in the winter. We paddle it all hours of the day and night, between dawn paddles, night paddles, and daytime uses. We teach on it, practice on it, race on it and relax on it,” he says.

Pactola is also a favorite of kayak instructor Chad Andrew, a friend of Lane.”Most of the wildlife I have seen has been at Pactola,” Andrew says. He’s spotted osprey (there is a nesting pair at Pactola), blue heron, mink, muskrat, coyote, deer, bald and golden eagles and other bird species.

Sylvan Lake is the oldest reservoir in the Hills.

Andrew guides students up Rapid Creek, which flows into Pactola near Silver City, for beginning whitewater instruction.”The further up you paddle the more intense the current will get until you can’t paddle upstream any further,” he says. To get near the creek, Andrew recommends accessing the Jenny Gulch area and then following the cove to the right toward the cliff jumping area. You will have to paddle a half-mile before you see the lake thin into Rapid Creek.

Pactola and Sheridan are great lakes for beginners, but Andrew recommends all kayakers take a safety course before getting on the water. He takes safety seriously. His brother was killed while kayaking at the Potomac Falls near Washington, D.C. Andrew is certified with the American Canoe Association as a Level 4 whitewater kayaking instructor. Both Lane and Andrew are members of a group advocating for a paddle park by M Hill in Rapid City, near the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. They believe a man-made kayaking area will offer a safe, controlled environment for tubers and kayakers.

Quickly changing weather is the biggest danger for kayakers on the usually calm Hills lakes. One year, Andrew was caught in a hailstorm while on Pactola.”By the time I reached my car, vehicles were damaged and windows were broken out,” he says. Luckily, he always wears a helmet to be a good example to his students.”With golf ball sized hail, it was a definite bonus to have my helmet,” he says.

Every spring, as ice recedes from the lakes, Lane returns to the water. Parkinson’s has robbed him of other outdoor interests like running and skiing, but friends help him continue to kayak.”Someone will say ‘I’m heading to this spot’ and I’ll just ask them to pick me up.” The disease has changed him, Lane says, but not in the ways you might think.”Parkinson’s doesn’t slow me down, it changes my pace. It doesn’t take things away, it makes me choose other things.”

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the March/April 2012 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Lake Legends

By John Andrews

Native American legends, passed to each generation through oral history, are behind the names of many of South Dakota’s glacial lakes. Painting by Ron Backer.

Punished Woman’s Lake and Enemy Swim Lake are just a few of the beautiful names assigned to the Glacial Lakes in northeast South Dakota.

Legends behind the names include tales of lost love, bountiful hunts and bloody battles. And the stories preserve an important part of Indian and South Dakota culture.

The last huge glacier, during the Wisconsin Period (between 75,000 and 10,000 years ago), created the Glacial Lakes that dot the Coteau des Prairies, a rise that covers much of South Dakota’s eastern quarter. In A New South Dakota History, geographer Ed Hogan explains that two glaciers sat on either side of the Big Sioux River, which drains and bisects the coteau. The glacier on the east side melted quickly, leaving valleys, while the western glacier melted more slowly, resulting in lakes and sloughs.

Many lake legends originated in prehistoric times, making them impossible to trace.”Most of what was thought to be reality in those days got changed, or became legends,” says Elden Lawrence, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe and former president of Sisseton Wahpeton College.”Legends are kind of a safe haven. They don’t have to be true or false, they’re just there. So a lot of them, we don’t know for sure what they’re based on. Some of them go into mythology, which was part of the old culture. It’s hard to track down what’s authentic.”

Lawrence says legends were an important part of oral history, an integral component of Native culture.”We didn’t have any written books. History was passed down from one generation to another. It’s just like any modern school system. You can tell people things and they’ll forget. But you always remember a story, or a legend. It was a way of preserving a record of certain events or places. To oral history, legends were like a library, and the more you could remember the more knowledge you had. It was their one way, maybe their only way, of preserving history.”

Legends are still revered by tribal elders, but Lawrence believes younger generations don’t have the same appreciation. For years elders and youth gathered on the shore of Enemy Swim Lake so the elders could tell the lake’s story, but that tradition ended.”An elder told me that young kids no longer sit at the feet of the elders, they sit at the feet of the TV,” Lawrence says.

If that’s the case, then perhaps we’re fortunate that history isn’t always oral today. Here are written versions of some favorite South Dakota lake legends.

Enemy Swim Lake

Warring bands of Sioux and Chippewas fought in 1812 at Enemy Swim Lake, northeast of Waubay. Today the battle makes a captivating campfire story for visitors to NeSoDak Bible Camp, which sits on the site where the battle began.

Sioux men danced and sang around a campfire built on a peninsula jutting from the lake’s southern shore. A group of Chippewas on a hunting trip saw the firelight and planned a surprise attack as the Sioux slept.

Sioux warriors guarded the peninsula, so the Chippewas made rafts and floated quietly to a nearby island, then waded in waist deep water. The Sioux heard their splashing and attacked, shouting”Toka nuapi” (the enemy swims) as the Chippewas swam north toward Shepherds Point. The Sioux chased them over land and eventually killed the entire party.

In 1918 Jack Rommel built Camp Dacotah, a hotel and fishing resort, on the peninsula and decorated it with Indian artifacts found around the lake. The site became NeSoDak Bible Camp in 1942, one of five camps operated by Lutherans Outdoors. Rommel’s hotel is NeSoDak’s main lodge and Rommel’s cabin houses campers. A stone fireplace in the lodge features grindstones and arrowheads, and the cabin boasts a large native stone chimney.

Punished Woman’s Lake

When homesteaders settled around Punished Woman’s Lake in Codington County, they found two huge stone effigies lying atop a grassy mound three miles south of the lake. Indians had used 104 boulders to create a 13-foot outline of a man lying on his back with outstretched arms. About 40 feet away was the slightly smaller figure of a woman, lying in the same position. They likely memorialized the sad tale of Wewake and Black Bear.

The two were in love, but Wewake’s father opposed the union. Four times Black Bear brought gifts to Wewake’s father, but he refused them. Instead he accepted offerings from White Tail Wolf, a 60-year-old chief, and gave his daughter to him. The young lovers eloped and fled to the knoll south of the lake, where warriors from the tribe captured them. White Tail Wolf killed Black Bear and tied Wewake to a tree. She declared her love for Black Bear until the old chief stabbed her in the heart. White Tail Wolf prayed that the two be buried dishonorably, and crafted the stone effigies as a reminder of his unfaithful wife. The Great Spirit heard him and sent a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky that killed him.

Archaeologist T.H. Lewis sketched the effigies in 1883, but they were almost completely destroyed by 1914. Today South Shore community members re-enact the legend at the Punished Woman’s Pageant. An Indian chief tells the story to children as local actors recreate the scenes. An exhibit is also displayed at the Overland Country School and Museum in South Shore.

Lake Kampeska

When the water is low around Stony Point, on the southeastern shore of Lake Kampeska near Watertown, you can see a rocky island surrounded by buoys to protect unsuspecting boaters. It is a popular resting spot for water birds and the place where centuries ago a young Indian maiden named Minnecotah was left to die.

Many warriors from her tribe wanted to marry Minnecotah, but she was in love with a Wahpeton hunter. To satisfy the locals, Minnecotah said she would marry the man who could throw a stone the farthest into the lake. The men spent days heaving tiny pebbles and huge rocks, but the waves tossed them until no one could tell who won. They threw so many stones an island formed. By then they realized the contest was a ruse, so they kidnapped Minnecotah and placed her on the rocky island with no food. She survived with help from a white pelican that brought fish and berries. Her lover returned to rescue her and they went to live near his home in Wahpeton country. The warriors, discovering that Minnecotah was gone, believed that the sun god had sent the white pelican to take her away.

Stony Point was once an Indian campsite; arrowheads are still found there. And the legend of Maiden’s Isle has become an important part of local culture. Florence Bruhn, a former high school art teacher, adapted it to establish Ki-Yi Days, Watertown’s homecoming celebration.

Lake Tetonkaha

Lake Tetonkaha is one of eight connected glacial lakes that surround Oakwood Lakes State Park, northwest of Brookings. The place was once a summer camp and popular gathering place for Indians. One summer a group of Sioux warriors stayed late into autumn because a large buffalo herd was there. They became trapped when an early blizzard caught them off guard. Wood was scarce, so the hunters built a huge community tent.

They stayed the entire winter. When spring arrived they removed the buffalo hides they used for shelter, but left the poles standing. Indians who saw the poles called the place Tetonkaha Bde (the standing of the big lodge house), and the lake became known as Lake Tetonkaha.

In 1869 settler Samuel Mortimer built a cabin nearby that still stands, and the park visitors center displays Indian artifacts found around the lakes.

Long Lake

There are several Long Lakes in South Dakota, but the one northeast of Lake City in Marshall County might hold treasure. A Santee Sioux named Gray Foot 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.

A group of Santees, including Gray Foot, raided the agency in Martin, Minn., on payday during the Sioux Uprising of 1862. Some soldiers were killed and the government payroll chest looted. When Gray Foot heard the War Department declare that anyone found with gold from the chest would be hanged, he buried it. His sons tried many times to find the hidden gold, but left Long Lake none the richer.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the July/August 2010 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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Pickerel Lake’s Stone Walls

Story and photography By Dani Steele

Pickerel Lake is bordered by some of the West’s most magnificent displays of stone craftsmanship. Scattered around the lake are many unique and charming stone walls constructed throughout the last 80 years.

The ages and styles of the stonework vary greatly. There are stacked rock walls and mortared walls. Some were built with split stone and others with natural. Some soak up the blazing summer sun, while others are so heavy with moss and lichens that very little stone is visible. There are simple walls and multi-tiered structures with flower gardens and staircases.

Pickerel Lake lies in Kosciusko Township of Day County, a very rural place with far more than its rightful share of skilled stonemasons. Gust Gruba, Gus”Happy Jack” Schultz and brothers Tony and Alfred Miotke were trained by working alongside their fathers, who descended from immigrant families with European roots.

Jonas and James Keeble came to the profession through another route. Jonas was a Sisseton Sioux born at Pickerel Lake in a tipi in 1888. His parents sent him to the Genoa Indian Industrial School in Nebraska, a vocational training school for Indian children. Jonas was interested in bricklaying, and when he returned to Pickerel Lake he did stone work around the area and soon trained his brother, Jim, to work with him as his assistant.

When he wasn’t doing masonry, Alfred Miotke ran a taxi service with his horse team and did various odd jobs for Harvey Jewett I, who decided to build a lake home in 1929. The house provided quite a boost to the local economy during the Great Depression. Jewett asked for a large stone fireplace, numerous retaining walls, a stone-lined driveway and stone flower beds (while the lakeshore retaining wall has been replaced, some of the original stonework on the property is still intact).

On larger projects like the Jewett stonework, the masons worked together. They were friends who looked out for one another and respected each other’s talents and abilities.

The Keeble crew grew to include other brothers, cousins and some of Jonas and Jim’s children. Jonas’ son Frankin Delano Keeble, who lives on the family’s original property, began mixing cement for his dad at age 10. He wonders now how children back then could have handled such heavy, labor-intensive jobs. Eventually Jonas turned the business over to Jim, who also played the fiddle and accordion at barn dances. Jim’s retirement marked the end of the line for the Keeble family masonry crew.

The children of Gust Gruba and Alfred Miotke are building walls at Pickerel Lake today. Gust’s son Ed and Alfred’s son Alfred Jr. (Fred) are unassuming, witty and good-natured, as was Fred’s brother Don, who passed away in 2011. Don and Fred built walls with Kenny Okroi, and Ed has taught his sons Mike, Steven and Curtis, as well as a few nephews.

Even with lifetimes of experience, the men insist they are still learning about the nature of rocks and how to stack them. A good wall begins with a stable base, able to withstand the South Dakota ice, winds, frost heaves and heat. Depending on the soil type, the footings need to go down as far as four feet. The most important part of the wall is the part you don’t see.

Aboveground requires imagination. Rock selection gives the wall its personality. The mason has to find rocks that fit visually and structurally. If done properly, the wall should be able to stand without mortar, though all of the walls created today are mortared. Split rock adheres better to the”mud” than natural rocks. The size and color of the rocks depends on the artistic vision of the mason. Rocks are his paints and brushes.

Pickerel’s masons do 90 percent of the rock splitting by hand, using shims and wedges and feathers to divide large rocks. Stones are most spectacular when split across the grain, exposing the color band, but it is not an easy task to hand-split a stone across the grain.

The personalities of the masons are reflected in the walls of Pickerel Lake. The Miotkes often add one of their signature patterns into a wall — a butterfly, flower, sunset or boots. In 1978 Fred took a day off, and upon his return he found his work boots permanently embedded in a wall near Pike’s Point. Later, Fred returned the favor. He and colleague Kenny Okroi were working at one side of a new wall, with Don at the other side. Don heard chuckling and knew the others were up to something. He soon found a pair of his own work boots embedded in the wall. Cabin owner Leni Johnson loves the masons’ humor.

Rocks for the lake walls come from local fields. The rocks were originally brought by one of two significant glaciers that covered the area. The first, called the Illinoisan, delivered granite rocks from the Lake Superior area. The second glacier, called the Wisconsinan, came from the north and formed two lobes, the James (to the west) and the Des Moines (to the east). Rocks with sharp edges most likely came from this glacier, or were displaced from the north end of the prairie coteau as the glacier slid through and dragged away much of the rich black topsoil.

Four factors account for the many stone walls around Pickerel. First, there’s a need due to the number of lake lots with a significant slope. Thanks to the glaciers, there is an abundance of natural building materials. Also, the property owners include families who can afford improvements to their cabins. Finally, there are local masons who love beautiful walls.

According to Fred Miotke,”If your goal is to get rich, you need to move right away. Our ancestors homesteaded here — this is home. We’re used to working together. Why stop now?”

Editor’s Note: This article is revised from the July/August 2009 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Dream Boat?

By Rebecca Johnson

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.

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The Hidden Beauty of Lake Hiddenwood

By Christian Begeman

The first time I experienced Lake Hiddenwood State Park I was a mere 16-year-old volunteering as a camp counselor. This park was only an hour and a half drive from my home and I had never heard of it. I was told the place was full of trees, hiking trails and a small lake. As we drove east of Mobridge and then north of Selby through the wide open, rolling fields and pastures, it didn’t seem possible that there could be a forested state park anywhere in the area. We then crested a hill and eased into Hiddenwood Creek Valley and there it was, a little gem of a lake sparkling in the sun and surrounded by thick stands of trees. We had a lot of fun with the campers that afternoon and I was thoroughly impressed with the place.

Some 20-plus years later I find myself walking the”Hidden Beauty” trail before dawn with camera in hand. The trees are thick and the undergrowth is green with life along the trail. I hear turkey, nearly step on a fawn quietly sleeping on a hillside of grass (which nearly gave me a heart attack) and photograph a rosebush unfurling its pink flowers. I swear I must have groomed the trail of at least a dozen cobwebs with my big head. Again, I find it hard to believe that such a place exists in the middle of the high plains of north central South Dakota.

According to South Dakota’s Game, Fish and Parks website, melting glaciers carved the valley. In 1927, the department used a new technique called an earthen dam to create Lake Hiddenwood. It is one of the first artificial lakes in South Dakota. The lake is not deep, but it does contain a variety of fish species including perch, bass and bullhead. The place is also a haven for birds and wildlife. From hawk to deer and turtles to amphibians, you’ll find them all at Hiddenwood.

The first sunlight of the day lights up Lake Hiddenwood State Park.


My older brother and his family live near Selby so I invited them to join me at the park to go canoeing. I thought it would be a fun thing to photograph and since he owns the canoe, it was pretty essential they agreed to go. You couldn’t have asked for a better evening on the calm waters of the lake as the sun was glowing yellow through the trees. Hiddenwood Creek’s channel is deep enough to canoe quite a way upstream. If you prefer more open waters, you can turn your boat to the west where the water widens until reaching the small spillway on the northwest part of the dam. I’m not sure what it is, but there is something peaceful as well as memorable being out on the water of Hiddenwood. It might be that the water is so calm even on windy days because of the trees and hills acting as windbreak. Whatever it is, the lake is a special place, especially when spending time on it with family.

The fishing is also entertaining. My nephew and a couple of his friends spent a good hour catching and releasing fish after fish from the boat dock as the last light of the day dimmed. They were quite intrigued to be able to see the schooling perch swim in lazy circles and even see the small little shadows of fish hit their spinner lures just a foot or so under the water. I can see why this place is popular with the local Boy Scout chapter. I’m coming up on 40 years on this earth and I’m not ashamed to say that spending time playing at Lake Hiddenwood made me feel like that wide-eyed kid again. I know I’m not 16 any more but places like Hiddenwood can take you back there even if it’s just for an evening. Thanks to my brother, his wife, and my nephews for making the weekend another special one at Lake Hiddenwood State Park.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog. To view Christian’s columns on other South Dakota state parks and recreation areas, visit his state parks page.

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Gassman at Sylvan Lake Lodge

South Dakota Magazine photographer Stephen Gassman is currently residing (through Wednesday) at Sylvan Lake Lodge in Custer State Park. As the artist in residence he has been photographing the park during the day and in the lodge’s gallery from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. and from 5:00-10:00 pm to sign photographs and meet with fans.

Gassman’s photos have been appearing in our magazine for about a decade. Here’s a little slideshow of his work. For more info on Gassman, and to see a more complete portfolio, visit his website.

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