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Retracing Roads to Our Round Barns

By Bernie Hunhoff

A barn-like pavilion is the centerpiece of the two-county fairgrounds near Nisland.

South Dakota Magazine staffers crisscrossed South Dakota 25 years ago in search of that rare architectural treasure — the round barn.

With help from the State Historical Society, we eventually found 29. They included livestock sales barns, the Butte-Lawrence county fairgrounds pavilion, two octagonal machine sheds and a charming, vertical-log barn near Sturgis. South Dakota never had many round barns, so forgive us for loosely interpreting the term.

We also learned that circular barn construction dates at least to the Bronze Age (hundreds of years B.C.), when boulders were used not just for castles in Britain but also for barns.

George Washington was among the first American farmers to build a barn in the round. A reconstruction of his original 16-sided barn, based on the first president’s own drawings, is a popular attraction at Mount Vernon.

The Shakers were the first Americans to experiment with round construction. A Shaker stone barn built at Hancock, Massachusetts, in 1824 is among the country’s oldest.

There’s just something about roundness. Eric Sloane, author of An Age of Barns, wrote,”Farmers made circular designs on their barns and their wives sewed circular patterns on quilts. They took delight in round hats, rugs and boxes, and they made round drawer pulls and hand rests for their severely-angled furniture.”

Anton Anfinson, a contractor from Wakonda, promoted the round barn concept in southeast South Dakota. Anfinson believed a round barn was the most efficient way to feed cattle. Many round barns featured a silo or a hole in the hay mow at the center. Livestock stood with their heads to the center at feeding or milking time, making it easier to feed the animals and clean their waste.

Most farmers who constructed round barns must have believed in Anfinson’s economic theory, but it’s likely that they were also intrigued by the thought of having something out of the ordinary.

They got what they bargained for. During our 1990s search, we found that if we got within 10 miles of a round barn and asked for help, somebody would soon have directions. Any well-kept old barn gets people’s attention, but a round barn becomes a neighborhood landmark.

“A man’s barn bespoke his worth as a man,” wrote Bob Lacy in a foreword to his book, Barn.”It expressed his earthly aspirations and symbolized the substance of his legacy to his children.”

Rural historians estimate that fewer than 3,000 round barns existed in North America, and most were built in Canada. South Dakota never had more than three or four dozen.

Twenty-five years ago, it was heartening to learn that someone cared about nearly every round barn we discovered. Over the past year, we retraced our travels and found that most of those barns still stand. Following are stories about the barns and the people who care for them in the 21st century.

Watertown

The Corson Emminger barn south of Watertown along Highway 81.

East River’s most visible round barn stands just south of Watertown along U.S. Highway 81. Corson Emminger came to South Dakota in 1905 from Wisconsin, where round barns were popular with dairy farmers, and built the 50-foot diameter barn with concrete blocks in 1910. He added an attractive cupola for good measure. The barn served as a milking parlor for decades. Today, the Emminger barn is missing a few shingles but it remains in good shape thanks to the Moeller family, its longtime owners.

1880 Town

West River’s most prominent round barn serves as a grand entry to the Hullinger family’s 1880 Town, a pioneer village located 22 miles west of Murdo along Interstate 90. Richard Hullinger remembers the day they moved the 14-sided barn from a ranch near Draper, about 45 miles away.”We came across the country on a ridge, and we had to do a little dirt work on the draws to make the crossings.” Built in 1919, before the invention of power tools, the barn’s symmetrical roof is high art to anyone who ever handled a handsaw or hammer.

Mission Hill

Norman Nelsen would be pleased to see the place he named New Hope Farm more than a century ago. Nelsen was a man who appreciated detail. He kept a journal of the materials and costs when he built an octagonal barn in 1913 as a machinery shed.”He recorded how many nails and how many boards he used, and he kept track of the costs,” says his great-grandson Chris Nelsen, who now lives on the farm, northwest of Mission Hill, with his wife Cindy and their children.”You can still see the hooks in the round barn where he hung the longest ears of corn to dry,” Nelsen says.”It was his method of doing natural seed selection.”

In 1914, Norman built a traditional rectangular barn just a stone’s throw to the west. Today, calves and sheep enjoy the big barn, and the smaller one is still used for storage. Chris and Cindy tend fastidiously to both barns — they plan to re-shingle the round barn and they recently sided and roofed the big barn, where letters atop the main door read NEW HOPE FARM.

Sioux Falls

The Shafer family has tended to a round barn on the northeast edge of Sioux Falls for many years. The barn was built of hollow block in 1919-20 by bankers Art Winters and Ray Stevens, who liked the round concept for cattle feeding. They installed a nearby scale and operated the farm like a stockyard.

However, the feeder cattle created too much moisture in the winter months, causing thick layers of ice to collect on the walls. The bankers eventually abandoned their operation and sold the barn to the Shafer family, which owns it today. For years, they operated a dairy in the barn; today it’s mostly used for storage.

Ron Hodne says Lawrence Welk and his band entertained in the round barn.

Winfred

Lawrence Welk and his band played a few songs at a dance in the Hodne family’s big round barn southwest of Madison near the little town of Winfred. Entertaining seems to fit the Hodne family, which now operates a big hunting lodge affectionately called Hodneville (officially the Bird’s Nest) within shotgun range of the barn.

The 80-foot diameter barn was built for beef cattle in 1918. Ron Hodne’s parents bought the place in 1946 and today he lives nearby with his wife, Ev. They and three sons — Brad, Brian and Brandon — run the lodge, which can accommodate 50 overnight guests.

A few years ago, Hodne asked his sons if they thought the barn was worth preserving because it needed a $40,000 roof.”They said, ‘Do it,'” he says.

The family has used the round barn for just about everything you can raise in South Dakota — cattle, hogs and chickens.”We even tried artichokes,” Hodne jokes. It’s empty today, except for a farm cat, but he and his family may eventually find a way to incorporate it into the lodge.

Draper

The Freier barn near Draper was built from a pre-cut mail order kit, possibly from the Gordon Van Tine Company of Davenport, Iowa. It was used as a sheep barn for decades.

Renner

Blocks for a round barn on the northern outskirts of Renner were made from sand and gravel collected at a nearby pit in 1917. The Sorum family has owned the barn for generations. They used it as a dairy for many years, but in recent decades it has served as a horse stable and a cat paradise.

Gettysburg

South Dakota’s largest round barn is on the Sloat farm north of Gettysburg. Measuring 100 feet in diameter, the wood-frame structure is used for swine, beef and dairy.

Sturgis

A barn of vertical pine logs stands in Bulldog Gulch near Sturgis.

South Dakota’s only round barn made of logs lies in Bulldog Gulch, just south of the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. It was built of pine logs, stood vertically on a circular concrete footing, in about 1941 by the Blairs, a prominent pioneer ranching family.

Dick and Lonna Morkert removed 2 feet of cattle manure when they bought the barn 30 years ago. Once cleaned, they found the barn was perfect for their four horses. Lonna, who then worked at a clinic in Sturgis, met the man who cut the logs.”He was an old-timer who was known for his mules,” she says.”The Blairs gave him the job of cutting the trees. He said he skidded them down from the mountain just to the west.”

Bulldog Gulch has a rich history. The 1874 Custer Expedition stopped there and watered horses at the same creek that the Morkert horses enjoy. Some think the gulch was named for Madame Bulldog, who ran a saloon there.

The Blairs arrived in 1907. They raised registered Hereford cattle and held bull sales at the log barn in the early 1940s. Dick Morkert says old-timers remembered that bidders sat on long benches.

Weddings are sometimes celebrated at the No Name City campground, which borders the Morkerts’ barn and corrals. On a few occasions, a bride with good taste in architecture will ask to have a picture taken by the very clean log barn.

A round barn is among the collection of 14 old agricultural buildings at the Little Village Farm near Trent.

Trent

When the Big Sioux River threatened a century-old round barn near Trent in the 1990s, the landowners called Jim Lacey and said,”You need that barn!”

Lacey agreed, but moving round barns is not easy because they lack the floor beams of rectangular structures. Still, the Beckers of Marion agreed to move it with Lacey’s help, and together they brought it out of the river valley and onto what’s now known as Little Village Farm, a collection of 14 old agricultural buildings.

The village’s only other round barn is a brooder house.”It was a prefab job, probably sold by Sears or Wards,” Lacey says.”You put it together just like the old redwood water tanks, with steel bands. Tenant farmers could buy one, and then take it with them if they moved from one farm to another.” If the chickens dirtied a spot, the farmer simply pulled the brooder house to an area with fresh grass.

Jim and Joan Lacey welcome guests to their Little Village Farm, located west of Trent in Moody County. The buildings are full of farm and ranch machinery, tools and collectibles, including more than 6,000 farm caps. There is a small admission fee.

Zell

Twin 12-sided round barns sit in a horse pasture on the northeast corner of Zell, a small village west of Redfield on Highway 212. Zell was named by Benedictine sisters who built a wood monastery there in 1886 which is also standing, though showing its age.

Unityville

A big tile barn once stood just west of a little town with the fine name of Unityville in McCook County. The town was christened as Stark when it was founded in 1907, but when officials learned that there was already a Stark in North Dakota they unified around the new name. The landmark round barn was built in 1921. Unfortunately, Unityville is all but gone, the farmstead is now a cornfield and only the barn’s silo is now standing. Life is stark in Unityville.

Potter County

A 20-sided hog house built by John Nold in 1903 may be the first round barn built in South Dakota, according to a 1995 study by the South Dakota State Historical Society.

Nisland

The entire Butte-Lawrence County Fairgrounds is on the National Registry of Historic Places. Its jewel is the round pavilion.

Buried in the cottonwood and oak forest of the Belle Fourche River valley lies one of America’s truly unique county fairgrounds, and its centerpiece is a century-old, octagon pavilion.

The forested 40-acre site is a mile west of Nisland in Butte County, which has shared a county fair with Lawrence County since 1980. And who wouldn’t want to share such fairgrounds?

The white-washed buildings include two long, rectangular barracks that housed German POWs during World War II. The prisoners helped farmers with the sugar beet harvest. Big-branched cottonwoods shade the buildings and grass. The entire fairgrounds are on the National Registry of Historic Places, but the pine jewel is the round pavilion. President Calvin Coolidge attended the fair and was pictured at the pavilion when he vacationed in the Black Hills in 1927.

The sturdy structure survived several calamities, including a 2012 windstorm that damaged the roof and windows. The two counties and their fair board invested nearly $300,000 in repairs and updates. Officials hope to find ways to use the pavilion throughout the year — maybe for weddings and family reunions — to garner income for future expenses.

The fair is held the first weekend of August, a week before the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Area 4-Hers exhibit crafts, garden produce and other projects on the main floor and a second story balcony of the pavilion. REA co-ops host a free barbecue. Boys and girls show their livestock and compete in catch-the-sheep and dress-a-rabbit contests. At sunset, animals sleep in the barns as country music wafts to the high ceiling of the pavilion.

Admission is free at the fair, perhaps because the atmosphere is priceless.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the January/February 2020 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Glacial Lakes in Winter

By John Andrews and Bernie Hunhoff

South Dakota’s Glacial Lakes country is perfect for day trips this winter. More than a hundred lakes — plus sloughs, wetlands, ponds and rivers — combine to create a scenic and unspoiled countryside rich with wildlife and waterfowl, friendly farm towns and numerous opportunities to enjoy nature.

Melting glaciers shaped this prairie pothole country 20,000 years ago. The lakes are so numerous that some remain unnamed. Most have grown in size and depth over the last 25 years. Bitter Lake, once little more than a shallow slough, is now the state’s largest natural lake; it is encroaching on Waubay Lake and other bodies of water to create an ocean-less, inland sea.

In this winter of the pandemic, we are all looking for new outdoor sights and experiences. Winter serenity and solitude has always been a trademark of the unspoiled Glacial Lakes region.

Here are 10 suggestions, organized by county, on how you might explore the Glacial Lakes. Some are auto drives, others offer winter hikes that could be compromised by the amount of snow on the ground. However, this list only scratches the surface so don’t hesitate to roam the lake country. You’ll discover many surprises, and they’ll all be good.

BROOKINGS COUNTY — The 135-acre Dakota Nature Park (at the corner of 22nd Avenue and 32nd Street South) lies in the southeastern corner of Brookings. Gravel mining led to formation of ponds and wetlands, and a restored prairie now grows atop the old landfill mound. A portion of the Allyn Frerichs Trail System — named for the city’s longtime parks and rec director who passed away in 2014 — skirts the north edge of the park, while a network of paths weave around the wetlands, prairies and trees.

BROWN COUNTY — Take a trip to Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Though the classic 15-mile auto tour is closed in winter due to hunting and snow conditions, other roads remain open on the perimeter of the refuge. Explore the gravel roads that lead north and south from Highway 10. The snow geese are gone, but you’ll see other waterfowl, eagles and the Arctic’s snowy owls. Deer, pheasant and coyotes are also common. Sand Lake rose from the dust of the Great Depression to become one of the world’s most important wildlife sanctuaries. It is 30 miles northeast of Aberdeen.

CODINGTON COUNTY — Just southwest of Watertown is Pelican Lake. An observation tower near an inlet on the lake’s south side provides a sweeping view of the water, its namesake birds, the prairie and Watertown’s skyline. The Observation Tower Trail is a three-quarters of a mile hike through the woods and winter grasses. A longer jaunt, the Pelican Prairie Trail, gently meanders 5.2 miles.

DAY COUNTY– Explore the trails of Waubay National Wildlife Refuge, situated in the very heart of the Prairie Pothole landscape. Scientists say the region produces 50 percent of the continent’s waterfowl. Trails range from a few hundred feet to a mile, and jaunt around an island that houses the refuge headquarters. However, the public facilities are closed in winter.

DEUEL COUNTY — Visit 12-acre Ulven Park, which occupies a point on the eastern shore of Clear Lake. The frogs and toads, noisy in summer, are now hibernating so they’ll not interrupt the serenity of the park’s half-mile hiking trail.

EDMUNDS COUNTY — Shake Maza Trail at Mina Lake (between Ipswich and Aberdeen) is a short walk that explores the flora, fauna and other features at one of the first man-made lakes in northeast South Dakota. Shake Maza is a Native term meaning”shaped like a horseshoe,” which describes the 850-acre lake, ringed by picturesque cabins and homes.

GRANT COUNTY — This fascinating region is one of the USA’s five continental divides. Lake Traverse flows west to the Hudson Bay and Big Stone Lake flows south to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the best winter trails are at Hartford Beach State Park — a tree-filled, rocky shoreline north of Milbank that is quite unlike anything else in the Glacial Lakes. Signage in the park will direct you to several easy trails.

HAND COUNTY — Hike the Pheasant Run Trail at Lake Louise, 14 miles northwest of Miller. Beginning at the trailhead in the main campground, the dirt and grass trail meanders 3.2 miles around the south side of Lake Louise, which was created by damming the south fork of Wolf Creek in 1932. More than three dozen informational plaques identify trees and plants found along the way, though leaf identification will be challenging in December and January.

LAKE COUNTY — Wander the trails of Lake Herman State Park, which occupies a peninsula on the east side of Lake Herman, just west of Madison. A cabin built by pioneer Herman Luce in about 1870 stands along the 1.25-mile Luce Adventure Trail, which encircles Herman Pond. Connecting trails include the Abbott Trail (1.1 miles) and the Pioneer Nature Trail (.4 miles). All are easy walking.

MOODY COUNTY — Much of the prairie pothole region drains into the Big Sioux River, and the waterway starts to change its personality as it reaches Flandreau and Dell Rapids. Hike Red Rock Trail in Dell Rapids, where you can enjoy a closeup view of the famous rose quartzite that underlies the region.

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Duncan Donuts

Our July/August issue includes a story by Staci Perry on the Flandreau Bakery and Coffee Bar. Two generations of the Duncan family have been baking tasty treats there for 88 years. Perry visited the Duncans to hear their story, sample a few classics and take several photos — too many to print. Here are the ones we couldn’t fit into the magazine.

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The Different Drums of Flandreau

By Chuck Cecil

The Moody County Courthouse square is a popular gathering place for Flandreau youth. The courthouse, built in 1914, has an architectural twin in nearby Rock Rapids, Iowa. Both were designed by Sioux Falls architect Joseph Schwarz, who is best remembered for designing many Gothic-style Catholic churches in the region.

Every Fourth of July in Flandreau’s restored 1880s railroad depot, the Lutheran ladies sell lefse by the pound, while nearby the Episcopal Church ladies dish out Indian tacos by the dozen.

But neither snack outdraws the popular Long Johns that are baked daily a few blocks away at the 83-year-old Flandreau Bakery.

The community’s gastronomic variety is one of many subtle and not so subtle dichotomies that blend in this Moody County community’s abundance of cultural habit and history.

One of the state’s oldest communities, Flandreau was settled in 1857. Its tone and fabric since has been fashioned by white settlers and Native American homesteaders who found the good life along banks of the serpentine Big Sioux River. At Flandreau the river makes a right turn to tumble over the largest dam on the river and then meanders west through town before resuming its southward journey. That river twist inspired early Native Americans to refer to the heavily timbered river valley as”the bend in the river.” Decades earlier, trappers were at the bend in the 1830s.

Flandreau is named after New Yorker Charles Flandrau, who came west as a young lawyer and took up railroading and the Dakota Land Corporation. Unfortunately, the town with his name is misspelled. A Flandreau newspaper editor in 1891 accidentally added the letter”e” to the type stick, and that spelling made it into history books.

The main streets of downtown Flandreau feature a mix of facades, but the town’s working class atmosphere is best personified in this business alley begind Pipestone Avenue, where Don Ulwelling has operated Don’s Tire Shop for more than 25 years.

At the river’s bend the two cultures often dance to different drummers. Citizens still trip the light fantastic in Flandreau’s iconic 1919 ballroom in Riverside Park while a mile away along the same river others do the grass dance to a resonating rawhide drum at the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s powwow grounds. The Japanese Gardens ballroom was named in the 1920s because of the colorful, inexpensive oriental paper decorations adorning its walls. It’s the last of the old dance halls in eastern South Dakota. Like the Japanese Garden, the tribe’s powwow ground for nearly 50 years is in a park-like, shaded swale along the river. The traditional dances of the two cultures are set aside most days of the week.

“We take pride in working together with the tribe on matters of community concerns,” said Flandreau Mayor Brad Bonrud.”We have great cooperation.” Tony Reider, Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal president, agreed.”I can’t begin to count the number of ways we cooperate and work with the city,” he said. He mentioned the county Boys and Girls Club the tribe has taken on as a project for 200 children in the county.”But we try to get together whenever we can,” Mayor Bonrud said.

The federal government took notice of the coexistence of the two cultures in 1883, bought the mission school and established the Flandreau Indian School that today is the nation’s oldest continuously operated federal Indian boarding school for grades 10 through 12.

Betty Belkham, who served a dozen years as superintendent, said about 350 Native Americans representing 44 tribes from nine states live and study there. She likened the school to”a giant melting-pot of Native American cultures.” The Bureau of Indian Affairs school has an annual budget of about $5 million and 120 employees. Among its buildings is a museum of school and Native American artifacts. Last spring, 49 students graduated from the federal school. The Flandreau Public School in 2012 graduated 30.

Across Highway 13 from the school is the venerable First Presbyterian Church, also known as River Bend Church that was organized in 1869. Members built the church in 1873. It is the oldest continuously used church in South Dakota, said Pastor Paula Armstrong. Before there was a church on the hill, Native Americans used a simple building they called the Bend in the River Meeting House. The refurbished building has been moved, stocked with historic memorabilia and is open weekday afternoons as part of the county’s impressive museum complex.

Grace (seated) and Gabby Flute Player enjoy a Flandreau front yard decorated with red pipestone. Their parents, Rick and Kelly Flute Player, and their siblings quarry the stone at Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. Rick Flute Player makes ceremonial pipes from the catlinite, which is sacred in Lakota and Dakota culture.

Another old timer, the privately owned, now empty St. Vincent Hotel with its broad veranda and 1887 look, is something of a museum piece in downtown Flandreau. Perhaps its most infamous guest was gangster John Dillinger, who stayed there while planning his successful March 6, 1934, robbery of the Sioux Falls Security National Bank.

Flandreau’s tradition of the melding of cultures is also illustrated in some of its wealth of local art. Wall murals by Native American artist Paul Iron Cloud brighten the tribe’s Royal River Casino. Harvey Dunn’s salute to homesteaders, The First Furrow, and an 1895 painting by Elsbeth Jackson of a famous Indian woman of the late 1800s everyone at the Great Bend called”Granny Weston,” are in the County Resource Center near the high school.

Just pass the town’s Aquatic Center there are fabulous paintings in the William Janklow Armory-Auditorium. The series are by then-Flandreau resident Dorothy Lyford, now of Brookings, who was commissioned to illustrate the city’s history as part of the city’s State Centennial Lasting Legacy project.

The first of Lyford’s six large paintings was inspired by a personal account written by Helen Locke Pettigrew, a child of a pioneer Flandreau minister. She wrote of her friendship with a Native American girl. The painting shows the two girls playing on the banks of the Big Sioux River, communicating in the ways of children and amusing one another with Indian beads. The paintings by Lyford are available for public viewing. Each mural is a montage of historical highlights in 20-year slices

One of those colorful slices shows the Flandreau Dam, the river’s largest. Concrete has replaced the first wooden barrier built in the late 1890s that until World War I ground wheat into”Golden Girl” and”Lily of the West” flour. A changing preference by area farmers to grow corn rather than wheat contributed to the mill’s demise. Today only part of its sluice remains.

The dam is still a big draw. Noisy water cascades over the 12-foot high barrier, reinvigorating the pokey river that attracts fish and fishermen.

Most of the flour in Flandreau that is kneaded in profusion today at the popular Flandreau Bakery isn’t the old mill’s”Golden Girl” variety. The late Mel Duncan, a popular businessman who later served 20 years as Flandreau’s mayor, started the bakery in 1930. His sons Ed and Don now operate what is the state’s oldest family bakery.”We make 32 different kinds of bread and 21 different pastries every day. Of the pastries our Long Johns are the best sellers,” Ed says.

Ground corn, not wheat, is a big item on the menu at the Dakota Layers massive egg production facility north of town that was hatched in the late 1999 by 100 local farmers and businessmen led by second-generation Flandreau businessman and Dakota Layer President Scott Ramsdell. Hyline and Shaver hens peck away at a million bushels of ground corn and about 10,000 tons of soybean meal a year.

The menu and the flock will be expanded soon to 1.3 million hens. Then the annual production will be about 324 million eggs trundling along the plant’s conveyor labyrinth to intricate sorting and packaging stations.”We’re the largest egg producer in the state and have the only in-shell, in-line pasteurizing system in the nation,” Ramsdell said. About 60 people work at the facility shipping eggs to Midwest groceries and to an expanding California market.

Local artist Dorothy Lyford painted six large murals in Flandreau’s armory as a state centennal project. Each painting is a montage of historical and cultural highlights that represent a 20-year period in the region’s history.

Although Flandreau’s wealth of cultural and historic attractions draws people to town, it’s the river that is the constant for everyone. Its profusion of flora and fauna has a magnetic attraction, just as it did for early Santee Sioux families who found the area similar to their former home in Minnesota.

That momentous move to the bend in the river took place in 1869 when 25 Santee families became the first Sioux ever to take up homesteads. Those Native American settlers and others who followed in 1870 sought peace, which wasn’t the case for others who became involved in the Dakota Uprising of 1862.

Leaders of the uprising were arrested, and 38 were hanged at Mankato, Minn., on Dec. 27, 1862. One leader, Chief Little Crow, was among many who were released. He died in 1863 at age 45. In 1971 his body was moved and reburied at the Native American Cemetery near the Bend in the River church.

Not far from there his burial place is a monument to another uprising victim. Mrs. Joseph Thatcher and three other women were taken prisoner by Inkpaduta’s band near Lake Okoboji. Fleeing into the interior of what is now South Dakota, while crossing the Big Sioux River on a fallen log near what is now Riverside Park, Mrs. Thatcher fell into the river and drowned. A 10-foot high obelisk in her memory was erected in 1937 approximately 300 yards west of where she disappeared.

After that uprising, about 1,300 uninvolved Santee Sioux were relegated to the Santee Agency in Niobrara, Nebraska. There, a few made the decision to leave the reservation and establish a community in 1869 at the bend in the Big Sioux River. They broke the nomadic mold, accepted Christianity, took up homesteads and adopted English names. Today the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe has a national membership of about 750, of which about 350 live in and near Flandreau.

Paula Armstrong is pastor of First Presbyterian, the oldest continuously operating church in South Dakota.

Contiguous to the Flandreau city limits is a portion of the tribe’s approximately 3,100 acres of trust land. The line between city and trust land is a street with access to the tribe’s attractive headquarters building and its well-equipped clinic. That area also boasts a comfortable Native American neighborhood. Nearby on the same trust land is the tribe’s glitzy Royal River Casino and Hotel, opened in 1992. It provides jobs to tribal members and others, and issues a monthly stipend to tribal members. The casino offers the River’s Bend dining area, and just down the hall is the auditorium where popular shows are staged. The tribal business complex also has an RV camping area, convenience store and bowling alley.

Flandreau’s downtown Crystal Theater has also been a popular entertainment venue, although the last movies were shown in the early 1980s. The theater was falling in on itself. Interested citizens came forward, and with donated funds and labor, saw to its restoration. Today, with its showy original neon marquee lighting the way, the theater is a font of entertainment, from magic shows to speakers, and musical and dramatic presentations. It’s also home for the J.C. Wade Children’s Summer Theater, started by the late J. C. Wade. A member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and recognized for his work nationally and in South Dakota in Native American education, Wade moved back to his hometown after retiring.

A herd of 250 buffalo owned by the tribe as a tie to its past was an attraction to highway passersby in the 1990s. Now in that large pasture is a herd of about 50 that South Dakota State University scientists, tribal members and students at the Flandreau Indian School work with to find ways to better market the meat.

For better police protection in the town of 2,400 and on the 3,100 acres of trust land and other Santee land ó it owns 2,500 acres for which it pays property taxes ó the tribal council and the city council formed a joint powers committee. The five Santee and six Flandreau residents on the committee meet monthly with the contracted Moody County Sheriff’s Department to discuss enforcement matters.”I believe Flandreau was the first, and it may be the only city in the state, where the tribe and the community work so well together in matters of law enforcement,” Mayor Bonrud said.

That same cooperation, pride and community spirit tumbles out in so many other ways all along the historic and still popular Big Sioux Bend in the River.

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

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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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The Mood of Deep Winter

By Christian Begeman

One of my favorite songwriters, Patty Griffin, penned a line in her song Cold As It Gets that could easily describe the mood of deep winter in South Dakota:

“I know a cold, as cold as it gets, I know a darkness that’s darker than cold. A wind that blows as cold as it gets, blew out the light of my soul.”

The long nights, howling wind and frigid temperatures can easily get a man down this time of year — especially when cold and flu season attacks your body on top of the tough weather. I know, because I just spent the weekend in bed suffering through a really nasty cold. By Sunday evening, I was finally feeling strong enough to go out and do a little photo hunting. It was Super Bowl Sunday, though, and if I went I’d miss at least the first half of the game. Crazy as it sounds, I didn’t hesitate. I hit the road and was shooting a particularly nice sunset scene east of Centerville about the time Baltimore scored their first touchdown.

As I look back over the photos of winter scenes that accompany this column, I’m reminded of a little of that same craziness for”getting the shot” in almost every photo. Take the photo at Palisades State Park, for example. If anybody was watching that evening, they’d have had a good laugh. Here was this clumsy, full-grown man slipping and sliding amongst the rocks at the bottom of Split Rock Creek only to end up lying spread eagle with his nose up against a camera on the edge of the ice for ten minutes straight. Yep, that was me.

Or how about the photo of Zion Lutheran Church with the cows in the foreground? That evening as I left work I could tell it was going to be a nice sunset. The problem was a bone-chilling wind was blowing from the northwest. So there I am standing on top of a hardened snow drift on the far side of the ditch of a county road, teeth chattering, eyes watering, all while framing up a shot of the church with cows in the foreground. I think it took a good hour to finally get warmed back up.

The rest of the photos have similar stories. I spent more time on my belly below Fort Randall Dam as well, and worked to get the sunlight to hit just right on the white, round heads of some roadside weeds up near Montrose. I dirtied the ice of Grass Lake during a January thaw to get some brilliant sunset colors over ice formations. The guy tracking ankle-deep mud all over the ice? Yeah, that was me.

So why do I keep chasing the photos? Good question. Part of it is the challenge. It’s not easy to find beauty in our harshest of seasons, but then again, you’d be surprised. The sunlight is lower in the sky so the golden hour seems to last longer. The snow and ice has a cooling effect on a scene and if you can capture the warmth of the sunset against that cool blue, you can stumble across photographic magic. I think the other part of why I keep going out is that I get to see such amazing sights when the conditions are right. To be honest, there aren’t a lot of things I’d rather do at this point in my life than chase a South Dakota sunset. Yep, that’s pretty much me.

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.



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Moody County Wind Storm

High winds slammed through Moody County on Friday (July 1). Trees as old as the city were uprooted in Flandreau. Power lines were knocked down, and some people have been without electricity for a week. Houses and outbuildings suffered damage as well. Weather experts say it was not a tornado, but powerful 70-plus mph winds that did the damage. Farmers and Flandreau residents have been cleaning up the debris in the sweltering humidity that followed. Slowly but surely, the yards and streets are returning to normal. Photos by Shane Gerlach of Yankton.
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Music to My Ears

Does anyone else think this is lovely? It’s the sound of chorus frogs and other wildlife at the EcoSun Prairie Farmnear Colman. The farm was established in 2007 with the “purpose of demonstrating how to make a sustained and earned living from restored grassland and grass products while protecting and enhancing the natural environment.”

At the center of their efforts is restoring tall grass prairie and wetland grasses. By the sound of this video, some small creatures are happy with their efforts.

Join a public tour of EcoSun Prairie Farms on July 15. Visit this page for more information.