Tag: native plants

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A Slideshow of Christmas Memories

By Christian Begeman

The Christmas season is special to me for a lot of reasons. One reason is the memories. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that this time of year brings about a mood of deep reflection. Maybe it’s the songs, maybe it’s the snow, or maybe it is simply the reminder of another year gone that gets me strolling down memory lane.

One of my favorite activities of Christmas past was when Dad would get out the slide projector and set it up downstairs. Mom would pop the popcorn on the stove and top it with real butter (one of the benefits of running a small dairy farm). If we were really lucky, she would also make her patented chocolate malts. I’ve yet to encounter any malt at any restaurant that can top hers. With goodies in hand, we’d all gather around the wood-burning stove while Dad started showing us photos of places and times long gone.

One of the best presents from my folks was a $100-plus Bogen tripod that I received as a poor college student in the early ’90s. It was at this time that I discovered my interest in actually taking photos instead of just looking at them. The folks had helped me buy a used Minolta Maxxum film camera the year before in conjunction with my birthday. It was a pretty expensive gift and I still remember Dad looking me in the eye and saying,”You better use this now. Don’t let it be a wasted gift.” Or something along those lines. Nothing like a wise father’s words to add some motivation, right?

Back to the tripod: I had asked for this as a gift because I wanted to learn to shoot photos in low light situations without a flash. My first attempts with the new tripod were shots of our Christmas tree and decorations. It was magical to capture the scene as I saw it in real life and not blasted out by a flash. Those photos are still special to me — not just because of the gift but because it allowed me to capture the Christmas setting of my childhood home and keep it intact in a photograph for all time. Plus, I still use the tripod to this day.

This year I will see my 40th Christmas, God willing. It will be a new experience as I will be visiting my oldest brother and his family in California. We might get to go whale watching if the weather permits… which I admit, makes me about as excited as a six-year-old on Christmas Eve who knows he has the biggest present under the tree.

Over the years, I have celebrated Christmas with family and I’ve spent a Christmas or two on my own. I’ve celebrated Christmas on the other side of the equator in steamy Africa and experienced the biggest chills ever to run up my spine while singing the Hallelujah Chorus with the Concert Chorale in college. Every year seems to bring new joys just as every year a few familiar faces and loved ones no longer celebrate with us. All these blessings are simply an important reminder to live gratefully. Every good photo I happen to capture is a gift. That is why I love to share them. Every day I get out of bed is another gift. Every breath, every heartbeat… all gifts. It shouldn’t take Christmas to remind me of that, but that is often what does it.

I have heard it said that the holiday season is the season of photography. I guess I don’t totally disagree with that thought. Photos of”old times gone” and new photos of”the happy now” are and will be priceless. However, my hope is that this is truly the season of love, peace and family instead of simply photos and memories. I also hope that this year, the real reason for celebrating Christmas can be remembered. After all, on that one starry night so long ago in Bethlehem, they didn’t have cameras, but they did have the ultimate gift lying in front of them wrapped in swaddling clothes. The wonderful thing is… so do we. Merry Christmas, everyone!

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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Custer’s Four Seasons

By Christian Begeman

Custer State Park in the southwestern Black Hills is a place of superlatives. South Dakota’s first and largest state park boasts one of the largest publicly-held herds of wild American Bison in the world. The scenery is also some of the best you will find in our state. Thickly forested heights in the north give way to windswept prairie valleys in the south, providing a unique crossroad of geography as well as ecology.

I’ve spent as much time as I could in the park the last few years. Although I love the high country that includes scenic Needles Highway and Sylvan Lake, my favorite part of the park is in the southeastern half among the grassy valleys and prairie hills. I especially love the interior gravel roads that crisscross between points northeast and southwest along the wildlife loop road. I’m a sucker for wildlife photos. The wildlife loop is our state’s version of the Serengeti with all the wildlife that can be seen outside the car window.

My ultimate goal is to get shots of a wild mountain lion. I haven’t seen one yet. A couple summers ago, I thought I hit the jackpot. About dusk driving north on Highway 87 from Wind Cave National Park I rounded a bend in the road and saw the shape of a large feline casually strolling across the road. I hit the brakes and grabbed my camera. By the time I got my prize in the viewfinder I was only able see his rear end disappearing into the pines. I also noticed the tail was bobbed and the ears were pointed. So what I saw was not a mountain lion, but probably a very large bobcat or maybe a Canadian Lynx (if there are any of those roaming the Black Hills). Not my goal, but the rush of seeing the cat was exhilarating.

It’s that kind of adrenaline that drives me to cruise the back roads of the park in evenings and early morning. I’ve also learned the hard way that I need to stay on those roads. On Memorial Day weekend of 2010, an unseen rock punched a hole in my oil pan when I made a turn on what I thought was flat ground in the Fisherman Flats area. Dumb move. Thankfully I had enough cell coverage to reach the park headquarters and even more thankfully, the park ranger was a nice guy with good stories to tell as we waited for a tow truck to arrive from Custer. I’m sure I was now on his list of”things boneheads from East River do” stories. Oh well. Because I was without a vehicle the next day I hiked all around Stockade Lake and found my first shooting-star flowers high up along the trail.

Up until this September, I had visited the park in every season except fall. This time around, I was able to spend a couple days cruising the park as the fall colors were reaching their prime. Vibrant reds, yellows and oranges along the creek beds and canyon floors accented the already scenic views. My main goal was to shoot some of the wildlife amongst the autumn colors. With the abundance of wildlife used to vehicle traffic in the park, this goal wasn’t as challenging as I thought it might be. I was able to get bison, pronghorn and deer all with fall colors in the shots.

My last morning in the park, I drove up Needles Highway and waited for the clouds to clear so the early sunlight would hit the cathedral spires. While I waited, I heard a few weird calls in the valley below and then noises of wildlife scrambling in the rocks and then away and out of earshot. My mind imagined a mountain lion pursuing an elk or deer, but I really don’t know what it was. Soon the sun came out from behind the morning clouds and I got my photo. It was a good end to another successful stay in Custer State Park. Any time I have a chance to visit the granddaddy of all South Dakota state parks, I do. It is truly a priceless treasure nestled within our great state. I’ll be back…but not soon enough.

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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The Pleasure’s in the Details

By Christian Begeman

OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve gotten a little road weary this summer. I’ve crisscrossed the state a couple different times exploring our parks. As much as I love getting out on the road, I really needed a break. But what to do? I’m winding up this summer-long series on our state parks and now I don’t want to drive? Aren’t all the good parks miles and miles away from Sioux Falls? Thankfully the answer to that question is no.

Just a few miles southeast of Sioux Falls is Lake Alvin Recreation Area. According to the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks website, Lake Alvin is named for Alvin Dempewolf, the only World War I soldier from Harrisburg to die overseas. The lake has a popular beach and swimming area and is known for good fishing. The entire body of water is a”no-wake” zone, so on any given weekend you may see kayakers and canoes out for an enjoyable paddle.

Before last weekend, I had driven by the area occasionally but never really stopped to check out the place. So I decided to investigate a little more. The lake is nestled into the lower valley of Nine Mile Creek not far from the Big Sioux River. The hills and ample trees along the shore provide smooth water surfaces most of the time by keeping the wind at bay. For a camera buff, this means excellent shooting conditions at sunset. On those evenings when the clouds are colored yellow, orange and pink, the still waters mirror the evening sky for a double shot of color.

The hiking trail on the north side snakes along the top of the prairie hills and then back through the heavily wooded valley near the lake’s shores. I walked the trail just after lunch on a day where it had rained lightly in the morning. The sky was still overcast, which made for very even light. It was as if there was a giant soft box in the sky, and contrary to the popular belief that sunny days are the best times to shoot, this soft box effect makes for really nice shooting conditions. The colors of the grass and flowers are more saturated and deep, harsh shadows are also eliminated.

Walking the trail, I was constantly amazed by nature’s palette of color. The stately yellows of goldenrod and the deep reds and purples of flowering thistles contrast well with the green and tan hillside grass of late summer. Once you start looking, you notice other things like texture and patterns as well. From the ripple of a fishing lure hitting the water at sunset to the contrast of old bark and vibrant moss and lichen on the tree limbs, these patterns and design of nature often engage my attention (and my camera) for hours. Since it had rained in the morning, there were still droplets clinging to flower buds and leaves that remained out of the wind. It is in times like these when I locate and attach my macro lens to get in as close as possible. I really like how the drops of water look like smoothed jewels on the veined leaves and slender grass stems. Once in that close, things like unnoticed insect life fill the viewfinder and can make for some very interesting photos. From busy bees to majestic Monarchs, life abounds in the undergrowth and amongst the flower buds.

It is funny how one can miss a treasure simply from being too close or familiar with it. I think I was guilty of that with Lake Alvin Recreation Area as well as the nearby Blood Run Nature Area along the hills of the Big Sioux River. I’m confessing that error now and hope to take the short drive again out there this fall to see what color autumn will bring and what other jewels I can find so close to home. My camera is almost excited as I am.

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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Magic Moments at Little Moreau

By Christian Begeman

As if the grand landscape stretching out under the golden light of the sunrise wasn’t enough…and as much as I reveled in the sweetly scented West River breeze when the evening dew settled on the prairie grasses, it still wasn’t the highlight of my visit to Little Moreau Recreation Area near Timber Lake, SD. On my last day in the park, I had one of those experiences that bordered on magical. But let me back up a bit before I get to that story.

Little Moreau Recreation Area and I have some history together. Roughly 20 miles as the crow flies to the southwest is the ranch and farm of my youth. The picturesque Little Moreau Creek, which meanders through the park, was also the inspiration for the name of the Little Moreau Athletic Conference, of which my high school (Isabel Wildcats) was a member. To be named a Little Moreau All-Conference basketball player was a pretty big deal to me 20-plus years ago.

I also have fond memories of summer church picnics at the park. I clearly recall gathering at the softball diamond for a spirited game after we picnicked. At that age, it never occurred to me that the pastor, deacons and Sunday school teachers might be able to hit the ball into deep left field and to the trees at the edge of the creek. I’m not sure why, but playing with them and having them cheer me on as I hit the ball over the second baseman’s head is a special memory for me. It plays back in slow motion when I recall it. It pretty much is my definition of a perfect summer afternoon.

I never swam, fished or waterskied at the main dam in the park, but I watched a lone boat pull a skier in figure eights around the small surface area at sunset in early July. It reminded me of learning to ski at Isabel Lake, which was also small. You had to always turn to keep up enough speed to stay on top of the surface and avoid the tall reeds along the shoreline.

The Little Moreau Creek Valley begins to deepen just a few miles northwest of the park. By the time it exits, the beautiful valley is flanked by majestic shortgrass prairie hills as it makes its way to join the Moreau River near the small town of Whitehorse. According to the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks website, the area was used by both the Sioux and Cheyenne as winter shelter before modern times. This sheltered area also means that wildlife is abundant. Especially deer…

Which brings me back to the highlight of my time at the park. On my last morning there, I pulled into one of the picnic areas. As I got out of my vehicle and gathered my camera gear, I saw movement at the edge of the tall grass of the old softball diamond. I quietly shut the door and moved to the nearest tree.

I peeked around the tree trunk and saw two fawns moving my way. I was too far away for any good photos so I took a chance and moved to another tree about 50 feet closer when both their heads were down and eating grass.

SNAP! I stepped on a small branch right as I arrived at the next tree. I was sure the deer heard and were gone. I put my camera to my face and looked around the tree trunk. Lo and behold, the twins were still there and much closer. I held my breath and did my best statue impression. About this time the twins caught a glimpse of my CRV in the parking area and therefore didn’t seem to sense me standing there. The closest fawn was a mere 20 feet away and dappled in the beautiful morning light. I couldn’t believe what was in my camera viewfinder!

Click, click… And just like that they were gone and into the trees. I guess that is why they call it the great outdoors. You never know when something magical will happen. But I’ll tell you what, you will definitely increase your chances of experiencing greatness by spending time at Little Moreau Recreation Area. I did and have the photos to prove it.

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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Rediscovering an Old Friend

By Christian Begeman

The poetry of camping in the great outdoors calls out to many South Dakotans one way or another. I don’t exactly know why, but I do know that I have developed unexpected relationships with places in South Dakota. There are places that I find myself drawn back to again and again. Places that seem to always have a timeless beauty no matter what the season.

Just over four years ago, I first walked the trails of Hartford Beach State Park on the shores of Big Stone Lake in northeast South Dakota and we’ve been friends ever since. It was around that time that I decided to take what was then a hobby of mine, photography, a bit more seriously. From then until now I’ve been learning, shooting, traveling, trying new techniques, failing, shooting some more, all in an effort to get better at outdoor and landscape photography. Up until then I was primarily a sports photographer that dabbled in landscapes. I found myself facing a few difficult changes in my life that summer. As hard as those changes were, there was good that came of them, as the door to pursuing photography more seriously opened and I made the decision to walk through.

That first time I visited Hartford Beach State Park, I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t really been in northeast South Dakota very much before then. I didn’t realize how much unique beauty, rich history and simple peacefulness awaited me at the park. Hartford Beach is basically a picturesque portion of Big Stone Lake’s shore. Big Stone Lake is a long and narrow body of water that is situated in what is called the River Warren Valley, a prehistoric river created from large volumes of melting glacier water. As time moved on, Native American peoples called the region home. Visitors can see burial mounds and other markings that remain along the trails of the park to this day. In the time of the Civil War, a trading post was started that operated for ten years. The building is still intact along the park’s eastern boundary, with hiking trails leading away into the woods below.

For a photographer, the park is full of variety and many opportunities to find unique images. It is easy to find wildflowers in the warm months of the years on the high hillsides, and it is just as easy to lose yourself in a heavily wooded trail on the lower hills along spring-fed streams leading to the lake. There is a large swimming area for water enthusiasts as well as a fishing dock. It is a particularly beautiful place in the fall when the trees turn to gold and red. When I was first there in 2008, the fishing dock was of the old wooden variety. A storm had just passed and the clouds hung low and flowed into unique shapes and colors as they fled eastward. I spent a lot of time sitting at the end of the fishing dock simply listening to the waves and watching the storm move on while thinking about life and the road ahead of me. I suppose you could say that natural world I looked out on that evening was a mirror of my life at the time as well. Maybe that is one of the reasons I like going back to visit. It offers a time to reflect, a time to take measure of life’s goodness and a time to rediscover an old friend.

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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The Rugged Spirituality of Bear Butte

By Christian Begeman


Just a few miles north and east of Sturgis, South Dakota is one of the most interesting places to visit in the state. No, I’m not talking about Buffalo Chip Campground or anything to do with the annual motorcycle rally. I’m talking about Bear Butte State Park. It is a place of vibrant history and rugged beauty as well as deep spiritual significance.

Rising over 1,200 feet above the surrounding prairie at an elevation of 4,426 feet above sea level, the butte has an interesting geological story too. Eons ago, volcanic activity forced magma up against the earth’s crust to push out rock. For some reason, the volcano failed to erupt. Time, weather and wind eroded the landscape around the rocks to give us what we see as Bear Butte today.

Centuries later, the butte became a place of deep spiritual meaning to various Plains Indian tribes, the most recent being the Cheyenne and the Lakota (or Sioux). Sweet Medicine of the Cheyenne is often compared to Moses of Judaism and Christianity as he spent time as an exile on the butte where Ma’heo’o (God) met with him and gave him the basis of Cheyenne moral, spiritual, and political customs. Later the Sioux would hold annual councils at the base of the butte to gauge their strength for the year as well as catch up on the news of the land.

I’ve heard a couple accounts of the butte’s origin. One that has been attributed to the Lakota goes something like this; one day some children were out playing and a large bear they accidentally disturbed started chasing them. (Some retellings say one of the children was pretending to be a bear and actually changed into one.) The children outran the bear and climbed up on a large tree stump. As the bear approached the stump, the tree stump grew and grew and so did the bear. His claws raked the sides of the stump causing deep gashes on the side. Then an eagle rescued the children and flew them east and very high in the sky. The bear chased but soon grew weary and fell into a slumber at the foot of the Black Hills. The children became the constellation that we know as the Pleiades (or Seven Sisters). The bear became Bear Butte and the scarred tree stump is what we now know as Devil’s Tower in present-day Wyoming.

The Bear Butte region also echoes with many of the great names of the Old West. Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are all said to have been there often. According to some stories, Crazy Horse is even said to be buried somewhere near the butte. Custer and his infamous expedition to the Black Hills to confirm the stories of gold camped at the base of the butte as well. The Bismarck to Deadwood Stage Trail passed just to the west and north of the butte. In fact, you can still see evidence of the ruts at the marker on Cotton Creek Road a few miles north of the butte.

I had the honor of visiting with Jim Jandreau, the park manager, about the sacredness of the butte. He offered some keen insight as to why the place was considered holy. Not only is it a high and beautiful place, but the beauty is distinctly rugged and hard edged. Only spirits would live in a hard place like this and therefore it was reasoned that the butte must be very close to the spirit world. As you hike the butte, you will see numerous prayer flags and prayer offerings tied to branches along the way. Sometimes you will see homemade beadwork accompanying eagle’s feathers as well. A homemade gift is considered one of the highest honors to be given in Lakota culture.

I climbed the butte just after sunup on a Sunday morning. The landscape was hazy as a result of fires to the south and west. I was worried that my photos would suffer, but the butte was full of beauty I did not expect. Various wildflowers, birds and wildlife accompanied me on my hike. Later in the day a brief yet fierce thunderstorm rolled up and over the butte. As it passed, a rainbow appeared to the northeast. Then as the sun set, the departing storm clouds were painted pinks and purples. I couldn’t have asked for a better day in one of South Dakota’s most interesting and special state parks. It is my hope this place is kept and protected for all to experience for many years to come.

A rainbow emerges after the storm.

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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Cow Pies and Wildflowers

By Christian Begeman

Time for a confession: I like flowers. Yeah that’s right…wildflowers in particular. I realize this is not a manly thing to admit. I realize that other fellas my age would laugh or at least roll their eyes if I blurted this out while watching basketball together down at the local watering hole. Most guys my age are into sports, hunting, fishing, exercising, cars and/or big farm machinery. I have no problem with any of those things, but what can I say? Photography changes a person. I’ll take a South Dakota wildflower scene at the golden hour with my camera at my side over any of those things in a heartbeat. Crazy? Probably.

This column is dedicated to my most recent obsession with the pasqueflower. Greg Latza’s cover photo of the pasque on South Dakota Magazine’s March/April 2010 issue started it. That issue came out at about the same time as I put my first macro lens on my camera. I knew the pasque was the state flower and I knew they were one of the earliest flowers to appear in early spring, but I had never seen one in the wild before. My macro and I now had a new mission.

Within a week, I found my first pasque patch. I took more close-up shots than I care to count. Not that many of them were that great, but the hunt and the newness was a rush. Last spring, it was more difficult for me to find pasques with the cool weather and late snow storms, but I found a nice patch near Lake Vermillion in McCook County and actually tried some new techniques to shoot the flower. I used my wide angle lens and shot later in the day to add the nice evening light and some of the surrounding scenery.

This year my flower fever set in early with the warm March weather and I was out checking known patches almost every evening. My goal was to photograph the flower in new and unique situations and in creative ways. I wanted to make images of the little beauty that you wouldn’t find if you searched”pasque” on a Google image search. I was lucky to find a scene that a photographer often dreams about in Hanson County on March 20th. The sky promised to be a colorful sunset. About 10 minutes before the western horizon turned golden, I drove up to a wonderful stand of pasque on the south-facing hills of a creek leading to the James River. It was a cow pasture, so the grass had been grazed short. The flowers were dancing in the easy breeze of evening. I happily joined the party. To be honest, I hope no one saw me. At one point I was literally running between my two cameras on the hillside and firing bracketed images as the setting sun lit the clouds on fire. I had to sprawl out on the ground on my belly to make sure the framing was how I wanted it. I failed to bring a steady bag so I was improvising with rocks and even dried cow pies to straighten the cameras. Does that make me crazy? Probably.

Pasque season illustrates perfectly the reason I love photography. Number one; there is joy in the hunt of finding the right scene and subject to photograph. Number two; there is a natural high that is reached at the moment of the perfect light. This”in the moment” delight is what had me running up and down the hill and grabbing for cow pies like a lunatic. Number three; there is the fun of sharing the image after it is all said and done. Bringing a little of the beauty that I experienced to my friends and their friends makes my heart feel good. It is proof that my crazy obsession for capturing and sharing God’s infinite creativity is worth it. To me, it is a crazy good feeling.

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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Holiday Recipe: Prairie Sage Dressing

By Emma L. Willey

Sagebrush grows wild in South Dakota. Often farmers have to clean it off the prairie to make room for their crops. But sagebrush survives to add great flavor to many foods. My favorite use is in a recipe for turkey dressing at Thanksgiving; it’s a flavor you won’t soon forget.

Even better yet, it can be stuffed inside a wild prairie chicken, grouse, sage hen or pheasant, all birds native to South Dakota. My brothers often brought in some of these wild birds for our family to enjoy.

As kids, my sisters and I went out on the prairie and stripped the leaves off the branches of the sagebrush plants. We took them to the house, spread them out on newspapers to dry for about a week, and then placed the dried leaves in a jar Mama kept in the pantry to add to her sage dressing for the holidays. If you’ve ever eaten dressing with the delectable flavor of wild sage, you will never buy the store brand again.

Celery and onions, other ingredients in the stuffing, also grow on the prairie but they are not quite as easy to find as sage. We only found those in the spring and would stop to pick them on the way home from school.

We collected wild chokecherries, buffalo berries and plums every summer for the most mouth-watering jams and jellies. They have flavors you can’t find elsewhere.

My family also enjoyed several wild vegetables during the Depression. Mama made a wilted salad using fresh young dandelion leaves. She fried a couple slices of bacon until crisp, crumbled them, added salt, pepper and a splash of vinegar and poured the hot liquid over the dandelion leaves. We also used lambs quarter, pigweed or purple sour dock as a substitute for spinach. When the plants come up in the spring, the tender leaves make wonderful hot greens for dinner. Just put them in boiling water for about five minutes, drain, add a splash of vinegar and garnish with hard-boiled eggs. The pioneers in South Dakota often made do with things that already existed on the prairie.

Emma’s Wild Sage Stuffing

6 cups dried and cubed English muffin bread
3 eggs
Turkey giblets (boiled until tender and chopped)
Broth from the giblets to soften bread cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup dried, crushed sage leaves
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/3 cup chopped celery, including some of the leaves
1 apple, peeled and chopped

Mix all ingredients together and stuff into the cavity of the turkey. Roast for 20 minutes per pound in a 325 degree oven.

Editor’s Note: Emma Willey learned about finding food on the prairie while growing up on her family’s homestead near Zeona in Perkins County. After serving in the Women’s Army Corps in World War II, she and her husband Orman settled in Rapid City, where they had three children. Willey lived in Oregon for several years and passed away in West Virginia just before Thanksgiving in 2014. This story is revised from the November/December 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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First Time Mushroom Hunting

I didn’t need another hobby, but I found a new one last weekend in morel mushroom hunting. And it combines two things I already enjoy — hiking and eating healthy, unusual foods.

It’s no secret morels are in season but I’ve quickly found that good hunting areas are guarded and even coveted. My husband Jeremy and I decided to try our luck at this muddy Easter egg hunt in a wooded area outside of town. We found almost five pounds after about an hour and a half of searching.

Don’t even ask me where they were. The only person we’ve told the true location to is my Dad. He’s got better things to do besides crawling around in the dirt and he promised not to tell anyone.

We plan to eat these treasures every night this week. Does anybody have any good recipes?

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Exploring Gilley’s Grove

History and unique plants highlight this Brookings County treasure

By John Andrews

Untouched by the plow, Gilley’s Grove in northeastern Brookings County slows researchers to see what the ecosystem looked like before homesteaders arrived.

Brookings County is farm country, but when South Dakota Magazine visited Clarence Simmons’ land northeast of White in 2008, we discovered a thick forest with history as interesting as the unique and valuable plants that grow there.

Gilley’s Grove is a natural oddity, say researchers at South Dakota State University in Brookings.”It is quite a unique area in terms of botanical diversity,” says botanist Gary Larson.”In the under story, you have a lot of species that are typical of dense, hardwood forest that we would find in central and eastern Minnesota. For South Dakota, that habitat is very restricted. We find a number of wildflowers there that aren’t found in other places.”

Gilley’s Grove is the largest wooded coulee south of Sica Hollow in Roberts County. In their book Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains, Larson and James Johnson, a former range science professor at SDSU, classify the strip of land in which Gilley’s Grove lies as tall grass prairie, an agriculturally fertile area that has largely been converted to cropland. Eons ago, glaciers eroded the steep-sided ravine on the eastern side of the Coteau des Prairies and left an unusual landscape.

“It’s a dry prairie region. It’s very hilly,” says Craig Novotny, an ecologist who has written about the grove.”There’s usually grass in the ravines of the hills, but in this particular area the forest still remains. There are probably 100-plus species of native plants out there, and a lot of those plants are valuable.”

They allow researchers to see what the prairie looked like centuries ago. There’s bur oak, green ash, and basswood, a rare tree in the area that Native Americans used to make rope. The grove contains exotic plants usually found in more eastern locales and rarely in South Dakota. There is blue cohosh, an herb monitored by the state as a rare species. Visitors in spring easily spot the Dutchman’s britches. The white flowers that resemble pants turned upside down are unmistakable.

The grove also boasts bloodroot, another spring flowering plant with delicate white flowers and toxic red sap that was once used to make dye. Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a well-known woodland species with a spike that pokes out of a pulpit-shaped spathe. The plant is sometimes confused with poison ivy because its three leaflets look similar.

The grove’s steep sideslopes have never seen a plow, so unique native plants still grow. Amid the bluestem and cordgrass is rough gayfeather, which sprouts purple, globular flowers in late summer. Another is prairie smoke, sometimes called torch flower or old man’s whiskers. It develops a wispy, pinkish red flower that looks like a puff of smoke.

People around White and nearby Hendricks, Minn., remember the grove as a high school hangout, but artifacts show its rich history goes back centuries. A French fur trapper working for the Hudson Bay Company and Indians lived in the grove before settlers arrived. For years a ring of large rocks 40 feet in diameter remained on the north edge, not far from an Indian burial mound. A dispute between Indians and the trapper in the early 1860s brought the U.S. Cavalry, which built fortifications in the grove. Old ammunition and entrenchments survived for decades.

“There’s the hanging tree,” Simmons said, pointing out an old, dead cottonwood that seemed out of place among the tall, lush oaks. In the late 1800s a local teenager was the victim of frontier justice. He was hanged in the grove for stealing a horse. Jesse James, a far more prominent outlaw, supposedly used the grove’s thick cover to hide from a posse after his gang’s unsuccessful bank robbery in Northfield, Minn., in 1876.

Gilley’s Grove is named for A.C. Gilley, who owned the land during the 1930s. Before that it was called Warren’s Woods, for owner Washington Warren, and Day’s Timber for George Day, who became the first settler in the grove when he arrived around 1870. About that time a log cabin made from the grove’s native oak trees was built, either by Day or the trapper. It has been restored and now stands in White. Other families called the grove home as well, but an old barn and chicken coop are the only buildings left.

Simmons and seven other men bought the 560 acres surrounding Gilley’s Grove primarily for hunting, but they often spend summer weekends picnicking and riding horses through the thick oak trees. As more people hear about the grove, Simmons gets calls asking for tours.”I’ve taken a lot of people out here who did not know this type of thing existed in eastern South Dakota,” Simmons says.

He’ll give tours any time, but spring is best to experience the grove’s uniqueness and diversity.”You have to go there during the growing season just to appreciate the extent of it and how different it is,” says Larson, the SDSU botanist.”You just wouldn’t guess you were in South Dakota.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is revised from the May/June 2009 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order this back issue or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.