Tag: pierre

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The Capitol’s Blue Stones

Hunting for the blue tiles in our state capitol’s floor is a popular pastime for visitors. Photo by Chad Coppess of S.D. Tourism.

Visitors often wander the state capitol halls in Pierre as if deep in thought. Their heads may be down, a look of concentration on their faces. Are they pondering all the significant legislation that’s been debated and pased within these walls? Saying a prayer for the good legislators who toil here every winter, guiding our state gently into the future? Probably not. Most likely they’re searching for the blue tiles in the terrazzo floor.

Italian craftsmen came to South Dakota to help build the capitol, and at the end of the project they laid tiny marble tiles in 30,000 square feet of floor. Legend says each worker was given one bright blue tile to place wherever he wished as a signature stone. Finding them has become a favorite pastime for capitol-goers.

Editor’s Note: This is taken from the story “25 Things Every South Dakotan Should Try to Do”, which appeared in the May/June 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.

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The Theater of Communities

By Pat Boyd

Reaching an authentic source for what drives community theater was as easy as speed-dialing our friend, Michael Pangburn, executive director of the South Dakota Arts Council. His great passion for community theater has not diminished since his days as high school theater teacher in Belle Fourche, or probably since grade school.

He is currently directing Pierre Players‘ production of All My Sons (Arthur Miller, 1947), rehearsing four nights a week (until that isn’t enough) for its opening performance, February 24th. I caught him this morning rested after yesterday’s stint, a full day of judging high school regional one-act plays and last night’s rehearsal of Sons.

There are well over a dozen active community theater groups in South Dakota, many are very active this time of year. (Check your local listings on the table tent at the cafÈ). Many more activate once in a while, when it suits the community in question.

Each production requires the selection of the play, acquiring the rights to produce it, a heated, safe venue, a director, auditions and casting, set design and building, costumes, rehearsals, acting lessons and coaching, rehearsals, lighting, sound, rehearsals, fund raising, publicity, rehearsals, ticket sales, dress rehearsal, opening night and a few more performances.

There is more, but you get the idea. Lots of otherwise sane and sober people devote countless precious hours to the pursuit of performing with others on local stages before friendly audiences — for no money and not nearly enough credit for their courage and stamina, much less their artistic endeavors. Thank goodness South Dakotans are prone to standing ovations, because the bows are well deserved.

I couldn’t even get the question fully asked, What makes people do this?, before the answer came from Michael.”We all have an inherent need to be a part of a community, and theater brings people together with a sense of community. For some, it may be their best experience.” He added that no one understood that dynamic better than our dearly departed Donna Fjelstad, who took Fiddler on the Roof to community production across the state, offering many citizens their stage debuts, and lifetime avocations.

Support your local thespians — Get your tickets now in a theater near you. Hats off, hats in the air, to all citizens of the theater persuasion! Bravo, actors! Bravo, audiences! Stand and ovate! Bravo!

Pat Boyd is Executive Director of South Dakotans for the Arts, a statewide nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts through service, education and advocacy. Pat and her husband, artist George Prisbe, live at Hanna Creek in the northern Black Hills.

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A New Flag for South Dakota

By Bernie Hunhoff

South Dakota needs a state flag, and this week more than 80 of the 105 lawmakers introduced a bill to adopt a design. (I should make a concession that may surprise some South Dakota Magazine readers — I work “nights” as a state legislator from Yankton, and I am one of the sponsors.)

You’re thinking we already have a flag, and in a sense we do. For years, our Great Seal has doubled as a flag symbol. We all like the seal — which shows a riverboat, a farmer and wheat fields — but a seal is not a flag.

The United States of America has a seal, but we also love the Stars and Stripes, and Old Glory unifies us as a people. Texans have a Great Seal, but they proudly fly the Lone Star.

South Dakota had a real flag more than 100 years ago. A sunburst on a bright sky blue background was created in 1909. But somewhere along the line, an efficient bureaucrat decided to fill the backside of the flag with the seal. Then another bureaucrat decided it was too cumbersome to print the seal on one side and the flag on the other, so he dropped the flag symbol.

Way back when South Dakota celebrated the state centennial in 1989, artist Dick Termes of Spearfish began to contemplate the need for a flag for South Dakota. He did some design work, but he also created the famous Termesphere and since then he has become firmly established as one of the greatest artists in South Dakota history.

Termespheres now hang in many of our state and country’s finest galleries and buildings, and Dick Termes has achieved international acclaim.

But Dick continues to live and paint from a small, humble studio outside Spearfish and he would like nothing more than to give South Dakota a flag that could help promote pride in our state. He wants nothing in return other than that.

I’m proud to work with other legislators to try to adopt his design as our flag. Some people ask why we don’t open it up to competition. If we did so, we would receive hundreds of designs and the 105 legislators would each have a favorite — many times their favorite would be the design by their brother or neighbor. But few of the other artists would have Dick Termes’ skill, and none of them will have spent 20 years thinking about what a great flag should be.

The proposed flag gives a nod to the 1909 flag, featuring an abstract sunburst on the same sky blue background. It also features a medicine wheel, a cultural symbol of our oldest residents. The medicine wheel represents the four directions of the Earth and the great outdoors that we all love.

This won’t be an easy sell, even though we have 80 co-sponsors. There are more opinions on flag designs than on merit pay and gas taxes.

We won’t spend a lot of time on it. I’m sure some citizens complained when the U.S. Congress adopted Old Glory, but I’m glad they took the time. The budget, education reforms and economic development are our priorities and they will come first.

But we will find time to try to make a good decision on the proposed flag. I like it. I’m sure that many people won’t. We all know the controversies that erupt when our favorite school changes mascots or our car companies come out with new designs. I still like the’57 Chevy.

So this may take some getting used to. If you like it, I hope you’ll help by contacting your local legislator. If you don’t like it, take another look … and another. It might grow on you.

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Pierre’s Paper Soul

By Bernie Hunhoff

Many people consider an independent bookstore to be the heart and soul of their community. That seems to ring true in downtown Pierre, where the Prairie Pages Bookseller was recognized Monday night as the South Dakota Retailer of the Year.

Last summer was harrowing for all of Pierre’s downtown businesses. To ward off the flooded Missouri, sandbag barriers were built on both sides of the street. Sinkholes appeared on downtown streets, some big enough to swallow a tiny car. To make matters worse, the odor of diesel fuel permeated the street because the high groundwater mixed with some long-buried diesel tanks.

Peggy Stout and Kathy Villa, the proprietors of Prairie Pages, exemplified the plucky Pierre business establishment. They bravely carried on with book signings, readings, book clubs and other activities that gave literary children and adults a place to gather and share their love of the written word.

It was a crazy summer, but somebody noticed their resilience. On Monday night, with a banquet hall full of lawmakers gathered on the eve of the State Legislative Session as well as fellow retailers from around South Dakota, Peggy and Kathy stepped forward to accept the Retailer of the Year honor.

They credited their readers for making the store possible. “You are the store,” said Peggy. Maybe so, but somebody needs to oversee the day-to-day duties — things like choosing the books, paying the light bill and stacking the sandbags.

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Wind Won’t Be Stopped

By Bernie Hunhoff

State legislators and energy lobbyists gathered on the fourth floor of the State Capitol on Monday night to hear a review of various issues from the Public Utilities Commission.

If there is any issue that unites Democrats and Republicans in South Dakota, it is the omnipresence of our prairie breezes. They say a real Texas oilman can almost smell where to drill. It is in his bones and nostrils, maybe the way a Northerner can feel the wind even when indoors or in a truck. We live with wind, and we believe in its power.

So the news from PUC commissioners Gary Hanson and Chris Nelson was heartening on that cold night in Pierre, who reported that in a scant decade our state has grown its wind energy industry from nothing to nearly 800 megawatts.

We lead all states in wind development when you rank it as a percentage of total in-state generation. Wind represents 23% in South Dakota. Iowa is second at 17%, followed by North Dakota and Minnesota at about 13%.

But our potential has hardly been tapped by the existing turbines. We could produce up to 4,000 MWs — twice the total annual peak demand for electricity in South Dakota. Consequently, if we are going to expand in the future we’ll need to export our energy to urban areas.

News came this week that a $730 million transmission line will be finished that will carry wind power from the Buffalo Ridge country in Brookings County to the Twin Cities. It is one segment of a string of proposed lines from North Dakota eastward.

Transmission towers are more important than turbine towers at this stage of the game. Also critical is a federal tax subsidy that pays developers up to 30% in construction costs. The federal credit has been an on/off program and it is currently scheduled to be switched off again in 2013, so next year is an important construction season for projects currently being planned.

The only downside to wind energy has been the realization that, beyond construction jobs, it doesn’t seem to create as many rural jobs policymakers had hoped. The PUC staff reports that only about 3 to 7 maintenance and operation positions are created in a 100 MW project.

But the other benefits — lease payments to landowners, tax receipts for state and local governments, cleaner air and less dependence on foreign energy — have all become realities in South Dakota.

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The Capital Man

By John Andrews

John Sutherland helped Pierre become the capital of South Dakota. Then he did it again. And again.

Between 1889 and 1904, Sutherland served as president of his hometown’s capital committee, and waged three successful campaigns to locate the seat of government in the budding town along the Missouri River. On Saturday, July 9, the state historical society plans to recognize Sutherland’s contributions to South Dakota history by dedicating a marker at his former home on the corner of North Huron and West Capitol avenues.

Not much has been written about Sutherland and his capital crusade, but Marshall Damgaard covers the topic well in The South Dakota State Capitol: The First Century, his book on the history of our capitol that appeared just in time for its centennial.

In the first campaign in 1889, Sutherland boasted of Pierre’s central location (once the Great Sioux Reservation was opened) and its spot along the Missouri River, which still carried numerous boats from Yankton to Bismarck. Supporters of Huron for the capital countered:”Pierre says she is a geographical center. Well, so is the North Pole, but although it is nearly as accessible as Pierre, no one seems to think of calling any public gathering there.”

In October, Pierre won a six-way battle for temporary capital status. But after statehood came in November, voters had to select a permanent site. Damgaard writes that Sutherland placed 40 campaign coordinators around the state and kept them”well-stoked with funds to ply voters with drinks and theater tickets.”

Sutherland earned his living as a well-respected and successful lawyer, so it’s a bit ironic that he was a major player in a 15-year fight that involved so many under the table deals. After Pierre emerged victorious again in the 1890 fight, Sutherland was asked if he thought either side had committed voter fraud. He said no, but also said Pierre was ready. In one empty precinct,”the committee had ballots marked and voting registers filled with names copied from the society page of a Saint Paul newspaper ready to use if necessary.”

Measures to move the capital surfaced in every successive legislative session until 1904, when legislators decided to put the matter to a final vote of the people. This time, lawmakers chose Mitchell to challenge Pierre. Sutherland again sent operatives across the state, but told them only to buy votes unless it negated a similar action by the Mitchell men. Railroads issued thousands of passes for people to visit each town, but Sutherland’s Stand Pat for Pierre campaign emerged victorious for the third and final time.