The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra performed at the State Capitol on November 1 in celebration of South Dakota’s 125th anniversary of statehood. For the first time, a full orchestra of more than fifty members performed in the Capitol’s rotunda. The event included a dedication and lighting ceremony for the dome’s newly restored stained glass. Photos by Keith Hemmelman. See more of his work at hemmelman.zenfolio.com.
I was 10 years old when South Dakota celebrated its centennial. I remember the wagon train rolling through Main Street of Lake Norden, and Marian Henjum’s homage to homesteaders on the centennial postage stamp that she designed.
As the state turns 125, there have been several similar traditional celebrations. A wagon train rolled out of Yankton in September, making a 17-day journey to Pierre. Last weekend the South Dakota Symphony performed in the halls of the state capitol, as the dome’s restored stained glass was officially unveiled. And there’s cake today (Tuesday) at the University of South Dakota’s Muenster Center.
In Sioux Falls, you’ll find a quirkier celebration of South Dakota. You’ve seen the kitschy tourist ads that line Interstate 90 a thousand times, but you probably never thought of them as art. Neither did Altman Studeny until he was living in Maine, going to graduate school and missing the art and culture of the Great Plains.”My mind was filled with thoughts of the time I spent on the road, seeing examples of the unique visual culture that grows from the land and the history of South Dakota: jackalopes, grain palaces, cowboy orchestras, dinosaurs silhouetted in the evening sun,” Studeny says.
Studeny is curator of a new exhibit featuring such items at the IPSO Gallery in Sioux Falls called”This Exit, Last Chance,” running Nov. 7 through Jan. 30. It commemorates the 125th anniversary of South Dakota and the 10th anniversary of Fresh Produce, the Sioux Falls advertising agency that houses the IPSO Gallery on Main Avenue. Gallery director Liz Heeren knows it’s an ambitious idea. “We can analyze them differently and celebrate them as the art pieces that they are,” she says. “I think we’ll see common threads. We’ll see a do-it-yourself attitude that seems to come from South Dakota tourism. I love that about the pieces that we’re collecting.”
Participating partners include Wall Drug, the Corn Palace and Reptile Gardens, just to name a few. An opening reception is scheduled at the IPSO Gallery Friday, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. Plan to attend, and wish South Dakota your best on its next 125 years.
Imagine what South Dakota looked like when our state was created 125 years ago. Every road was made of dirt except a few streets of stone. A few grand courthouses and church steeples rose above log cabins and sod homes. The open prairie was largely treeless. But hope and excitement for the future of the new state could probably be felt in the air.
It makes us wonder how many physical relics have survived the last 125 years. In honor of our state’s anniversary we want to find the state’s oldest places and things and print them in South Dakota Magazine this fall. We’ve kicked around several categories (oldest fence, church, barn, tree, business, newspaper, bridge, log cabin, street, opera house, boat, restaurant, schoolhouse, celebration, pow wow, jail, bar or pub, West River ranch, East River farm, band, railroad depot and piece of art). We’re hoping our readers can offer even more ideas.
Each selection should match two criteria: it must have existed in 1889 (the year South Dakota became a state) and must remain or be in operation to this day. In the end the feature will be both a travel guide and a reminder that some of our state’s original artifacts are here for us to observe and protect.
In our 29 years of publishing South Dakota Magazine, we have come across a few things that have been proclaimed “oldest.” Flandreau has the state’s oldest church still in operation. The First Presbyterian Church still celebrates services in a 141-year-old church building. The church itself was established four years earlier in 1869.
The Bon Homme Hutterite Colony was created in the 1870s, making it the oldest colony of dozens that exist today. Located on the Missouri River south of Tabor, the colony still uses some of its earliest buildings made from chalk rock. One is an old carpenter shop. Another is a large stone building with a full-length arched-roof cellar where Hutterite women store hundreds of gallon jars of fruits and vegetables.
Among the oldest West River ranches is the Landers’ operation in Fall River County. William Landers, a German immigrant and mason, homesteaded the land in 1885, and the men and women of the Landers family have raised cattle there ever since. “He was a progressive rancher,” his grandson, Tom, told us in 1999. “He was the first to build fences and dams. And he was the first to spread the water out. He developed a ditch-style irrigation system that we still use today.”
William arrived in South Dakota with a mule, his wife, two sons and some cattle. His other mule died on the trail, so he hooked a steer to the wagon to finish the long journey. He grew his cattle herd to over 500 head before dying of pneumonia in 1904. He left behind three sons who divided the ranch into three parts. Reminders of the ranch’s past remain intact, including several homesteaders’ shacks that are used as farm sheds. Grandpa Landers’ old steel plow decorates a flower garden. When William’s descendants walk the land he homesteaded, I doubt they can see much changed in the last 129 years.
We have leads on log cabins, stone fences, historic trees and other such things. Birthdays are always fun, but they really get interesting at 125 years. You can suggest 125-year-old artifact ideas to South Dakota Magazine editors by emailing editor@southdakotamagazine.com or calling (800) 456-5117.
Thousands of local, state and federal problems will be”solved” by families gathered around Thanksgiving tables this month, though in reality, when the turkey’s gone, gas will still cost $3 a gallon and you may or may not be able to surf healthcare.gov.
One of our most fruitful Thanksgivings happened in Yankton in 1879, when a group of influential men gathered at the home of a Congregational minister. By the end of the evening, they had resolved to divide Dakota Territory and make its southern half the newest state in America.
Many historians agree that the 1879 Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Rev. Stewart Sheldon’s house served as a catalyst in the quest for South Dakota statehood. The other men gathered around his table included his brother-in-law Joseph Ward, also a Congregational minister and founder of Yankton College, territorial governor William Howard, U.S. Attorney Hugh Campbell, superintendent of public instruction General William H.H. Beadle and Edward P. Wilcox.
The meeting had its origins because of a proposition quietly floating around the territory regarding school lands. Some residents believed they should be sold to a large syndicate for $2.25 per acre. School lands were near and dear to Gen. Beadle’s heart, and he firmly believed no school section should ever be sold for less than $10 an acre. All in attendance stood with Beadle, and all agreed that division of the territory and the creation of a new state government for the southern half would help prevent similar nefarious acts in the future. Beadle traveled the territory spreading the word about the importance of school lands, while Sheldon, Ward and the others carried the banner of statehood.
Their hard work resulted in a delegate convention held in Canton in 1882. Ward was appointed to an executive committee that helped push a bill through the territorial legislature calling for a constitutional convention. Unfortunately Gov. Howard, their Thanksgiving Day ally, died in 1880 and was replaced by Nehemiah Ordway, whose vast interests in the northern half of the territory led him to veto the bill.
Southern Dakotans were outraged and responded by sending 188 delegates to another convention at Huron in June 1883. Again, they demanded a constitutional convention to be held in Sioux Falls in September. Delegates gathered at Germania Hall drafted a constitution and presented it to the people, who approved it 12,336-6,814 in the November 1883 election. A newly appointed executive committee traveled to Washington and presented the document to Congress, but statehood was denied, despite support from Sen. Benjamin Harrison of Indiana (a close friend of Arthur Mellette, a statehood champion who worked in the territorial land office).
The defeat seemed only to galvanize division proponents. Once again they pushed a constitutional convention bill through the 1885 territorial legislature, and this time they found support from newly appointed governor Gilbert Pierce. The second convention met at Germania Hall in Sioux Falls and drafted another document that was overwhelmingly approved (25,138-6,527).
Sen. Harrison again introduced a bill in Congress calling for South Dakota statehood, but the Democratically-controlled House defeated it. Prospects remained slim as long as Democrats held the House, and Harrison even predicted that nothing would advance the cause until the presidential election of 1888. That’s when Harrison himself became president, and both houses of Congress fell under Republican control. Seeing the writing on the wall, Congress passed an Omnibus Bill creating South Dakota and four other states on Feb. 20, 1889, just before the new administration took office. President Grover Cleveland signed it with a quill pen made with the feather of an eagle killed in Dakota Territory.
When President Harrison signed the official proclamation admitting South Dakota on Nov. 2, it came none too soon for one of statehood’s greatest champions. Joseph Ward died on Dec. 11. He was 52, and the state he worked so hard to create was just six weeks old.
South Dakota began its 125th year on Nov. 2. Over 800,000 people live here today and love its prairies, lakes, mountains and rivers. For that, we owe a debt of gratitude to the men who shared ideas around the Thanksgiving table and committed themselves to creating a new and better home.
Yanktonians kicked off South Dakota’s 125th birthday year with a grand party Saturday night. Re-enactors portrayed historic characters in the downtown streets, and as the sun set the party moved indoors to the Riverfront Event Center where state officials joined 500 fellow South Dakotans in a memorable and festive evening. Photos by Bernie Hunhoff.
Saturday (Nov. 2) is a big day for the Mother City of the Dakotas. Governor Dennis Daugaard and a number of other elected officials, past and present, will gather with the public at large to kick off South Dakota’s 125th birthday party in Yankton.
Geographically, Yankton’s role was established long before anyone was writing and reporting on such matters. Native Americans had a permanent camp, possibly going back several centuries. The city’s very name comes from the Dakota word”Ihanktonwan” which was known as the end village along the Missouri.
Lewis and Clark camped there in 1804, and visited with the Native American residents. A baby boy was born while they were there; the famous explorers wrapped him in an American flag and celebrated his birth. Later, the child grew to be a Dakota leader, Struck-by-the-Ree — an amazing chief who promoted women’s rights, environmentalism in the river valley, religious freedom and education.
White settlers built a trading post there in 1857, and the city became prominent when President James Buchanan declared it capitol of Dakota Territory in 1861. Of course, the”Yankton gang” lost the capitol 22 years later but the city has grown to become a political, educational, medical, manufacturing, recreational and media powerhouse, playing a role that has always exceeded its modest population.
Few communities throughout the West have such a reputation, past and present. Saturday is a golden opportunity for Yankton to show once again why it’s the Mother City of the Dakotas. The local business community has worked with the governor’s office to celebrate with style. Curt and Cena Bernard have opened their beautiful Riverfront Event Center as the quasquicentennial headquarters for the day.
The activities begin at 3:30 downtown with re-enactors who will speak for some of our most colorful and important historical characters. Festivities move to the Riverfront Event Center at 6 p.m. for a social hour, followed by a 7 p.m. program with the governor and then a 7:30 p.m. dance with a 10-piece orchestra.
It’s all free, thanks to the generosity of local businesses. And you can wear anything from a tux and top hat to pioneer garb or your usual blue jeans.
Bring your children and grandchildren. This is an opportunity to instill a sense of the history that their community represents. And encourage the seniors in your life to attend, for without their stewardship through the decades we wouldn’t continue to be vibrant community.
Yanktonians hope you’ll join them Saturday afternoon and evening to celebrate life in South Dakota. Yes, there’ll be a big birthday cake.
