Tag: ziebach county

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Christmas Traditions

By Christian Begeman

It was Christmas morning of 1995. The folks still lived at the farm place on the line between Dewey and Ziebach counties where I grew up. I was home on college break. Dad had a good stand of winter wheat sprout before the weather turned cold down in our fields along the Moreau River adjacent to Highway 65. My older brother and I learned that pronghorns were seen taking advantage of the wheat sprouts that were still above the snow. So, on that cold Christmas morning, we got up in the dark and drove to the river breaks to take a look. I was just starting my love affair with photography and my brother was engaging his”mighty hunter” passions. We made our way slowly to the hilltops overlooking the river just as the sun began to peek over the horizon. A low fog hung over the valley. It was one of the prettiest winter sights I had ever seen. Lo and behold, just on the edge of the fog we could see pronghorn. A lot of pronghorn. I snapped a few photos and then we started down to see if we could get closer.

We had stumbled upon 100 or so pronghorn that morning. Once we adequately spooked them, they ran to the southwest in a single line. I’ve never seen anything like it. They got bunched up at a fence corner and I snapped a few more photos.

I was reminded of this experience the morning after Christmas this year as I watched my nephew slowly move into position to get a better binocular view of a snowy owl perched on large rocks on the southern edge of Sioux Falls. I wonder if he’ll remember that experience as clearly as I remember that Christmas morning nearly 30 years ago.

Our family has traditionally done some sightseeing and hiking around Christmas time. Many trips and walks through the Moreau River country with my brothers, cousins and uncles took place after Christmas dinner. I miss those times greatly. It could be why I still try to do a winter road trip every year around the holidays. My usual haunts are Badlands National Park followed by Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. This year I didn’t get out there until New Year’s weekend, but it didn’t matter. The magic of a winter safari in our West River parks was still strong.

I spent most of my time in the Badlands. A heavy snow turned to flurries in sunshine as the weather system moved east. The large snowflakes blowing in the wind made for interesting visuals, particularly when the sun tried to break through. It didn’t snow in the southern hills, but it was very cold. Did you know that buffalo like to lick the salt and minerals off your car in winter? Knowing this can bring great photo opportunities if you are willing. Parking on the Highland Ridge Road at Wind Cave National Park near a bison herd will usually get them moving in your direction. This offers unique opportunities to get interesting portraits. I like to catch them in the first or last light of the day, and when it is cold, the breath from these behemoths offers added visual drama. I don’t like them licking my car though, so I tend to move on before they get too close. If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, I will be back next winter to try again.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Howes Corner

By Bernie Hunhoff

Bob Hansen (left) has run the till at Howes Corner for 38 years.

“I’ve never worked a day in my life,” claims Bob Hansen, proprietor along with his wife, Lavonne, of Howes Corner Store for the past 38 years.”I like everything about this store. I love the ranch life and all my customers. I like everything I do.”

Still, all good things end. The Hansens sold the Meade County store this summer to Dawn Simons, a longtime employee, and her husband, Russell. Hansen says he’ll miss the customers, morning cribbage games with neighbors over coffee and the camaraderie that goes with running the only public establishment for many miles in any direction.

Hansen’s good humor has survived intact.”He never forgets a story,” complains Lavonne with a good-natured grin. For example, he likes to tell about the only time he was rude. He says a lady customer abhorred the idea of visiting his store’s modern, clean outhouse on a particularly warm summer’s day. She was traveling north on Highway 73 to Highway 212. While cooling her ample self by opening the beverage cooler doors, she asked Hansen what it would take for her to get to 212.

“Go on a diet,” he quipped.

Such has been the atmosphere at Howes Corner. Everyone was welcome, and at risk of some good-natured ribbing.

Interesting characters come and go at the intersection. The Longbrake family, famous in rodeo circles, lives nearby along the Cheyenne River. Native American residents of the little town of Bridger also stop for supplies, including folks like Wally Little Moon, a middle-aged long distance runner who just returned from a marathon on the East Coast. State Representative Dean Wink ranches just north of the store. Currently the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Wink’s one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers but he’s been as vulnerable to Hansen’s joking as the stranger who was looking for 212.

The store was built near the juncture of Meade, Ziebach, Haakon and Pennington counties in 1931 by Ed McQuirk. According to local legend, he won federal approval for a post office in 1940 after suggesting it might be named after W.W. Howes, a South Dakota politician who was serving as First Assistant Postmaster General under President Franklin Roosevelt.

A series of people ran the store until 1977, when the Hansens moved there and stayed — swelling the population to four thanks to their small children, Angela and Todd. Lavonne sold stamps for 13 cents that first year, and she’s been postmistress of zip code 57798 ever since, filling 50 post office boxes in the store and almost as many for rural delivery.

Though Howes’ post office was one of the last to be established in South Dakota, it has outlasted many in larger places because of a regulation that post offices cannot be closed if they are more than 25 miles from the next facility. Howes Corner is barely that far east of White Owl and south of Faith, which is located along Highway 212. But don’t ask how to get there if you can’t take a joke.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the September/October 2015 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Making Memories

By Christian Begeman

On my way to Selby to watch my nephews play in the high school football playoffs earlier this month, I took a side trip to Swan Creek Recreation Area on the mighty Oahe. That’s what my Uncle Jack used to call it –“The Mighty Oahe.” The last time I was at Swan Creek I was with him, and the water was so low it was one of the few places you could get a boat in on the northern part of the lake. As usual, we didn’t catch a lot of fish that day, but we enjoyed being on the water. Jack loved that lake, or more specifically, he loved catching walleye out of its waters. We didn’t get to go as often as he would have liked, but we did go enough to create many memories of fighting 5-foot swells, tangled lines and snags that seemed to take hours to undo. Every once in a while we’d catch a walleye or two to make it all worthwhile.

In late November of 2011, Uncle Jack passed away. It was the weekend after Thanksgiving. In hindsight, that could be why I took the 8-mile drive west of Akaska to see Swan Creek and the Oahe again. With normal water levels I hardly recognized it. I sat on the lake’s edge and watched a few anglers come into the dock while the sun set behind gathering clouds to the southwest. The slight wind was fresh and clean. I snapped a few photos and then drove on to the game.

November has a way of making me pause and think about those, like my uncle, who have been important in my life. Uncle Jack made his living as an artist. In my college years, I’d come home for the summers to help Dad farm, and it didn’t take long to get the call from town that Jack wanted to get together. When we didn’t go fishing, we’d often go into the Dewey and Ziebach County countrysides to scout scenes for his next painting. He had a nice camera and would often ask me to take photos of things that I normally wouldn’t think twice about — the play of light on the shoulders of a butte, or the deep shadows tucked into the folds of the creeks and waterways. It seems he also had an uncle who inspired him when he was young. I remember him saying a time or two after a particularly beautiful sunset that Uncle Orly painted that one for us in heaven.

Now that I’m older and Dad is retired, we’re the ones taking drives into the countryside when I go home to Isabel. Over the years, I’ve been able to capture some scenes that I think would have inspired Uncle Jack’s paintings. So in honor of him, I wanted to show a few of these images that remind me of him and our times together. Whether it’s the subject, like horses galloping across the prairie, or a classic South Dakota sunset, or various views of the Mighty Oahe, I think Uncle Jack would enjoy these photos, and that makes me feel good. May your Thanksgiving be filled with keeping and creating memories that your family members can cherish for many Novembers to come.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Capturing the Old and Weathered

By Christian Begeman

A couple weekends ago, I fell victim to another case of cabin fever … What am I talking about? It happens every weekend nowadays. There is always mail to be read and bills to pay, but it doesn’t matter. There is cleaning to do and usually dirty laundry waiting, but that certainly won’t keep me inside when the fever hits. In fact, there are no amounts of classic movies or great new television shows recorded on the DVR that will stop me. When the sun begins to make its decent in the lower western sky on a Saturday or Sunday evening I’m gone. The same holds true when certain weather events make conditions ripe for a great photo. Phenomena like fog, frost and thunderstorms usually get my engine racing as well.

Weather conditions only make half the photo though. I believe a good weather photographic has to have a scene or place to anchor our ever-changing South Dakota climate patterns. Over the last few years I’ve found myself drawn to symbolic structures of our past like country churches, old weathered barns, homes and schoolhouses to do this. Typically I like to find these buildings out in the open and away from tree belts in order to get an unbroken view of the horizon. However, interesting structures in and around trees are not discarded on my map. I make a mental note of these for the foggy winter days that produce hoarfrost. Those few still, frosty mornings where Jack Frost made magic provide photographic gold if you happen upon the right scene. It’s good to have these places mapped out ahead of time as I’ve found the best time to shoot frost rarely lingers. When the sun gets high enough in the sky to lift the fog, it usually doesn’t take long for the wind to pick up and start undressing the flocked landscape.

Back in the middle part of the ’90s, when I took my first photography class in college. I learned to process black and white film in the dark room and how to dodge and burn prints. The following summer I always had my dad’s Argus film camera nearby while out on the farm. Just a quarter mile from our farmhouse stood the one room schoolhouse that my mother attended as a child. One hot July day we had a good old-fashioned thunder boomer roll in from the west. As soon as it passed over, I grabbed the Argus and jumped into our old Ford work truck and headed for the schoolhouse. I shot a whole roll that evening. Out of it came maybe three usable shots. One of them I’ve included here. The schoolhouse was since burned down. I’m glad I had the shutterbug fever back then otherwise I wouldn’t have anything but a memory of that old building.

Maybe that is why I’m still drawn to such structures when looking for great South Dakota photos and maybe that is why images of old barns and buildings still resonate with people today. There is a sense of history and a feeling of”remembering our roots” that these images can evoke. It is yet another reason that I like photography. An image made is an image saved and stored forever. That old schoolhouse was a play land for me when I was young and a place of work as I got older. It was a place of learning for my mom and now it is gone and lives only in our memories … and in a couple photos I took under a dark and stormy sky one summer long ago.

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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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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Butte Country

By Christian Begeman

There is something poetic about a lone butte rising from western South Dakota’s grassy seas of rolling plains. These lonely landforms not only break up the horizon, but are important landmarks and points of reference to local residents. Often a person will tell you where his ranch or land is based on the proximity of the nearest butte.

Buttes also play an interesting role in the history of the area. Bear Butte, near Sturgis, is still considered a sacred religious site for both the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes. Thunder Butte was famously used as a landmark for mountain man Hugh Glass on his crawl across the prairies after being mauled by a grizzly bear on the Grand River. The Slim Buttes bear sad memory of a brutal battle fought a few months after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Besides the history, I also find the names of the buttes quite interesting. To me they have a touch of romanticism to them. For example, it doesn’t take much to imagine riding herd at Blackhorse Butte or surveying the plains with the keen eye of a majestic Golden Eagle perched on Eagle Butte. Many times, the names of buttes were derived by what the butte looks like. Haystack Butte and Castle Rock Butte along Highway 79 north of Newell are good examples of this. Other buttes have interesting stories and legends that the names come from. In a history of Ziebach County, the Native American name for Thunder Butte is given as “Wakanganhotan.” The meaning is said to be “place of holy thunder.” I’ve heard people say that the Lakota thought that all thunder or thunderstorms originated from Thunder Butte. However I’m pretty sure that this hand-me-down story is more legend and corrupted speculation than the real origin of the name. Regardless, the butte holds a lot of meaning to me as I grew up within sight of it on the western horizon.

One of my favorite older photos is of the sun setting on top of Thunder Butte on a late August day in 1994. It was a high overcast afternoon, and I could tell it was going to be a good sunset. I grabbed my camera and hurriedly got into my dad’s old blue Chevy work pick-up and headed west. As I was driving I got the idea to line up the photo so the sun would appear to set on the butte. In order to do this, I had to cover a lot of ground in a short time as well as veer off the trail. I’m sure my dad would not have approved if he saw me cruising over the open prairie at a speed that caused the toolboxes and fencing gear to bounce quite vigorously. The good news is that he never knew — well that is, until he reads this article. I think the photo was worth it though.

This December, I finally really saw the”bear” in Bear Butte. I was shooting an old barn and sunset just southwest of the butte and in the fading light I began to make out the slumbering bear. It was actually quite a magical moment. Someday I plan to climb that butte. When I do, I’m sure I’ll feel very small in a very large world. I’ve felt it before while on the top of Thunder Butte. To be on a high place looking down on the beauty of creation is a humbling yet wonderful thing. I suppose”sacred” is another very good word for 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.