David Allan Evans has been South Dakota’s state poet laureate since 2002. As far as I know, he is only our fourth — preceded in reverse order by Audrae Visser, Adeline Jenny and Badger Clark. Let me know if I’ve missed someone?
David is also a longtime professor of English at South Dakota State [...]
Our unpaid but highly appreciated Belle Fourche correspondent Ed Goss sends this interesting shot of the wind-driven spring snow this week. As they say, Mother Nature is still the greatest artist. Here in Yankton, the tulips are welcoming a warm rain.
There’s no word for pig in the Lakota language, but they talk pigs quite a lot on the Rosebud Reservation where this mega hog farm was built several years ago. We sent a writer to do this story in 2005 and he was promptly kicked off the premises.
We didn’t send Yankton photographer Dave Tunge [...]
Got an interesting tip today from Richard Moulton, a reader from Conshohocken, Penn. He informs us that Dr. Harold Scheie, the renowned eye surgeon and researcher (now deceased) has roots in Brookings County. He apparently lived in a sod house by Elkton and his parents, Lars and Ella, lost everything in the Great Depression.
We’ll have [...]
We came across a novel by North Dakota-born Larry Watson that really delves into western small town culture — specifically how our weaknesses and sins are treated and tolerated a tad differently than they are in more populated parts of the country. The fictional town is on the edge of an Indian reservation, and Watson [...]
Spring is here, and I really feel like buying a tractor and some cows. Here in Yankton today, our friendly Case-IH dealer will serve a free BBQ pork lunch before unveiling a new tractor model. Just a mile away, Stockmen’s Livestock is holding a big bred cow and heifer sale (the sale is big, not [...]
A few days ago, we reported on the naming of the soon-to-be built Yankton-to-Nebraska bridge. Now I can’t remember what the committee decided to name it. But I know it wasn’t my suggestion.
Anyway, here is a fine picture of progress made on the roadbed that will lead to the river’s edge. It was shot just [...]
Several times in the last decade we’ve printed stories and pictures about the Faulkton native who turned his old family grain elevator into a home and gathering place for friends and family. Curtis Wik was an exceptional fellow; he led three church-building programs (in New York, Connecticut and Arizona), he made a living as [...]
We didn’t know Loren Garrigan, an 88-year-old Irish carpenter who died this week. I believe he lived in the Highmore area. You probably didn’t, either; but you really should read Kevin Woster’s column about Loren on the Rapid City Journal web page. Kevin’s wife, Mary Garrigan, wrote for us here in Yankton before she [...]
I spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Wessington Springs, and attended the town’s annual business banquet and meeting. It’s nice to see a town of 1,100 doing well. A passer-by might judge the town as looking pretty sleepy, but there’s actually quite a lot happening. For one thing, the mayor is veteran statewide politician Jim [...]
We’re wondering who drives a Ford Bronco on Lake Oahe? Larry Porter tells about it in his farewell coluimn in Sunday’s Omaha World Herald. Larry is one of the Midwest’s finest outdoor writers. About to retire, he wrote a piece about his best memories.
“The most hilarious moment came,” he said, when professional walleye angler [...]
Custer, South Dakota, in the Heart of the Black Hills