Photo by Terry Palmer
Roughlock falls is one of three sizable falls in Spearfish Canyon. A wagon road once ran up the canyon, and wagon drivers navigating the steep road used a technique called rough-locking (locking the wheels in place and letting them skid the trail) to make it down the slope.
Betty Lou Stratton took this photo outside her back door in Kadoka. Rain drops covered the spider web, illuminating its beautiful design.
Late August is a busy month for spiders – you might be noticing them around more than ever. They tend to go into a frenzy of activity in late summer to get [...]
Gale Sohler, at the steak fry.
Gale Sohler has been a good friend to cattlemen throughout the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana for 40 years, and on Tuesday he and the Sohler family celebrated all their years in the livestock auction business with a big steak fry at the Stockmen’s Livestock Auction which is just [...]
“I AM BACK” will be a great t-shirt and bumper stick for Tim Johnson in 2008. They were the closing words of his emotional 15 minute homecoming speech Tuesday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. The thousand people in attendance welcomed him with rauccaus applause, then the hall grew still with silence as he spoke [...]
We’ve witnessed a lot of political dramas over the last 30 years — announcements, projects, victories, defeats, resignations, fundraisers and publicity stunts.
Today’s homecoming of our U.S. Senator Tim Johnson seems to rise beyond all the above. In fact, it’s refreshing to see that even the most partisan snipers who play in the blogosphere don’t feel [...]
The Black Hills are beautiful and interesting above ground, but there’s another amazing world beneath the pines that most of us have never seen. I’ve heard geologists and mineralogists say that there is no other 50×100 mile region in the world with the geological diversity and treasure of the Black Hills.
Some of the world’s longest [...]
One of the truly enjoyable facets of publishing South Dakota Magazine is watching a story unfold over the course of a few issues. Such is the case of the Floating Bronco.
It all began in our July/August ‘07 issue when he mentioned that a retiring Omaha World Herald outdoors editor mentioned seeing a Bronco speed [...]
This feels like a summer’s day as of high noon, but I happened to be west of Yankton as the sun came up over Lewis and Clark Lake and from there it was easy to hear autumn knocking at the calendar door. A few geese were flying low over the lake (locals I’m sure); the [...]
Photo by Carol Hicks)
Harvest is near, and with corn prices bouncing about, the smart farmers are figuring out how to store their crop for maximum profits. I suspect that explains this parade down a country road in northern Yankton County. Seen from afar, a 30′ grain bin looks very strange crawling across the prairie landscape.
(Photo by Carol Hicks)
Newt and Carol Hicks run some cows on my land. Newt was checking the fences a week or two ago when he came upon this scene in a ravine — a mile or more from the road in the foothills of what we endearlngly call Mount Pisquah.
There was no body and nobody [...]
You probably heard that the American Automobile License Plate Collector’s Association has declared the South Dakota plates as the most attractive in the nation. But you might not know why they’ve featured Gutzon Borglum’s Mount Rushmore monument.
Bob Mercer, a Pierre journalist who writes a newspaper column for several dailies in the state, researched the issue [...]
A severe storm moved along the Missouri into Yankton last night bringing three quarters inch of rain, marble sized hail and a house fire caused by a lightning strike. It left behind these cascading colorful cottonball-like clouds.
We assume the great chief is oblivious to it all, but once again the living are fighting over his bones. Some claim that he foresaw such a fuss and actually is buried in Canada in an unmarked grave.
But the story around these parts is that he was buried at Fort Yates, N.D., until the [...]
A few years ago, one of our readers told me that Faulkton native Boots Thelen was the longtime proprietor of the well-known Mermaid Club in Hermosa Beach, Calif. We didn’t do anything with the information because we have our hands full with stories on people and places here in South Dakota.
Now we learn from [...]
Yankton photographer Dave Tunge sent us this pretty picture today and, realizing our editorial policy of only using photos shot in South Dakota, he adamantly insisted that he found them “north of Yankton.”
I guess we should have asked, “How far north?” … but we were afraid of the answer because we wanted to show [...]