Once upon a time there was a Kones Korner every four or five miles in East River, South Dakota. Kones Korner without guns, that is.
Each was a clubhouse for the neighborhood, a place to play pool, spread rumors, eat supper when you’re otherwise alone, play pinochle in winter, buy milk and bread and leave your [...]
It’s quite a sight. The bird — actually what you see from the ground is a beak and two huge wings — floats high over the water. Is it dozing in thin air?
And then, using the very laws of gravity that didn’t apply a moment earlier, those wings dive into the water … a [...]
Writing a daily journal of some sort on the internet isn’t the easiest thing in the world. it’s a good disciplinary exercise, however. Like jogging every morning before breakfast. It focuses the mind.
Lots of internet bloggers start out hell’s-afire and then fizzle in a few weeks or months. Others just muddle along, occasionally typing something [...]
Pheasant hunting is a $219 million industry for South Dakota, and the state plans to celebrate its 100th anniversary of the successful introduction of pheasants this fall with a Pheasantennial.
Successful is the operative word in the above sentence. Through our years of publishing this magazine, whenever we mention our pheasant beginnings we get calls and [...]
Surely you’re tired of our preaching that travelers should take the back roads and visit South Dakota’s small towns. So let’s take it one step further. Don’t even ignore those really tiny towns that still dot the countryside.
Merrill Gillfillan visited such towns for his book Magpie Rising: “Hamlets are utterly distinct entities,” he wrote. “Detached [...]
Looking for a unique, homespun celebration this weekend? We can heartily recommend the Herrick Squeal Meal, the most non-commercial and wholesome activity you’re likely to find in all of America.
Writers should not use superlatives, but this is the real squeal.
A handful of people in Herrick (pop. 105, east of Gregory in Gregory County) have been [...]
Today we resurrect the popular Where-Izzit in South Dakota online game show. Be the first person in the universe to guess the location of this photo and win a major prize. Submit your guess by hitting the “comment” button below. Don’t worry if your guess doesn’t instantly appear. Each guess is recorded, timed and dated [...]
Political pundits on the blogosphere are enjoying a Hay Day over the question of whether U.S. Senator Tim Johnson will show up at DakotaFest to debate his challenger Joel Dykstra. Today, former KELO broadcaster Doug Lund offers a reasoned analysis of the delicate situation.
DakotaFest is a three-day farm show held in a big field [...]
We’ve restored three old brick houses built by Territorial Gov. John Pennington, and use them here at South Dakota Magazine. Bob Hanson (above), a talented old-school bricklayer, helps us to keep the exteriors in shape. On the first day he worked here, he found an initialed brick in the fireplace and exclaimed that the houses [...]
Funny how the things you read in the newspaper today are true for today but may be false a few years from now.
This week we received a history book on the town of Thomas, a little burg that lies between Watertown and Hayti, on the western shore of Clear Lake. The book is a collection [...]
We’re working on a story about Mobridge’s fishing industry. I don’t want to insult all our good readers in Redfield, Gregory, Huron and Tinker Town. I love a big plastic or concrete pheasant as much as anyone.
Still, it was somewhat refreshing to see that Mobridge — thought it competes with about nine other cities for [...]
I stopped by Rick’s Restaurant in Mobridge the other day just to say hello and ask how business was going in South Dakota’s northern river city.
Rick said his business was alright, but he wished that the smart people on television would stop making suggestions on how people could cope with the high energy prices. “The [...]
Remember this above all else: the only people still making a full-time living on the land are very smart and resourceful. Even if they were handed a farm by mom and dad years ago, the fact that they hung onto it in the 1980s and 1990s is impressive.
There was a time when a farmer could [...]
This statue to Thomas Grier on Main Street in Lead is probably South Dakota’s only memorial to a boss.
Grier was a highly-respected — if not always loved — superintendent of Homestake Mine for 29 years, almost until his death in 1914. He is an intriguing character because he worked very hard to give his miners [...]
Wineries are adding a splash of excitement and economic stimulus to rural areas of many states, and South Dakota is no exception. We have about a dozen wineries now operating, and just today we learned of a new one near Pierre.
Lucy Halverson of the Lyman County Herald sent us a story she wrote on Randy [...]