South Dakota towns and cities dependent on manufacturing jobs have suffered the most from the economic malaise of 2008-2009, but overall the state’s economy has plodded along better than most. There are several reasons why we’ve escaped the worst. We never got carried away with housing prices, of course. Our people are generally more cautious [...]
By John Andrews
Earlier this week we got a call from a reader asking if we had an image of the Dakota Territorial flag. The question was understandable considering we are headquartered in the former territorial governor’s home and Yankton was capital of Dakota Territory for 22 years. But we don’t have an image and neither, [...]
By Bernie Hunhoff
A few weeks ago I was in Marshall County. Having never seen the interior of the grand courthouse in Britton, I decided this was the time. It is a fine and stately structure, one of the grandest in South Dakota.
South Dakota’s courthouses all have a charm their own. Hand County’s has a [...]
By John Andrews
In our July/August issue we wrote about the Gut Check 212, a 48-hour bike race on Highway 212 from the Wyoming line to Minnesota. Just thinking of pedaling 400 miles across South Dakota is enough to make anyone’s bottom half ache, but how about doing it twice? That’s called the Hell and Back [...]
By John Andrews
Jes Schlaikjer may have been one of South Dakota’s most prominent artists, but we’re still learning more about him. Schlaikjer grew up north of Carter in Tripp County, graduated from Winner High School and went on to become a well-known portrait artist on the East Coast. He painted popular war posters during World [...]
The Greater Yankton South Dakota Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry Association today announced that South Dakota Magazine’s main headquarters at 3rd & Pearl in historic downtown Yankton has been selected as the image for the 2009 Yankton holiday ornament.
Each year, the Chamber’s Trade & Growth Committee creates an ornament featuring one of the city’s [...]
By John Andrews
I’ll never be able to eat canned spinach again.
I recently got an e-mail from Dan James, a graduate student at South Dakota State University. It was a photo of him in Rapid Creek holding a dripping wad of green goo. It does look like canned spinach, but it’s an invasive species of algae [...]
A friend of ours who works for NWPS just delivered an earwig to the magazine office. He had a tough time identifying the half-inch bug with big pinchers (he says they do hurt) and he wondered whether they are common to South Dakota?
I can’t recall seeing one before. Anybody know for sure? According to the [...]
Yankton County native Jay Blankenfeld lives in Florida and became a follower of the University of South Florida Bulls of the Big East because he knew that Coach Jim Leavitt once coached at Morningside in Sioux City, Iowa. However, he didn’t know the coach’s roots were even closer to home.
Jay attended a Fan Fest at [...]
By John Andrews
Rusty Hiltunen, a former fireballer for the Canova Gang amateur baseball team, once told me tongue-in-cheek that if I ever wanted to rob Canova blind it would be best to do it on game day, because no one’s in town.
Sunday would have been the perfect opportunity, but I was in Mitchell, along with [...]
Christine Albert and Chris Gage sent us this fun video that Gage put together from their recent South Dakota concert tour. To find out more about the Dakota Lullaby album, visit www.albertandgage.com.
The 2009 Kittelson Family Reunion (held in July) drew 356 registered participants, although I wouldn’t be surprised if non-family members crashed their party – it sounds like a lot of fun, more like a county fair than a typical reunion.
Kerwin Rakness wrote to us about what happens at the weekend affair:
“My grandfather homesteaded [...]
Oldham farmer Dallas Tonsager was recently named by President Obama to one of the very top positions at USDA in Washington. He became involved in public policy by rising through the ranks of Farmers Union leadership.
Dallas was the opening speaker at the Midwest Rural Assembly in Sioux Falls this week. In his usual under-stated and [...]
By John Andrews
I spent last weekend collecting stories at the state amateur baseball tournament in Mitchell. There was no shortage of good yarns, and I’ll be back for more as the tournament wraps up this weekend.
I heard about the practical joking coach who smeared eye black inside the home plate umpire’s mask, the pitcher who [...]
By John Andrews
South Dakota was home to many U.S. Army forts in territorial days, but one of the least explored is Fort James southwest of Alexandria in Hanson County. That’s why PBS’ Time Team America, a group of archaeologists, historians and artists, excavated the site for an episode of their series that airs Wednesday night [...]