Abandoned
By Michael Heintz Dad came home to Harrold from the South Pacific in 1946 when I was 4 and bought a 1929 Model A Ford that had been converted from a sedan to a pickup. I can still smell the interior...
View ArticleSeeking Simplicity
By Christian Begeman The simplicity of a single leaf yet to fall, blazing orange in the early evening light. A long, straight road heading into the heart of evening. A lone bison against fiery clouds....
View ArticleThe Wild Dutchman’s Success
By John Andrews Wayne and Shirley VanderLaan were busy enough running a farm near Mound City that they never thought about jumping into the sunflower seed business. So how have the family’s Wild...
View ArticleArtists with Ax and Saw
Our November/December issue includes a story on the Juso Brothers, sons of a Finnish immigrant who brought western European log construction skills to South Dakota. We gathered several photos for the...
View ArticleThe Strangely Familiar World of Andrew Kosten
By Michael Zimny "I’m a basement dweller," says Andrew Kosten. And it's true. He banks major dwell time in the basement studio of his Brookings home, cranking out intaglio vignettes from the world...
View ArticleTickling Your Taste Buds
By Fran Hill When I first met my husband, he was sporting a beard. I didn’t give that scratchy and sometimes tickly face mane any serious thought until one fateful night a few months later when he...
View ArticleSecond Chances
Seldom in life do we get second chances. And the prospect of it happening 161 years after a calamity? Very rare. But our Nov/Dec 2016 issue has just such a story. It happened when Paul Stover Soderman...
View ArticleThe Different Drums of Flandreau
By Chuck Cecil ((img|Flandreau-11-29-16-5.jpg|width=759)) The Moody County Courthouse square is a popular gathering place for Flandreau youth. The courthouse, built in 1914, has an architectural twin...
View ArticleBuilt on Fur
By John Andrews ((img|fur-traders-12-13-16-1.jpg|width=400)) Phil Steckley and the Newhouse No. 6. I remember clearly walking into a shed on Phil Steckley’s farm south of Geddes. We had traveled into...
View ArticleWest River Wintertime
Winter is settling in over the Black Hills, bringing many opportunities for beautiful photography. John Mitchell, Spearfish, has been exploring the frosty nooks and crannies in his neck of the woods....
View ArticleRails to Trails
By Paul Higbee ((img|Rails-to-Trails-11-29-16-3.jpg|width=759)) The Mickelson Trail follows the old Burlington Northern railroad line through the Black Hills. Photo by Chad Coppess/S.D. Tourism. For...
View ArticleBeware of Long Hollow
By Katie Hunhoff ((img|katie-column-12-14-16.jpg|width=470)) Three historic markers atop the hollow on Highway 10 tell the stories of tragedies that occurred there. Photo by Bernie Hunhoff. Cold, wind...
View ArticleSwimming Upstream
By Fran Hill This year. *sigh* Am I right? Even before politics got super crazy and the world got weirder, I was struggling with 2016. It has been the year that I can’t keep up. Sure, I did have a...
View ArticleThe Fort Sisseton Kid
By John M. Hilpert ((img|fort-sisseton-kid-11-29-16-4.jpg|width=400)) Without help from Robert Perry, Fort Sisseton may have been reduced to a pile of rubble overgrown with weeds. Photo by Chad...
View ArticleLight Through the Storm
By Christian Begeman This winter has started ugly. There have been snow storms all across the state, record wind chills and to top it off, a major ice storm and blizzard over Christmas. This column is...
View ArticleHomemade Noodles
By Jane Milstead ((img|Noodles-12-28-16-1.jpg|width=400)) Mother's homemade noodles helped stave off family confrontations in one Aberdeen household. Words weren’t allowed in our Aberdeen household....
View ArticleFinding the Silent Guide
By Michael Zimny ((img|silentguideday-01-04-17.jpg|width=400)) The Silent Guide Monument stands on a lonely hilltop west of Philip. A solitary stone pillar stands atop a knoll known locally as Stoneman...
View ArticleResolved to be Simple
By Fran Hill It is a new year. Have you made any resolutions? Set any goals? Have you broken any resolutions? So far, my 2017 has gone reasonably well. I haven’t quite shaken that overwhelmed feeling...
View ArticleDancing in the Sacred Hoop
By Jerry Wilson ((img|Kevin-Locke-12-28-16-4.jpg|width=759)) Kevin Locke plays a courtship melody he learned from Lakota elders on a traditional cedar wood Lakota flute. He enters the powwow circle,...
View ArticleKeeping Tabs on Jerauld County
By John Andrews ((img|Jerauld-County.jpg|width=400)) The Wessington Springs True Dakotan is one of a handful of South Dakota weekly newspapers that comes to our Yankton office, so I feel like I stay up...
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