In
Perpetuity
by Cathy Orr
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| COURTESY
OF SOUTH DAKOTA TOURISM
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North
and South—defy
mere windshield sightseeing, inviting a closer look.
Sitting
on a comfy stool in a friend’s kitchen enjoying a fish fry last
summer, I was part of a conversation that turned from the thick,
crispy walleye and northern pike fillets on our plates to the
fresh corn on the cob next to them to fishing stories to childhood
memories to family memories, which of course, took us—in this
virtual journey into our past lives—to places in which we grew
up and raised families. I realized that roughly half of these
“storytellers”—some family and mutual friends—had grown up
in North or South Dakota.
“Remember
when we had to stop the car on the Interstate to let all those
pheasants cross the road?” said Dad. “’Ever hunted pheasants
there?”
“I
remember driving through there early in the morning, and those
farms were so beautiful in the yellow light,” I said.
“Yeah,”
my husband said. “I remember one time when I was driving
[glancing my way]—I think you were asleep. The fields were just
rolling hills.”
“And
in the wind, the grass is all wavy,” said a friend next to me.
One
by one, we recited and received bits of memory that, like a sand
picture, added another layer of color and texture to what
coalesced into an image of one of the Dakotas’ most poignant
features: prairie. This Dakota “carpet” stretches far and
wide, seemingly held in place by rivers, the Badlands’ rocky
spires… and perhaps time.
I
remember standing by a road, surrounded—in all directions, as
far as I could see—by prairie, feeling a profound sense of place
and permanence. Once home to millions of bison and Native
Americans, the prairie unmistakably says, “I will remain.” And
it has, as an immutable icon of the West.
The
Dakotas are enduring lands inhabited—now as they always have
been—by enduring people, possessed by honorable character. We
hope they and their land inspire you to travel beyond this issue
to a journey there. You’ll find adventure is inescapable and see
for yourself what’s made and kept the Dakota climate Western.
SOUTH
DAKOTA
Fields
and Forests
Badlands
National Park is a blend of buttes and rocky spires with prairie,
an incredibly complex mixture of grasses—56 types, including the
taller western wheatgrass, green needlegrass, and
needle-and-thread grass and shortgrasses, such as blue grama and
buffalo grass—representing a rare and disappearing ecosystem.
Wildlife abounds.
As
few as 150 years ago, the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) People lived here,
and today, the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations are
still home to thousands. Places like Wounded Knee Creek, names
such as Crazy Horse, and the film Dances With Wolves serve as
reminders of this evocative South Dakota culture whose influence
tinges the state’s art, fashion, media, politics, architecture,
and religion.
The
Lakota language suffuses South Dakota’s natural and human
history much as a leaven permeates bread dough. The Lakota words
Paha Sapa, meaning “hills that are black,” color many place
names. From a distance, these ponderosa-covered rolling hills,
rising several thousand feet above the surrounding prairie, appear
black. On an area only 125 miles long and 65 miles wide, Native
Peoples sought visions and—for tribes at war—peace; fur
traders and trappers explored; gold-seekers mined; and settlers
timbered, all before the U.S. Government officially named this
area west of Badlands National Park the Black Hills National
Forest.
Wild
Places
As
you might expect, wild things live in the forest—so many in
fact, that in 1920, Congress established the Norbeck Wildlife
Preserve within the Black Hills National Forest, for the
“protection of game animals and birds and to be recognized as a
breeding place therefore.”
Mountain
goats, elk, deer, and bighorn sheep are just a few examples of
game that inhabit the 35,000-acre preserve. Its pristine core,
designated the Black Elk Wilderness, comprises more than 17,000
acres. It was named for Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk (himself
the subject of an oft-quoted book, Black Elk Speaks).
And
in case you thought grassland was barren, Buffalo Gap National
Grassland is nearly 600,000 acres in scattered tracts in South
Dakota’s southwestern corner and is home to more than 100 animal
species. Enjoy a leisurely hike, and take your binoculars and
camera. More than 250 bird species spend part of the year on the
BGNG, and wildflowers display immeasurable wonder, especially in
late spring and late summer.
Park
and Ride
Everything’s
wild—including the riding—in Custer State Park. Tucked in the
southeastern corner of Black Hills National Forest, Custer State
Park is so… well, it’s simply South Dakotan. Bike and horse
trails include the Centennial Trail, a 111-mile multi-use trail.
You can hike to Harney Peak’s summit or ride, on your own horse
or a stable horse, on a number of trails over prairies, pines,
high ridges, and rocky outcrops. Custer’s horse camps offer the
works, including corrals.
You
can park yourself here for the night too, in a horse camp with
your horse, or in one of four lodges. Take a step back in time at
the State Game Lodge and Resort, where President Calvin Coolidge
spent his summer vacation of 1927. Or try the Sylvan Lake Resort,
a retreat in the mountains, at more than 6,200 feet elevation.
Cowboy purists may want the Blue Bell Lodge and Resort, where in
one day they can take in a trailride, traditional chuckwagon
cookout, and home-cooked buffalo dinner. Families may opt for the
Legion Lake Resort, with its family-size cabins, swimming, and
watercraft rentals.
The
Prairie Homestead is a rare example of an intact sod dwelling,
located at the northeast entrance to the Badlands National Park.
It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since
1974, and most of the structure—built into the side of a
hill—is original. To see it is to see the lives of original
“sodbusters” Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brown, Iowans who homesteaded
here in 1909. Keith and Dorothy Crew restored the Prairie
Homestead in 1962. The 24-inch thick sod walls tell a stirring
story of frontier life. You can gas up your car and shop in the
Badlands Trading Post here before you head into the park.
Prairie
Pagentry
Countless
children—and adults for that matter—got their first
introduction to frontier life through the writings of Laura
Ingalls Wilder. In books such as By the Shores of Silver Lake, The
Long Winter, and Little Town on the Prairie, Wilder chronicled her
girlhood in De Smet, S.D., where today you can tour some of the
notable places in her life (and books), including the home
“Pa” built in 1887, and the Ingalls Memorial, the site where
Pa planted five cottonwood trees, one for “Ma” and each of the
girls. During July, don’t miss the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant,
in which actors re-create scenes described in Little Town on the
Prairie, one of Wilder’s best-loved books. Tentative dates for
2004 Pageants are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings of the
last three weekends in July.
Ranch
with an Angle
“Past
meets present” as innkeepers Kenny and Lyndy Ireland say of
their Triangle Ranch Bed and Breakfast. Just 20 minutes from the
Badlands, the homey accommodations include Ireland’s 1923 Sears,
Roebuck and Company Honorbilt home, recipient of the 2002 South
Dakota Award of Excellence in Historic Restoration. Fishing,
hiking, ranch tours—you may get to help Kenny check fences and
cattle—and campfire entertainment, surrounded by those rolling
Dakota prairies and lush river bottoms, are part of a scrumptious
menu of Western hospitality, as well as a delicious, full
breakfast and afternoon snacks. And Triangle Ranch offers
overnight stabling for guests and their equine traveling
companions.
Wild
and Wooly
Every
fall, Custer State Park heads one of the headiest festivals in the
West with its Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival, next year Oct. 2
to 4. The roundup—2004 marks the park’s 39th—helps support a
healthy herd size—about 1,000—and roughly 500 sell at auction.
As these massive beasts rumble past two designated viewing
areas on the way to corrals, spectators get once-in-a-lifetime
views of a genuine Western icon. The Buffalo Wallow Chili Cookoff
and Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival are more recent but real
down-home additions to the event. Art and crafts exhibits, cowboy
poetry, music, Native American dancing, and a renowned fiery chili
competition endow this event with the true taste of the West.
Local
Flavor
By Bob Mercer
INTERIOR,
S.D.—It’s 50 miles from the Gabriels’ cattle ranch in Haakon
County to the A&M Café, but Larry Gabriel and his wife,
Charlotte, don’t think twice about making the trek to enjoy the
locally famous Indian tacos served at the A&M.
That
would be recommendation enough for such a small eatery in the
South Dakota Badlands, but the endorsement is all the stronger
when one considers that Larry is the state’s secretary of
agriculture—someone way too busy to waste time on a bad meal.
The
A&M Café wasn’t always so alluring. In 1997, Allen Grimes
and his mother, Mary Lou, took a gamble and bought the property
after previously working just up the road at the Cedar Pass Lodge.
They remodeled and modernized the building. She passed away three
Aprils ago. Now Allen and his wife, Lisa, run things, with two
shifts of workers each day. At summer’s peak, they employ up to
22 people—and this in a place with seating for fewer than 50.
Allen works from a wheelchair—the result of a hunting accident
in 1980—cooking in the kitchen and helping with other duties.
Good
food is one reason that a restaurant can make it in remote
Interior—population 67, give or take a body or two.
Another reason is that folks know, from March 15 through
October, that the A&M will be open when they get there,
serving up three meals a day, seven days a week, from 6:30 in the
morning to 9 or so at night. And it doesn’t hurt that the
A&M sits on the southern end of the popular Cedar Pass route
through Badlands National Park.
The
Grimes tried to stay open year-round but found that business
wasn’t steady enough in the winter months, with few tourists
coming through and the weather keeping the local folks busy on
their home places. “It gets cold, people are working, and they
don’t want to go out to eat,” he explained. But when they do,
the A&M dishes it up—from sandwiches and steaks to liver and
onions or vegetarian burgers.
But
the A&M’s Indian tacos get top billing. “We sell a lot of
those,” said Allen. They come small or large —and, if you
prefer, topped off with chopped raw onion. The fry bread comes to
the table fresh and hot, with the lettuce, taco meat, and other
goodies piled plenty high, sauce on the side. A large one, along
with a dish of fresh potato salad (in season) and a mountain-size
soft drink will run you $10 with tax.
The
A&M Café is clean, bright, and cozy. The booths—there are
four—feel good to slump into after long hours behind the wheel.
There are four small tables for four, a round table for five, and
a long table for eight. That’s it, but the place doesn’t feel
overcrowded. The help is friendly but knows enough to leave a
person alone if he doesn’t feel like small talk. And when
you’re ready to leave… you won’t go hungry.
NORTH
DAKOTA
T.R.’S
Legacy
“I
never would have been president if it had not been for my
experiences in North Dakota,” said our nation’s 26th
president, Theodore Roosevelt. His experiences in the West as a
hunter and rancher compelled him to take the lead in conserving
the country’s natural resources—roughly 230 million acres,
according to one estimate—in preserved areas and activities,
including 150 national forests, 51 wildlife refuges, 5 national
parks, 18 national monuments, and 24 reclamation projects.
Roosevelt
built body, soul, and character in North Dakota, surviving the
rigors of ranch life and the weather. Hide hunters and disease had
decimated the last large bison herds by the time he first came in
September 1883, and as he noted increasing damage and destruction
of some big game species and their grassland habitats, his concern
for conservation grew.
It’s
no wonder that an area in western North Dakota, in which some of
the world’s largest herds of big game, including bison—and
Roosevelt himself—once roamed, earned the name Theodore
Roosevelt National Park. In the park’s more than 70,000 acres,
you’ll find open prairie, badlands, and bison. And surrounding
it is the country’s largest national grassland, the Little
Missouri National Grassland—about 1.2 million acres of grassland
as well as badlands. The State Scenic River, the Little Missouri,
slices the grassland west to east as it transects its rolling
hills, remote prairies, and rugged canyons.
Within
the LMNG, the largest livestock grazing program in the national
grassland system exists in harmony with populations of deer,
antelope, elk, and bighorn sheep. Old homestead and Native
American sites, fossils, and prairie falcons are among the
attractions. Canoe, hike, bicycle, or horseback ride for unique
and satisfying views of the grassland, especially during sunset
and sunrise.
Lore
and Legends
There’s
a mountain of both at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, just south
of Mandan, N.D. The last residence of Gen. George A. Custer before
he rode out to his ill-fated battle at the Little Bighorn sits
here, and uniformed soldiers or Custer’s maids conduct guided,
living history tours, transporting visitors to 1875. The fort also
offers guided horseback tours of old Fort Lincoln. Two hundred
years prior to Army occupation here, the Mandan Indians
established their village, On-a-Slant, where at least a thousand
Mandan lived in 85 round lodges made of wood and earth. The Mandan
abandoned this village in the late 18th century after a smallpox
epidemic, when they moved north to settle at a site further
upriver on the Missouri where, as history would have it, they
hosted Lewis and Clark on their epic journey in 1804. Tour the
village, as well as the Visitors Center, for exhibits that guide
you to other fateful times in our nation’s frontier past. Or
walk nearby trails for a view of the Missouri River, a living
history exhibit all its own.
The
Ranch Life
An
extended stay on one of North Dakota’s working ranches is a
great way to move from seeing to experiencing the Western
lifestyle. Since the 1880s, the Hanson family of the Logging Camp
Ranch, not far south of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, has
observed working ranch traditions as it has for four generations
in the Little Missouri River valley. Not the least important of
these traditions is raising horses, which is central to ranch
operations. Guests here enjoy hiking, observing wildlife, camping,
hunting, a youth camp, and of course, horseback riding—their
horses or your own.
Near
Washburn, the Flaming Arrow Guest Ranch can’t help but harbor
Western history, scenery, and solitude. Hedged by Lewis and Clark
landmarks, including the Missouri River and historic Trail sites,
the Flaming Arrow is a place to view and experience the homes and
traditions of Native Americans and ranchers, as well as wildlife
as the Corps of Discovery may have seen it 200 years ago. Lodging
includes teepees, a cabin, and even a covered wagon. Join in on a
campfire sing-along, trailride across rolling hills and secluded
valleys, or enjoy a hunting trip, reunion, or family vacation.
Owners Dennis and Betty Kost will help you custom design your
getaway on this generations-old, 800-acre farm and ranch.
Good
Rides in the Badlands
Little
Missouri State Park is a trailrider’s paradise of more than
5,700 acres. Rugged beauty typifies the terrain of the park’s
badlands, and most of the park is accessible only on horseback or
afoot on 30 miles of trails. Wildlife abounds, and if you have
your own horse, you’ll appreciate corrals and well water here,
plus electrical hookups, and picnic shelters. Be sure to check
weed-free forage regulations before arrival. If you don’t have
your own horse, a park concessionaire will provide one.
Theodore and Theatrics
Every
summer, Medora hosts a combination of unique tack—as in
edibles—and topnotch musical talent with the Pitchfork Fondue
and Medora Musical. It’s history and a rare take on Western food
you’ll long remember.
Medora
is Theodore Roosevelt country; his cattle ranch, the Maltese Cross
Ranch, was eight miles south of Medora in 1883, and a year later,
after the death of his mother and wife, he bought another, the
Elkhorn Ranch, about 35 miles north of Medora. Dedicated to
Roosevelt, the Medora Musical has entertained millions with its
professionally produced, outdoor performances. With the beauty of
the Badlands as a backdrop, the Burning Hills Singers wow
audiences with singing, clogging, yodeling, and variety acts that
include traditional Western historic themes. Next year’s show
season opens June 4, 2004
and runs through Sept. 5.
Before
you go, though, tradition calls for an exceptional Western meal at
the Pitchfork Fondue. As you bask in the light of the sun setting
over the Badlands, enjoy an 11-ounce Rib Eye steak cooked
“Cowboy Style,” as the locals say, on the end of a pitchfork.
Teamed up with sides of baked potatoes and beans, coleslaw,
breads, dessert, and beverages, it’s a buffet befitting the vast
surrounding Dakota landscape.
Open
Range
By Patricia Stockdill
KILLDEER,
N.D.—Eric Kehr believes dining is a visual experience, but a
fine dining experience also is pleasing to the palate and sense of
smell, and it enhances camaraderie among friends.
Kehr’s
Buckskin Bar and Grill, in Killdeer, N.D., combines the entire
dining experience with a laid-back, down-home Western atmosphere.
But it’s the kitchen that attracts Buckskin dinner guests’
attention first. It’s inescapable, since Kehr incorporated
“display cooking” when he redesigned the restaurant, putting
chefs in full view of guests.
People
enjoy watching their meal being prepared, Kehr says. “You hear
the steak sizzling and smell the food.” Guests watch as chefs
sauté, sear, toss, and season everything before their dining
“audience.”
Let’s
be honest here. It’s fun to watch a good chef at work, and Kehr
finds that that bears out on a daily basis. And the splash and
sputter of food cooking over fire in an open grill always entices
guests.
Kehr
enjoys his view as well. “How many chefs actually get to watch
everything?” he said. Besides, with the kitchen in full view
Kehr can visit with guests while he works—and vice versa.
Chefs
in the tiny—yet efficient—kitchen can prepare 200 meals on any
given night. Thursday’s “Mexican Night” often means
preparing 100 south-of-the-border meals.
Kehr
bought the Buckskin Bar in 1997. He believes the uniqueness of
display cooking initially attracted dinner guests, and succulent
meals draw people from more than 50 miles away.
Kehr
uses original recipes, fresh herbs, and even local vegetables when
in season. The menu features pasta, seafood, and lots of beef,
which is immensely popular in this cattle country shadowed below
the hills known as the Killdeer Mountains. Steaks and prime rib
are the most popular menu items. “That 32-ounce prime rib is
kind of a whopper,” Kehr said.
The
ambiance of the Buckskin sets it apart as well. Kehr, originally
from Pennsylvania, settled in North Dakota to raise horses. Owning
a bar was a good way to meet people, learn the area, and find
places to hunt, he says.
The
region has embraced Kehr and the Buckskin. “The people up here
are great,” said Ken Thomsen, Baldwin, N.D., “and it’s a
unique dining experience.”
Locals
come for Happy Hour and nightly specials. Ernie Charchenko and Ole
Johnson once owned the same bar that is now the Buckskin. They
come to drink, play cards, shake dice, and tell stories, and
occasionally the feisty 80-something–year-olds come close to
fisticuffs. Or so it would seem.
The
Buckskin’s décor—a blend of old-time rodeo memorabilia and
Western ambiance with antiques and a hunting motif—is a touch of
home for many dinner guests. The patrons include many bucking
bronc riders, barrel racers, steer wrestlers, and ropers featured
in photographs throughout the restaurant.
The
four separate buildings melded into the Buckskin Bar and Grill
combine a love of horses, history, the West, and hunting with a
unique, fine dining experience in the company of good
friends—including the chef.
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