South Dakota

South Dakota has a population of 833 thousand people and the capital is Pierre.  The town closest to the eastern border is Sioux Falls.  It was named for the Big Sioux River and the falls that are a part of it.

Mitchell, South Dakota, is the home of the “world’s only corn palace.”  It was built in 1892 to display the agricultural bounty of local farmers.  The exterior is changed completely every year.  A paint-by-number system is used to guide the decorators.  Roughly 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building following patterns created by local artists.  

One of the internal murals

Corn Husk Dolls

Wall Drug is 1,451 miles from Livermore, California.  Signs indicating the distance to Wall Drug can be found all over the world – literally.  The Hustead’s started their drug store in the middle of nowhere - Wall, South Dakota - in 1931.  Their initial way of getting people to stop in was to post signs on all the incoming roads in the style of the Burma Shave signs:  Get a soda - Get root beer - Turn next corner - Just as near - To Highway 16 & 14 - Free Ice Water - Wall Drug".  During World War II soldiers posted signs where ever they were stationed with the distance from there to Wall Drug.  (They currently make the signs available to anyone who asks.)  A friend of mine said that when she got to Amsterdam the first thing she saw was 4,504 miles to Wall Drug.

 

The town closest to the western border of South Dakota, which is the direction we were going, is Spearfish.  We spent our last night there in the Holiday Inn.  We arrived two days after a very heavy snow storm.   While driving around town we saw many damaged buildings and broken trees, and we had already seen dead cattle along the highway.  That was not fun.