Author Archives: Colton Hall

Dr. Jerald Fogel, a doctor of chiropractic from Gregory, was recently awarded the “Chiropractor of the Year” award by the South Dakota Chiropractors’ Association. The award is based on professional and civic accomplishments.  Dr. Fogel was chosen by his peers for this honor.

Once a teacher, always a teacher. That’s true of many educators and it also applies to a little country schoolhouse built long ago in Sanborn County.

The Leet School, built in 1883 by Norwegian immigrants near Letcher, was painstakingly deconstructed board by board in 2007. It took two weeks to disassemble and pack the country school into a 40-foot container. The school sent by train to New York City, then by freighter to its new home — the Norwegian Emigration Museum in Hamar, Norway.

Eight years after its relocation, the doors of the Leet School have reopened at the Norway Museum as part of a permanent exhibit. “The school is a wonderful addition to the Norwegian Emigration Museum because it is a true, unbroken link with Norwegian-American pioneers,” says Elyce Rubin, who originally notified the museum about the Letcher school. “It will teach invaluable lessons of self reliance, love of the land and patriotism.”

Rubin, a travel writer, became aware of the school when she came to South Dakota researching pioneer photographer O.S. Leeland. She sent out a request to South Dakotans to contact her if they knew of any information on Leeland. H. Richard Christopher, a Letcher farmer, knew of some Leeland photographs and contacted her in New York. When Rubin visited Christopher in Letcher, she was amazed to find the Leet School on his farm.

When the school closed in 1968, Christopher purchased it at an auction for $115. He moved it to his farm and started collecting items from the school’s past. Over the next several decades Christopher found furniture, textbooks, photographs and assorted school supplies including lunch buckets and a school bell, a coal stove and kerosene lanterns. “The school was my baby,” Christopher told a South Dakota Magazine writer in 2007. The decision to agree to the donation to the museum was difficult, he said. In the end, Christopher agreed donate the school if he could control the classroom’s setup and placement of his memorabilia, which included his own report cards, art and tests. The museum was especially thrilled to receive the school’s contents, which Christopher had carefully displayed in the school.

“I tend to give life and personality to inanimate things. I had dialogue with the books and desks and what these items meant to me. I thought about keeping the teacher’s desk bell and a student desk. But they all seemed to say to me, ‘we all want to stay together,” he said.

Eight years after Christopher made the hard decision to donate the school and its contents, he is traveling to Norway this month for the grand opening of the Leet School, now called the Leet-Christopher Skolehuset. The simple schoolhouse has new life in Norway.

Someone once said that education is a matter of building bridges. In the case of the Leet School, the spans of time and distance are fairly impressive.

The article on Leet school, written by Steven Garnaas, was originally published in the November/December 2007 issue of South Dakota Magazine. The magazine is a bi-monthly print publication featuring the people and culture of our great state. Visit www.SouthDakotaMagazine.com for more information or to subscribe.

BROOKINGS, S.D. – Moisture during the month of May rapidly transitioned the state out of drought conditions.

“Preliminary data indicate that at least eight climate stations reported their wettest May on record, with more reports yet to come in,” said Laura Edwards, SDSU Extension Climate Field Specialist.

The north central and southwest regions were among the wettest areas of the state. The north central region weather stations recorded their second wettest May since 1895 with a regional average of 6.22 inches; the other wettest was recorded in 1906 when the region-wide average was 6.73 inches.

Records were also set at individual weather stations; Mobridge recorded not only its wettest May, but May 2015 is documented in the record books as the wettest month in the location’s recorded history with 9.32 inches of precipitation. This exceeds the previous record of 8.85 inches in June 1915.

Edwards added that the southwest region of the state had many climate stations that measured two to three times their average May precipitation.  “As a region, the southwest also had its second wettest May on record, with an average of 7.29 inches,” Edwards said. She said the wettest May for this region occurred in 1982, with a region-wide average of 7.34 inches.

Transition out of drought

Following the driest January through April period on record for South Dakota, the May 5, 2015 U.S. Drought Monitor had 78 percent of the state in moderate to severe drought (in D1 and D2 designations.)  By May 26, 2015 only 9 percent of the state was in drought, focused on the southeastern region.

The May statewide average precipitation was 5.88 inches, according to preliminary data. Monthly precipitation ranged from less than three inches to over 10 inches.

Snow was a contributor to May’s moisture levels, with many western South Dakota areas, including Bison, Martin and Interior, which reported more than 10 inches of snowfall on May 10 and 11, setting several new snowfall records for the month of May.

Climate outlook

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the June 2015 Climate Outlook which Edwards calls “a mixed bag.”

“The month appears to start off warmer than average, but temperatures could turn towards average or below average by the end of the month,” she said. “Overall, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has indicated equal chances of below, above and near median temperatures for the month.”

As far as precipitation for the month ahead, Edwards said there is an increased likelihood of above median precipitation across most of the state, with higher probability along the Nebraska border. “If this monthly outlook holds true, it could mean the end to our worries of drought for a while,” she said.

Edwards said El Nino continues to be a factor in this season’s outlook, as a moderate to strong event is currently underway.  “In general, El Nino means less likelihood of long term extreme heat events and less likelihood of extended dry conditions in the summer season.”

So far, Edwards said El Nino has been bountiful in bringing rain to our drought-plagued region of just four weeks ago.