Category Archives: News

Two Tripp County 4-H shooters competed at the state 4-H muzzleloader match held at the Mitchell Trap Club in Mitchell.
Megyn McCarthy placed first in the junior division. Shannon Weller placed 6th in the senior division and she qualified to be on South Dakota’s muzzleloader team to compete at the national 4-H championships next June in Grand Island, Neb.

By Bernie Hunhoff of the S.D. Magazine

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and a good steak a week keeps an entire town happy.  At least, that’s true for Colome, a cowboy enclave surviving nicely on the Tripp County prairie sea of grass and corn.

About 150 diners gather in a green metal building known as the Thayer-Waters American Legion Club every Thursday night for steaks, salads and neighborly talk. Steak Night, as it’s called, has grown to become an unusual community tradition.

Colome is in south central South Dakota, a half hour’s drive north of the Nebraska border. A dozen businesses operate there, and their names tell something about the town: Frontier Bar, Feed Mill (the local café), the Sign Inn and Scott’s Welding, for examples.  Anchoring Main Street is the stately Veterans Memorial Stadium, built to honor local World War II soldiers, where teens practice basketball.  North of the big gray gym is the Legion Club, where the aforementioned steaks are fried.

“Steak night is an institution,” says Fran Hill, a local rancher, writer and food blogger who has helped with the event. “It’s almost all volunteer, only the cook and the bartender and a barmaid are paid.” The helpers bring salads, wait tables and wash dishes.

Statuary welcomes guests to St. Isidore Catholic Church. Isidore is the paton saint of farmers.

Amy Penning is the new loan officer at First Fidelity Bank of Winner. The Lennox native started her job on Oct. 13.

Penning is married to Ryan Penning who works at Mason Funeral Home of Winner.  Amy Penning graduated from Lennox High School in 2009. She received an animal science degree from South Dakota State University in 2013. She has minors in business, marketing and chemistry.

In 2014, Penning received an associate’s degree in marketing from Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls.  Prior to moving to Winner, she worked in the development office at McCrossan Boys Ranch in Sioux Falls.  Penning’s father is a veterinarian in Lennox. While in school she was active in Future Farmers of America and 4-H.

The new bank employee says she is learning a lot about her new position.

PIERRE, S.D. – During an event at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre on Monday, Oct. 12, celebrating both Native American Day and the return of the Great Sioux Horse Effigy, Gov. Dennis Daugaard released a proclamation making that day Great Sioux Horse Effigy Day across South Dakota.

The proclamation honors the return of the iconic effigy from its international touring exhibition “The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth & Sky” back to its home in South Dakota. Monday’s special event at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre includes an open house from 1-4 p.m. CDT, and a special ceremony beginning at 2 p.m. with Lt. Gov. Matt Michels serving as the emcee. Speakers during the ceremony include: Secretary Steve Emery, South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations; Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; Gaylord Torrence, the Fred & Virginia Merrill senior curator of American Indian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City; and Francis Whitebird, board of trustees, South Dakota State Historical Society.

Spiritual Leader Roy Stone of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe lead a cleansing ceremony and prayer following the guest speaker comments.

“We thank Gov. Daugaard for his proclamation honoring the Great Sioux Hose Effigy,” said Jay D. Vogt, director of the State Historical Society. All of the events, with the exception of the Sunday night banquet which requires advance ticket purchase, are free and open to the public.

The Great Sioux Horse Effigy went back on display at the Cultural Heritage Center on Saturday, Oct. 10, in a new display which features horse memorials borrowed from the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The loan from NMAI marks the first object borrowed from the Smithsonian Institution since the State Historical Society became a Smithsonian Affiliate in January 2013.