Category Archives: State

Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced June 7 that he has appointed Mike Jaspers of rural Minnehaha County to serve as South Dakota’s Secretary of Agriculture. Jaspers will begin July 5.

“I am very excited to have Mike serve as ag secretary,” Gov. Daugaard said. “His background in agriculture production, policy and administration makes him a great fit to lead the department.”

“I am honored that Gov. Daugaard has given me this opportunity,” Jaspers said. “I look forward to working with the men and women who make agriculture our state’s No. 1 industry.”

A native of northeast South Dakota, Jaspers operates a diversified crop and livestock farm in McCook, Hutchinson and Marshall counties. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanized Agriculture from South Dakota State University in 1993.

In addition to operating his farm and holding management positions in several agricultural businesses, Jaspers served in the South Dakota State Legislature from 1997-2005. In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed him state director of USDA-Rural Development, where he served until June 2008.

Jaspers currently serves as vice chairman of the board for Sioux Falls Catholic Schools and is a graduate of the South Dakota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (SDARL) program. He and his wife, Robin, have two children.

What has 8 city wide rummage sales, 8 flea markets, gun show, car show, street dance, lawnmower races, and one leg of the Great American Car Race?   It is South Dakota’s annual Scavenger’s Journey.  Now in its 5th year, the Scavenger’s Journey covers almost 100 miles along US Hi Way 16 and I-90 from Friday June 24th to Sunday June 26th.  It runs from Presho, east to Plankinton, and also includes the towns of Reliance, Oacoma, Chamberlain, Pukwana, Kimball, and White Lake.

Looking for that one special item.  You can find almost anything at one of the flea markets, rummage sales or specialty shops.  If you’re not sure what you are looking for you can find that also!  Take a minute to admire the corn and sunflower fields of eastern South Dakota to the Missouri River the rolling hills of central South Dakota, and the flat plains and unique scenery of western South Dakota.

Scavenger’s Journey was started 5 years ago to promote commerce along old HiWay 16 in central South Dakota.  It has succeeded by bringing thousands of people to buy antiques, collectibles, crafts, coins, guns, signs, farm primitives, furniture to use or repurpose, yard art, books,  and all types of food items available in the 8 cities along the trail.

Come and experience the thrill of finding that “one” unique item that has been hiding in someone’s attic, garage, shelterbelt, or basement.  You can download the 24 page map over the computer with Paypal or buy a map for $2.00 in any of the 8 towns.  Hours vary at each sales location with many starting at 9 a.m. or before on Friday running through Sunday.

Burrus grew up in Boise, Idaho, where he attended Centennial High School and participated in sports including football and wrestling. While in Idaho, he enjoyed the outdoors and spent time hunting and fishing with his grandparents.

After high school, Gary joined the Marine Corps where he began his career in telecommunications and information technology. During his enlistment, Gary was meritoriously promoted to corporal, and then promoted to sergeant. He spent most of his enlistment in Japan and California. When he was honorably discharged he moved to Mitchell to attend Mitchell Technical Institute and obtain his associate’s degree in satellite communication.

During this time he married Casey Teel and together they lived in Bridgewater while he worked at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls as the communications technician and in information technology.

While working and raising a two boys with his wife, Gary attended Southeast Technical Institute and earned his business management degree.

After living in Bridgewater for ten years, Gary and Casey made the decision to move to Gregory County to be closer to family.

They now live on a small acreage by Herrick and their two boys attend Burke Elementary School. Gary is employed by Winner Regional Healthcare Center as the IT Director and spends his free time fishing with his kids, cheering his kids on in baseball, and helping out the 4-H club by teaching the Lego robotics class.

Gary is running for District 21 representative to bring a perspective of someone who has lived on both sides of the state and realizes that each side of the state has unique needs. He brings the viewpoint of someone who pays for healthcare but also sees how important it is that people receive care. As a veteran, he understands the struggles that our returning soldiers face. But most importantly he realizes that South Dakota is a great place to live and how important it is to keep it that way.

A pretty little strawberry patch flourishes in the backyard of our magazine. Normally, our staffers compete with the birds in June for ripe berries but this year most of us are avoiding the patch because someone saw a family of snakes living in the dense foliage.

I don’t mind the backyard snakes but I know ophiophobia, extreme fear of snakes, is prolific. In 2002 we published a story on rattlesnakes and asked Madison artist John Green to paint the cover — a friendly rattler holding an olive branch in his fangs. We were met with the biggest reader backlash in the history of the South Dakota Magazine. Readers wrote scathing letters and threatened to cancel their subscriptions if we ever put a snake on the cover again.

We joked that the incident taught us why most magazines put pretty girls and fattening foods on their covers. But we never did it again.

Not all people run at the sight of snakes. A.M. Jackley was considered a hero when he became the state’s official rattlesnake hunter (a paid position) in 1937. He hunted them to help neighbors at first, and discovered he had a talent. Jackley had some opposition from early animal rights believers, but scoffed at his naysayers. “Those of us who have looked upon the still form of a child lying on the prairie with a rattlesnake coiled beside it, or have seen one bitten and suffer death, cannot take kindly this opposition,” he argued.

Ben Smith of Fort Pierre is South Dakota’s modern-day unofficial rattlesnake catcher. Smith grew up on a farm south of Fort Pierre and watched his dad kill snakes and save the rattles. When he was old enough, he started saving the rattles. He eventually began hunting them himself. People know they can call Smith with a snake emergency. “It’s an adrenaline rush to be out there,” he told us. “I’ll come and if I find them I’ll take them out.”

Earl Brockelsby, the father of Reptile Gardens near Rapid City, also felt that rush. But he didn’t kill snakes; he played with them. He first began to work with reptiles as a young guide at a roadside attraction near the Badlands. He soon learned he had a rapport with them. “Every time I came near their cage, they would coil up into a striking position with the neck in an ‘S’ … and rattle vigorously,” Brockelsby wrote years later. “Still, when I reached into the box to lift one out, it wouldn’t strike and would quit rattling once it was in my hand. Then it would crawl up my shirt sleeve, out the collar at my neck, then over my ear, and force his way under my hat where it would then coil tightly on top of my head.”

Brockelsby shocked and impressed the tourists with such tricks as the summer progressed. The tips he earned that summer were a snake talent, and that eventually led to Reptile Gardens. A new book by Sam Hurst, Rattlesnake Under His Hat, tells of Brockelsby’s adventures.

All we have here in our Yankton strawberry patch are harmless garter snakes, and yet I don’t think we have a single magazine staffer who would let one crawl up his or her shirt. Anybody want some pick-your-own strawberries?

The official keel-laying ceremony took place recently for the new U.S.S. South Dakota attack submarine. This milestone for the third such vessel named in honor of our state signified the start of the vessel’s construction.

A significant milestone occurred in the life of the first U.S.S. South Dakota in 1904. On July 21, South Dakota Gov. Charles Herreid, his daughter Grace, and a party of 10 were in San Francisco to christen and launch the armored cruiser. Launching is the day the ship’s hull is put in the water.

Congress had authorized the building of the armored cruiser by Union Iron Works of San Francisco in 1900. Grace Herreid was the ship’s sponsor. In the Navy, a sponsor is the title given to a citizen chosen to christen a naval vessel. During the launching ceremony, the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of California gave a short prayer and Grace pressed a button that released the cruiser from its blocks. As the cruiser slid down the ways, Grace swung a bottle of champagne against the hull and bestowed the name U.S.S. South Dakota on the ship. Part of the figurehead, which is an ornament on the bow of a ship, was the South Dakota state seal in brass.

Commissioning is the day the captain assumes command on board. The U.S.S. South Dakota was commissioned in 1908. The time difference between launching and commissioning has to do with completing the outfitting of the ship and training the crew.

The first U.S.S. South Dakota was attached to the Pacific Fleet.

The South Dakota Legislature appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of a silver service to be part of the furnishings of the U.S.S. South Dakota. Gorham Silver Company of Providence, R.I., manufactured the silver service, which consisted of 32 sterling pieces, some with gold lining. The designs engraved on the silver service pieces are from photographs of South Dakota scenes symbolic of the varied resources and industries of the state. Nautical representations are also included on the silver service.

In 1914 Mexico was in the midst of civil war. President Woodrow Wilson sent American warships to waters off Mexico to protect American interests and property. The U.S.S. South Dakota with Marines on board kept the Mexican coast under surveillance by cruising up and down the shoreline.

After the United States entered World War I, the U.S.S. South Dakota joined the Atlantic Fleet. It patrolled the South Atlantic, operating from Brazilian ports, searching for German vessels. In 1918, the cruiser escorted troop convoys from the East Coast to the mid-Atlantic rendezvous point where British cruisers joined the convoy.

Following the signing of the armistice, the U.S.S. South Dakota made two voyages from France to New York to return troops to the United States. The wartime crew consisted of 700 regular Navy men and 500 naval reservists.
In the summer of 1919, the U.S.S. South Dakota was ordered back to the Pacific to serve as flagship of the Asiatic fleet, which consisted of 26 vessels including eight destroyers. The flagship is the ship carrying the flag officer or commander of a fleet, and displaying the officer’s flag.

The U.S.S. South Dakota was stationed off Vladivostok, Russia, during the winter of 1920 to aid and defend in the withdrawal of American troops. Four companies of Marines landed in Vladivostok from the U.S.S. South Dakota.
The cruiser was renamed the U.S.S. Huron in 1920 as a new ship was to bear the state’s name. The new U.S. S. South Dakota would become a famed battleship during World War II.

The U.S.S. Huron served in the Asiatic Fleet for seven years. When Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1923, the U.S.S. Huron helped bring clothing, food, medical supplies and other items to Japan.

The U.S.S. Huron was decommissioned in 1927 and sold for scrap in 1930.

People can still see part of the first U.S. S. South Dakota. The silver service is displayed in the museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre, and the brass state seal that was part of the ship’s figurehead is displayed in the building’s lobby.

The South Dakota state sales and use tax will increase from 4 percent to 4.5 percent on June 1.

All transactions that are currently subject to the 4 percent sales and use tax rate will be subject to the 4.5 percent sales and use tax rate effective June 1.

The municipal taxes are not affected by this rate increase.

The half cent sales tax increase was part of the legislative package to increase teacher pay.

Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that the challenge submitted for the initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution Limiting the Ability to Set Statutory Interest Rates for Loans (18%) was unsuccessful.

An Initiated Amendment to the Constitution Limiting Ability to Set Statutory Interest Rates for Loans (18% rate cap) was originally validated January 4th and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 63,772 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. A Constitutional Amendment requires 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signed petitions were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted in accordance with 2-1-16. It was determined that 66.17% or 42,195 of 63,772 signatures were in good standing.

The petition challenge was submitted by Cory Heidelberger of Aberdeen. The challenger submitted specific deficiencies on 1,219 signature lines to the Secretary of State’s office. The review concluded that 885 of the challenged signatures were invalid.

This will be Constitutional Amendment U.

An individual wishing to challenge the validity of the petitions can proceed to circuit court.

PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley, Gregory County States Attorney Amy Bartling and Tripp County States Attorney Alvin Pahlke confirm that Donald Kelvin Story, 52, Dallas and Richard Dean Sund, 52, Colome, have been charged and arrested by complaint on child sexual abuse charges.

Story was charged in Gregory County with one count of rape in the second degree, class 1 felony, maximum sentence of fifty years of imprisonment and/or $50,000 fine, one count of distribution of controlled substance to a minor, class 2 felony, up to 25 years in the state penitentiary and/or $50,000 fine, one count of rape in the fourth degree, class 3 felony, up to 15 years in the state penitentiary and/or $30,000 fine, one count of sexual contact with a minor, class 3 felony, up to 15 years in the state penitentiary and/or $30,000 fine, one count possession of controlled substance, class 5 felony, up to 5 years in the state penitentiary and/or $10,000 fine, one count sexual exploitation of a minor, class 6 felony, up to 2 years in the state penitentiary and/or $4,000 fine, 1 count possession of marijuana, class 1 misdemeanor, 1 count possession or use of drug paraphernalia, class 2 misdemeanor.

Sund was charged in Tripp County with one count of solicitation of a minor, class 4 felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and/or $20,000 fine.
Both Story and Sund are presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the Gregory County Sheriff’s Office, Tripp County Sheriff’s Office and the Division of Criminal Investigation.

Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that South Dakota has joined a Multi-State Amicus Curiae or friend of the court brief filed in the United States District Court of Texas against the federal government in support of the Keystone Pipeline. “President Obama’s rejection of the pipeline infringes on the authority of Congress and the sovereignty of the States imposing significant economic harm to the affected States, including future jobs, and lost revenue to state and local governments,” said Jackley. The amicus brief argues that the President has unlawfully infringed on Congress’s exclusive authority to regulate interstate and international commerce. The brief also emphasizes that the Keystone XL Pipeline will promote interstate commerce and economic development. The brief sets forth that “In South Dakota, state regulators have approved several times the construction of the Pipeline, the Governor Dennis Daugaard has expressed his support of the Pipeline. All of South Dakota’s representatives in Congress supported construction of the Pipeline.” The states included in this amicus brief are Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. The Keystone XL Pipeline will carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico through these states. There is no cost to South Dakota for joining the litigation.

By Katie Hunhoff

Grasshoppers swarmed our fields and towns, devouring everything in their path in the 1870s. Farmers were ruined and entire communities suffered. Kampeska City, the precursor to Watertown, became a ghost town after the plague.

Father Pierre Boucher took action to protect Jefferson in the very southeast corner of today’s South Dakota. He planned a spiritual procession to ward off the hated insects. He announced his plan in Mass on a Sunday in the spring of 1876. The next morning, both Protestants and Catholics convened south of Jefferson and Boucher led them on an 11-mile procession. They ceremoniously placed crosses at four points, and another in the Jefferson cemetery. Soon after, throngs of dead grasshoppers were found nearby at the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers.

The crosses later became spiritual relics to Jefferson residents. One, outside St. Peter’s Catholic Church, was replaced in 1967. Others can be found 4 miles northwest of town on County Road 1B near the Southeast Farmers Coop Elevator and another near the corner of 330th Street and 480th Avenue west of Jefferson. The wooden crosses are just one of many spiritual places that we recommend exploring in the May/June issue of South Dakota Magazine. South Dakota residents have always been spiritual; currently we are listed as the 16th most religious state according to a Pew Research study based on time spent in prayer, church attendance, belief and “self-described importance” of religion. Early residents relied on their faith to endure the many challenges of life on the prairie — natural woes like drought and floods and storms and more personal challenges such as the mental strains of carving out a new life on the lonesome prairie.

South Dakotans have built beautiful churches as the focuses of our faith. But our story also explores some lesser-known spiritual sites. Reynold’s Prairie, located high in the Black Hills, is one of five mountain places considered sacred to the Sioux. Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Interior declared the meadow is once again Indian trust land and will be managed as a sacred site.

Our story on spirituality also references the gravesites of two brothers, Michael and Joseph Hofer, in the cemetery at Rockport Hutterite Colony in Hanson County. The Hofers, who adhered to the Hutterite tenet of pacifism, refused to serve in World War I after being drafted. They were sentenced to military prisons and were tortured. Eventually both died of pneumonia. Hutterites throughout North America make a pilgrimage to pay their respects at their gravesites.

Many of the spiritual sites we selected are obvious — the Cathedral on the Prairie at Hoven, the Wounded Knee cemetery and Stavkirke in the Hills. But others may surprise you, including Black Elk’s log cabin, Wind Cave and the five Medicine Buttes in South Dakota.

A South Dakota summer is the perfect season to seek out some of these spiritual spots for reflection and contemplation. Lakota scholar Vine Deloria, Jr. once wrote, “The plains of the Dakotas are both hospitable and hostile to people. You must welcome their bounty but ensure that they do not sweep you up, taking your life and making you a part of their restless spirit.” We think Mr. Deloria, who died in 2005, would have liked our spiritual tour. We hope you do as well.