South Dakota Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

Looking for South Dakota trivia? Try our list South Dakota little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The 1936 governor’s mansion in Pierre (pop. 13,876), home to 16 governors, was dismantled in three pieces and stored in 2003 so a new mansion could be built on the site. The historic home will be donated to an organization that plans to use it for public purposes.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

Doug Hansen founded Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop in 1978 in Letcher (pop. 177). The company restores and builds authentic stagecoaches, chuckwagons, prairie schooners, sheep wagons and sleighs for museums and collectors nationwide.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

Settled in 1876, Spearfish (pop. 8,606) in the valley of Spearfish Creek is so named because Indians, trappers and fur traders considered the clear tumbling stream to be a good place to spear fish.

first appeared: 9/18/2005

The state’s first winery is Valiant Vineyards near Vermillion (pop. 9,765). Owners Eldon and Sherry Nygaard planted the commercial vineyard in 1993.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

The Black Hills National Forest in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming encompasses 1.2 million acres of forests, meadows, canyons and ridges.

first appeared: 8/28/2005

Cowboys shoot from the hip, 1800s-style, with .45-caliber revolvers as members of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association, headquartered in Deadwood (pop. 1,380). Members wear period clothing as they "quick draw" their pistols during timed shooting competitions.

first appeared: 8/14/2005

Thirteen hundred bales of straw were used for the walls of the Campbell Original Straw Bale Built Museum, which opened in Carthage (pop. 187) last year. Covered by a coating of stucco, the bales provide good heat and sound insulation.

first appeared: 7/31/2005

Bestsellers and bicycles team up at the Woonsocket (pop. 720) City/School Library, which opened last December. The city and the school district joined forces to build a combination library and fitness center for the community.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

Statues of Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and characters from The Wizard of Oz enchant visitors at Storybook Land theme park in Aberdeen (pop. 24,658), where The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum lived from 1888 to 1891.

first appeared: 6/19/2005

On May 19, 1953, KELO-TV in Sioux Falls signed on the air as the state’s first television station. Fifty years later, there were 19 TV stations in the state.

first appeared: 6/5/2005

The USS South Dakota Battleship Memorial in Sioux Falls’ Sherman Park pays tribute to the most highly decorated World War II battleship, which was involved in every major battle in the Pacific theater, and to those who served and died aboard.

first appeared: 5/22/2005

KILI Radio in Porcupine (pop. 407) is the largest American Indian-owned and operated public radio station in the nation. The station broadcasts, in Lakota and English, over a 10,000-square-mile area in the Black Hills.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

At the Little Wound School in Kyle (pop. 970), Cecelia Fire Thunder was sworn in last December as the first female president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Agency.

first appeared: 4/24/2005

The Korean War Memorial, dedicated in 2004 in Pierre (pop. 13,876), honors the state’s 26,000 veterans who served during the war.

first appeared: 4/10/2005

Founded in 1879, Freeman (pop. 1,317) was supposed to be named Menno for its Mennonite population and Menno (pop. 729) was supposed to be named Freeman. Railroad officials accidentally switched the town signs—and the names stuck.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

From prehistory to the present, the Journey Museum in Rapid City (pop. 59,607) showcases the development of the western Great Plains.

first appeared: 3/13/2005

On June 24, 2003, 67 tornadoes touched down in the state. The strongest, with 200 mph winds, destroyed the hamlet of Manchester.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

Characterized by short blue-green needles and slender cones, the Black Hills spruce was adopted as the state tree in 1947.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

A chandelier made of American Indian spears and hand-painted ceramic tiles decorates the lobby in the Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City (pop. 59,607). Built in 1928 by Chicago & Northwestern Railroad President Alex Carlton Johnson, the hotel blends Indian design elements with Tudor architecture.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

The Sioux Falls Stockyard, established in 1917, is among the nation’s largest stockyards and sells a half million head of livestock annually.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

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