Posted on 08/25/2002 10:33:17 AM PDT by crystalk
South Dakota is the only state in the Midwest with more, actually quite a bit more, tourist dollars spent in it by others, than its people spend outside it in other parts of the world.
It has many very good and very small and well regarded low cost colleges both public and private. Believe it or not, it passes Mass. as having the highest share in entire USA of out of state college students coming TO it, as opposed to its own students going away.
The climate is much less bad, particularly in the western third, and it has the Black Hills. Great skiing for almost nothing compared to CO and UT.
It has Deadwood, and well, whaddya say, it just has a cachet, Crazy Horse and Rushmore and that beautiful scenery and lots of sun. North Dakotans will never dance with wolves, and rarely with anything else.
North Dakota is just a bunch of empty treeless wheat fields at 30 below under bleak gray sky.
SD has 8.6% Native American population, and two Sioux-language colleges, including one called Sinte Gleska, or Spotted Tail.
Badger Clark and Tom Brokaw were from SD, not ND.
It makes a big difference if the really HORRID is 15% of the time in winter, vs 50% like ND!
In N Dak, I would be bored in a week in any season of the year; if the climate were the same as here, S Dak would be perhaps almost preferable to here due to low cost of land.
You also really do get consid better govt services for consid lower taxes in S Dak if you are average, too. No income tax; great education with no riff-raff for free: what a place to raise kids.
Take a look at Spearfish, Hot Springs, Hermosa, Custer, Belle Fourche, the Badlands, Bear Butte, Rapid City... Sturgis will always be in SD, not ND. Or any of those wonderful college towns, Sioux Falls, Huron, Rapid City, Spearfish, Brookings, Madison, Vermillion, Yankton, Mitchell, Aberdeen.
Even the people are a lot more jovial and outgoing and funny, and a lot more diverse ethnically (Irish and Yankees and Scandinavians and Czechs; not just Bayerish Germans. Even better looking.)
Compare hours of sunshine received year round, however cold it may be. ND cannot touch SD. Trouble is, not many jobs in either. But your chances are about 3x as good in SD, even in that dept.
Best thing of all may be, that people elsewhere will feel sorry for you, and half the time they are thinking of ND, and you don't have to tell them any of the above.
South Dakotans do much better financially when they move away, but often are haunted by SD and want to come back at least to visit.
North Dakotans never say where they came from, and never return there, not even to be buried.
Rumor has it that when the states were admitted President Harrison shuffled the papers so no one would know which state came in first. No truth to the rumor that the states themselves will eventually be shuffled to produce "East Dakota" and "West Dakota" instead.
North Dakota luckly does not have that honor.
As if Dorgan and Contrad were any better than Daschle and Johnson.
It's a breath of fresh air to drop by here and agree with you that South Dakotans, including me, are attractive. lol Born and raised in South Dakota. Va va va voom and we're just a barrel of fun too!!!
I've heard through the grapevine that Aberdeen has good looking citizens too. FV
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I can agree with that only partially. As a native Pittsburgher, the mountains that run through central Pennsylvania form a significant barrier to the Midwestern "state of mind". Pittsburghers tend to look upon themselves as "midwestern", and Philadelphia is a suburb of New York City.
As a lifelong Californian, this has always amused me.
Nearly 200 years after the Louis and Clark Expedition, I would expect it would be clear to all but the blind, that Pittsuburgh is in the East (not the "mid" or the "west").
My grandfather was born and raised in SoDak. Headed west and stayed in Wyoming, to live out his days.
IMHO, you need to bone-up on American History.
Gateway to the West
Lewis left Washington City the day after our young nation celebrated its 27th birthday. The planning was done; it was time to assemble the men and equipment in St. Louis so the Expedition could begin. Lewis´ route was to Harper´s Ferry to pick up equipment he had ordered there, then on to Pittsburgh where he would get a keelboat to haul his mountain of equipment down the Ohio. At Harper´s Ferry Lewis made arrangements to ship his equipment from there to Pittsburgh by wagon.
Pittsburgh was particularly troublesome for Lewis. He had hoped for a short layover of a few days while his keelboat was completed. Those plans were soon dashed as the only boat builder had a stronger preference for booze than he did for work. Hopes of a week in Pittsburgh became seven weeks. Lewis even considered purchasing several smaller pirogues to haul his equipment downriver. At some convenient point along the way he would have a keelboat built. He was strongly advised against this plan because there were no boat builders between Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
By the time the keelboat was finished the season was late and the Ohio River was running a very low amount of water, In fact the river was the lowest it had ever been according to all the old timers of the area. Lewis was forced to haul a large part of his supplies overland to Wheeling, West Virginia where the water level of the river was more favorable.
Captain Lewis set off from Pittsburgh on his way down the Ohio River on August 31, 1803, the same day the keelboat was finished, stopping only long enough to get his boats loaded. He had the balance of his purchases from Philadelphia and Harpers Ferry loaded on the keelboat and one canoe and a crew of ten men which included three who were on a trial basis for becoming part of the Expedition´s main party. This group went three miles before stopping at Bruno´s Island where Lewis demonstrated his newly purchased air gun to a small crowd of people who had gathered there. He charged it and shot seven times at 55 yards “with pretty good success.” Then one of the people gathered on the island “suffered her to be discharged” sending a ball through the hat of woman some 40 yards away and grazing her temple. After determining the wound was not serious, Lewis continued on downriver to McKee´s Rock.
The next week would prove to be very difficult travel on the Ohio with its many “riffles” that were made much worse than normal. Not only was Lewis traveling during low water months of late summer, but the area had been experiencing a dry spell that left the river the lowest it had been in the last four years. Travel was painfully slow and difficult with the boat frequently needing to be dragged over the riffle. Passage over a single riffle could take several hours leaving the men exhausted. Lewis noted several times he had to hire oxen or horses to pull the boat over particularly bad spots.
They soon ran into another characteristic of the Ohio in late summer that frequently delayed departure in the mornings – thick fog. Lewis took the temperature of the air and of the water, noting the water temperature was consistently higher than that of the air on the days they had fog. As soon as the sun warmed the air to the temperature of the water the fog disappeared. He concluded the air temperature changed faster than that of the water when the sun set creating a difference in temperatures that created the fog. This would be like a person stepping into the cold and being able to see their breath in the air.
By September 7th the group reached Wheeling, West Virginia. The men were much fatigued and in need of rest so Lewis determined to lay over for the day. While there Lewis picked up the remainder of his supplies and equipment that had been shipped overland from Philadelphia.
Although Pittsburgh was at the confluence of the two rivers that form the Ohio and the city gained the name of the gateway to the west because many travelers started their trip from there, the trip – as Lewis learned – was slow and difficult except in the spring and early summer when the water was high. Wheeling was the favored departure point during the low water times of summer and fall because the Ohio from there on was much deeper.
While laying over at Wheeling Lewis met a Dr. Patterson who wanted to join the expedition to the Pacific. Probably because he was the son of William Patterson, one of the men Lewis had studied with in Philadelphia, Lewis agreed to take him, but he had to be ready to travel by 3 pm the following day. Lewis waited until the appointed time, but when Dr. Patterson did not arrive, the group set off down the river. Dr Patterson lost his chance to become a part of history.
On September 10th Lewis stopped (near present day Moundsville, West Virginia) to view “a remarkable artificial mound of earth” called the Indian Grave. He described it as being 700 paces from the river situated on a small hill in a large bottom. It was 310 feet in circumference at the base and 30 feet in diameter at the top and being 65 feet tall. This mound had a 60 foot wide ditch around it except for a 30 foot wide entrance to the mound. Near the summit grew a white oak tree 13 ½ feet in girth that Lewis estimated to be 300 years old. Archaeological investigations of smaller mounds in the area showed them to be burial vaults.
By the 12th Lewis and his group reached “Willson´s Riffle.” Here the men spent four hours using shovels and even canoe paddles to dig a channel across the gravel sandbar to let their boats through. Once the channel was completed, they were able to drag the keelboat over the riffle to the open water below. Camp for the next night was at Marietta, the oldest town in Ohio.
September 17th saw only seven miles traveled with the group reaching the “Old Town Bar.” On this island Lewis had all the baggage spread to be thoroughly dried out and cleaned then repacked. The countless riffles were taking their toll on the boats. Both of the canoes leaked and required constant bailing to keep them afloat. Additionally during much of the trip there had been at least intermittent rain. It had been almost impossible to keep things dry. The next day they reached “Letart´s Falls.” With a drop of 4 feet in a distance of 250 feet this was the largest rapids on the Ohio River except for the falls at Louisville.
September 18th was the last journal entry Lewis made for 53 days. His next entry was for November 11. Although it is possible that the missing days were lost during the journey to the Pacific, most scholars doubt that is the case. To support their conclusion, they point to other periods where, unexplainably, Lewis did not keep daily journal entries. These other times Clark´s daily entries survive.
During this period Lewis continued on to Cincinnati where he spent a week. He also stopped and examined the fossil beds at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky then reached Clarksville, Kentucky where he met Captain Clark and some recruits (known later by historians as the 9 young men from Kentucky) Clark had assembled for the Expedition. They stayed at Clarksville for nearly two weeks, leaving there on October 26, 1803.
We go (from Kalifornia) to the St. Cloud, Minnesota, area fairly frequently; they tend to call it "Da Upper Midwest, dontcha know?"
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