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Kristi Arnold was born to Ron and Corinne Arnold in Watertown, South Dakota, and raised with her siblings on the family ranch and farm in rural Hamlin County.[3]
She graduated from Hamlin High School in 1990, and won the South Dakota Snow Queen title. She credited the experience with helping her polish her public speaking and promotional skills.
[4] After high school, she enrolled at Northern State University. She married Bryon Noem, a jock whom she met at Hamlin High,[4] at age 20.
[5] At 22, Noem left college to help run her family's ranch after her father was killed in a farm machinery accident.[3][6] She added a hunting lodge and restaurant to the property, and the rest of her siblings moved back to help expand the businesses.
[3] After her father's death, Noem stopped attending college full-time but subsequently took classes at the Watertown campus of Mount Marty College and at South Dakota State University and online classes from the University of South Dakota.[3][4]
Gals out there in ND, SD, Neb and Kansas are certainly a different breed that here in the eastern states.
Myself and a couple other guys used to pheasant hunt in N.W. Kansas (Logan KS) and stayed at the farm house of the landowner who lived in town and was also the bank president.
He had a daughter named Marsha who had a masters degree in psychology from KS State and was a counselor in Nebraska and her friend Andrea was a school counselor in S.D. and they would usually hunt opening day with us......
In high school Marsha was a barrel racer and her sister-in-law was a state barrel racing champion.
Around 2003 I received a Christmas card from her mom detailing Marsha and Andrea's escapades that year which included an elk hunt in Colorado, an antelope hunt in Wyoming, culminating with a wild boar hunt in Oklahoma that included a photo of Marsha and Andrea knelt behind a monster wild boar........
When it comes down to outdoor hunting life, those two gals would put every hunter I know to shame.......
I was there! It was awesome. SD rocks!
DAMN NICE looking horse, also.