TRAVELING THROUGH EASTERN SOUTH DAKOTA

Arriving in South Dakota was really the beginning of big changes in the landscape and living styles. There are farms consisting of thousands of acres with a house, barn, and other outbuildings in the middle of these huge tracts of land. Hardiness is essential to living here. Next-door neighbors mean people who live hundreds of acres away from you.

Some farms are like the one above--a rolling terraine--others are the flat plains, but all have the house in the middle of the tract.

Along the way, we saw many large herds of Black Angus cows. This group has been gathered together, but more common is seeing hundreds of head of cattle grazing in large pastures.

There is usually a small town nearby with a small grocery store, a few restaurants, gas stations, but entertainment seems to be gathering at someone’s farm for a picnic dinner or school or grange for family type events.

We stayed at a family owned campground near Mitchell, SD and were surrounded by these large tract farms. The owners, in the early evening, would sit outside the office and folks in the campground or from nearby farms would stop by to chat. There were permanent residents in the campground living in RVs. When they came home from work, they would spend time talking with their neighbors before and after dinner. It is a quiet, simpler life on the one hand with outdoor work that looks to be hard, demanding, and very influenced by weather.

Driving into town, one noticeable difference is that instead of seeing car dealerships, there are huge farm equipment dealerships. Also, trains are important in moving cattle and farm equipment, and it is usual to see trains that are more than two miles long. The plains often have high winds, and they are quite fierce. What I thought was windy in south Florida, I now realize are actually slight breezes.