South Dakota Rte 90 to Wall

Friday, May 25, 2018

This morning we managed to be on our way without a hitch and on schedule.  Our first stop was to Duluth Trading in downtown Sioux Falls.  We had received their catalogs and were curious to see what their retail stores were like.  It was similar to an Eddie Bauer or L.L. Bean, except for their incredibly large section of men’s underwear under the signage reading BUCK NAKED. We bought a pair.

The next stop was the Porter Sculpture Park created by a local artist Wayne Porter.  Some of the pieces were incredible, including a 60-foot-tall bull’s head that was visible from I-90 near the town of Montrose.  Accompanying many of the sculptures was his poetry.  His artwork was impressive both in terms of its creativity and cleverness, as its swell as the sheer volume of his creations.  His most recent work is a giant horse made from pieces of metal each weighing 30 LBS each.  South Dakota public TV is going to cover the moving of the horse once all of the arrangements be made.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the work in progress since the artist is working on it near his home rather that in the open field Porter Sculpture Park sits on.  This sculpture park has been in Time Magazine, USA Today, on PBS, and more.

The Corn Palace was next on our itinerary.  Located in Mitchell the building itself is used for large events.  The first Corn Palace was built in 1892, just 3 years after South Dakota became a state.  The current building is the 3^rd built on that sight, and like all of the others, is decorated with murals made from various types of corn providing different colors.  Much of the work is done by hand and is replaced and redesigned every year.

After a quick bite at a local pub, we headed further into the Dakota plains and spent time at the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center located on the campus of St. Joseph’s Indian School.  The name of the museum means “to honor the people,” which is what this museum did.    The museum wasn’t large but was filled with artifacts from the Lakota people, along with information regarding their spirituality and relationship with nature.  Of course, the museum touched on the sad treatment native peoples received by the encroaching white man.

Next on our adventure we came upon Al’s Oasis, the largest resting spot in SD located in Oacoma.  The place was huge, but we just stopped for a cold drink.  They are famous for their $.05 coffee.

Now we finally crossed the Missouri River on our way to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Unfortunately, the Center was closed, but we enjoyed standing on a bluff overlooking the river at the same location Lewis and Clark supposedly camped.  The most impressive part of the visit was the gigantic sculpture of an Indian woman entitled Dignity.  She was built in 2016 commemorating the 125^th anniversary of SD statehood.

It would take us another 2 hours to drive to Wall, SD which was 150 miles away; but the speed limit in SD is 80 miles per hour; road signs and places fly by pretty fast.  It was amazing to drive mile after mile and only see incredibly green grasslands.  Our windshield became so covered with bugs that it was getting hard to see.  What was a bit comical was that we left the highway to follow a sign for a scenic overlook.  The overlook was basically the same landscape we had been seeing for the past several hours.

One does start to see changes in the landscape once approaching Wall, SD.  Wall is famous for the pharmacy which advertises not only along the highway in SD, but apparently all over the world.  It is certainly an amazing place in that it offers something for everyone but would be especially fun for families with children.  We took a quick tour of the place, and then enjoyed a buffalo burger and beer at the Badlands Bar. On to the Badlands tomorrow.