TRUE DAKOTAN PHOTO/DUKE WENZEL

Gold-lined clouds sit on the horizon with a silhouette of the century-old Spring Valley School in a photograph taken last week. The school is about two miles north/northeast of Wessington Springs. The school was in use for many decades, beginning well over 100 years ago. The school operated under different names over the years, first Shryock, then Sheppard. It eventually was called Spring Valley, named after a valley southwest of the school which has a spring-fed creek running through it.

Our friend and former Wessington Springs businessman Dale Leischner, of Buffalo, Wyoming, wrote a comment on truedakotan.com when he read about the flooding we’ve had lately. “I do not remember anything like this. I remember everyone praying for rain and then complaining about Fred’s low rain gauge readings.”

Of course Dale was talking about longtime weather recorder Fred Marken and the dry years of the 1970s when farmers and businessmen were leaving the area with empty pockets. Fred lived to be 100 years old and was a fun-loving guy. When he talked about his weather report he would say, “I may not be right, but I’m OFFICIAL!”

Access all the weather information at the Wessington Springs airport… radar, satellite, wind direction/speed, current temperature, elevation. Start looking around this site and who knows what you’ll find? By the way…. the wind speed will be in “knots”.             1 knot = 1.15 miles per hour ( 10 knots = 11.5 mph   100 knots = 115 mph)

http://potomacaviation.com/weather_index.asp?airportid=4X4