TRUE DAKOTAN PHOTO/DUKE WENZEL

4-H LEADER John Stevens shows Prairie Hills 4-H member, Taylor Sinkie how to best get through a gate. It’s one of the exercises she and fellow 4-H horse riders were practicing last week getting ready for the annual 4-H horse show to be held Wednesday, June 30 at 1:00 p.m. The riders will then move on to the State 4-H Show later this summer.

Youth from the PASS program at Wessington Springs School will be visiting the residents at Weskota Manor Avera on Wed., June 23 from 1-3 p.m. The Activities Department has a variety of crafts and activities lined up for the youth to participate in. Penny Wenzel, Activity Coordinator says “The residents really enjoy the excitement and energy that the youth bring when they visit. The day camps were started several years ago to encourage the various generations to interact. We also want youth to feel comfortable in the nursing home setting and to encourage them to volunteer or perhaps work in the nursing home when they get older.” Area youth ages preschool to 6th grade not enrolled in the PASS program are also welcome to attend. Contact Penny Wenzel, Activity Coordinator at 539-1621 for more details. The photograph above was tkaen during the 2009 Weskota Manor Avera Inter-generational camp

Bands like “Teen Kings and the Princes” (above) also performed at area dance halls.

Here’s the story we “teased” you with last week about “someone or something” from the area is the in SD Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame

I don’t talk about this on the pages of the True Dakotan, after all I’m a fine upstanding small town newspaper editor. But, what the heck, nobody reads this Internet stuff anyway….. right?

 A Jerauld County native, Troy Swenson has entered the race for Jerauld County Sheriff. Swenson, a Democrat, will challenge Jason Weber in the November 2, 2010 general election.

Swenson has 12 years experience in law enforcment including a dispatcher, patrol officer, drug investigator, detective, SWAT team sniper, drug instruction. He has been trained in missing and exploited children, death and homicide investigations, FBI crisis negotiations, interview and interrogations, DEA narcotics investigations. He was won awards from the Pierre (SD) police department.

Swenson and his wife Cristi (Jost) are both natives of Jerauld County.

Annual Biff Memorial Co-ed Softball Tourney is Saturday, July 10th

Mark your calendars for the 8th Annual Brian “Biff” Peterson Memorial Softball Tourney to be held on Saturday, July 10th at the Alpena Softball Fields. This will be a fun co-ed tourney in memory of “Biff”. For more information or to register your teams contact Nikki VonEye at 605-849-3232 or Tasha Stahl at 605-352-5273.

A monthly True Dakotan feature from South Dakota’s favorite magazine

By Katie Hunhoff

Wow…. if you grew up in the Wessington Springs area during the 1940′s through the 1970′s, maybe even into the ’80′s, you’ll remember this one. Someone, or some thing, from this area was recently inducted into the South Dakota Rock’n'Roll hall of fame recently.

We’ll talk about it again next week, after your issue of the True Dakotan has been printed.

craig

Although he isn’t always a welcome resident, this little fella is common across the Wessington Springs area.

Named for their bark-like warning noise, prairie dogs have roamed the plains for centuries. The 1804 journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition note that in September 1804, they “discovered a Village of an animal the French Call the Prairie Dog.” Here in South Dakota we are home to the black-tailed prairie dog species.

Prairie dogs are highly social animals, living in colonies that can span hundreds of acres. Reaching sexual maturity at the age of three, the pups will then be moved to the outer edges of a prairie dog town to start their own families.