During the first week of May, the Black Hills Film Festival will show 60 films from across the U.S. and beyond. Six South Dakota-based films were nominated for “Best” in several of the festival’s categories. All show why film festivals are springing up across the nation and drawing ever-larger audiences. Click the links and take [...]

I’m watching the performance of “To Her” by “Wylie and the Wild West” on UTube. It’s a beautiful and evocative melody that shows an organic appreciation of the song’s lyrics – taken pretty much word-for-word from the cowboy poem of the same name written and published in 1917 by Badger Clark in “Grass Grown Trails.” [...]

I’m looking up at a somewhat moth-eaten buffalo, with a saddle to match perched behind his hump, and wishing Halley’s Store was open today.  Even saddled up, the buffalo looks somewhat alarming – despite being stuffed, dead and inexplicably positioned on the sagging front porch of Keystone’s oldest continuous business. And there are quite a [...]

  Google the word “museum” and the first definition that comes up is “a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.” And Deadwood’s Adams Museum certainly has many exhibits and artifacts that fit that definition. However, most museums I have visited, including the Adams, have another category [...]

In 1918, architect C.C. Gideon took the train from Minnesota to Rapid City to meet S.D. Sen. Peter Norbeck, thereby establishing a lifelong collaborative friendship that resulted in some of the Black Hills most prized landmarks. First on the project list the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park, constructed from 1919-1922 and listed on [...]

How often is it possible for people with passionate opinions on some subject to get together and enjoy their differences? If the subject is music, pretty often! That is certainly the impetus behind “New Harmonies,” the latest Museum on Main Street traveling exhibit that recently opened at the Sturgis Public Library. The show is a [...]

With Rapid City’s recent urban renaissance, it’s easy to overlook the ever-more-cosmopolitan town’s long-standing agricultural underpinnings. An afternoon spent watching a Little Britches Rodeo at the Central States Fairgrounds is a fitting reminder that Rapid City is the shopping and cultural hub for a vital ranching region with a radius of more than 400 miles. [...]

Today marks the official start of spring — the vernal equinox occurred at 1:14 this morning — but it already feels like summer in the Black Hills and Badlands. In fact, it’s been that way for more than a week. Temperatures last weekend were downright balmy — mid to  high 70s both days. The lilacs [...]

Four historic lodges, each with its own distinct architecture and ambiance, are located in Custer State Park. Drive through the park on S.D. Hwy. 87 to reach Blue Bell Lodge, located along French Creek at the base of Mount Coolidge. Today, Blue Bell Lodge operates along the lines of a guest ranch, with trail rides, [...]

The 1880 Train is one of those Black Hills attractions that kids never forget. Nostalgia and history buffs like it, too. It reminds them of the old days of passenger train travel, where you could ride from city to city, disembark downtown and catch a ride to your hotel or destination. (We’re not forgetting Amtrak, [...]