Connect with us

South Dakota

Contents of memorial to mountain man Hugh Glass revealed at Neihardt event • South Dakota Searchlight

Published

on

Contents of memorial to mountain man Hugh Glass revealed at Neihardt event • South Dakota Searchlight


WAYNE, Nebraska — A “reveal” of what a Nebraska poet hid inside a lonely monument a century ago revealed more of what Mother Nature could wreck over the span of 100 years.

On Saturday, descendants of John Neihardt revealed what they’d found inside an “altar to courage” that the poet and members of a fan club from what’s now Wayne State College planted in the rocky soil of northwestern South Dakota in 1923.

The homemade, concrete monument memorialized the courage of mountain man Hugh Glass, who was left for dead in August 1823 after being mauled by a grizzly bear but then crawled and limped 200 miles to get help.

Neihardt challenged students from Wayne State (then Nebraska Normal College) to return in 100 years to rededicate and open a time capsule he buried within the monument, which he said contained an “original manuscript.”

Advertisement

Drilled, chiseled into monument

His family carefully drilled and chiseled into the thigh-high monument last October after removing it from its location near Lemmon, South Dakota, where Glass was mauled.

But on Saturday they revealed that what they could retrieve from inside were still-wet fragments of a special Neihardt edition of a student newspaper, The Goldenrod, as well as pieces of Neihardt’s book containing his epic poem describing the heroic crawl, “The Song of Hugh Glass.”

A fragment of the 1915 book by Neihardt, “The Song of Hugh Glass,” is among the items that could be retrieved from a monument the poet erected a century ago. (Paul Hammel for th Nebraska Examiner)

Coralie Hughes, a granddaughter of Neihardt, said that despite the lack of a new work from Nebraska’s “poet laureate in perpetuity,” the family had accomplished its goal of fulfilling the “challenge” to open up the time capsule and not destroying the monument in the process.

“I was hoping for a personal note to the world from my grandfather,” Hughes said. “Maybe he did (leave one) because a lot of what we found was unintelligible.”

The paper fragments, when found inside a tin box imbedded in the concrete, were still wet, which she said may have been the result of several times when the monument was flooded.

Advertisement

The monument was originally built on dry, private ranch land near the confluence of two forks of the Grand River, but it ended up on the banks of a federal reservoir that flooded at least four times since 1953.

Hughes said the family was told by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the reservoir, that the monument had to be moved if it was to be breached.

She said the family proceeded gingerly in drilling into the monument so as not to destroy it. The first thing to be discovered— using a snake-like video camera — were fragments of a pop bottle that contained a letter from two newlyweds— J.T. and Myrtle Young of Lincoln — who arrived too late to sign a document Neihardt said was signed by those present and placed inside a tin box.

The Neihardt family decided against trying to retrieve the glass fragments or trying to dig out all the paper fragments inside the embedded tin box for fear of destroying the monument, which was relocated to the John Neihardt State Historic Site in Bancroft, Nebraska.

Some papers remain inside the tin box, Hughes said, but they are just “crumbling” pieces.

Advertisement

“We didn’t want to keep going,” said Alexis Petri of Kansas City, who produced a short documentary on the family’s work to retrieve the monument.

Her documentary and the “reveal” were presented Saturday at the annual spring conference of the Neihardt Foundation held at Wayne State College. Neihardt graduated from the school, then called Nebraska Normal College, at age 15.

‘Wonderful to see something tangible’

The event focused on the saga of the almost forgotten monument, the taking up of the challenge by Wayne State professor Joseph Weixelman and his class to rededicate the monument and the eventual decision to relocate the monument to Nebraska.

Mary McDermott, who drove from Holdrege with her daughter to view the final chapter in the mystery of the monument, betrayed no disappointment that some rare manuscript wasn’t found.

Advertisement

“It’s wonderful to see something tangible from 100 years ago,” she said.

“I’m impressed that there was something still there,” said her daughter Alizabeth.

Marianne Reynolds, the executive director of the Neihardt Center, said the fragments retrieved would be sent to the Ford Conservation Center in Omaha for further analysis.

After that, she said, they would be put on display at the center in Bancroft. A kiosk is envisioned so that visitors can play the documentary produced by Petri, Reynolds added.

This story was originally published by Nebraska Examiner. Like South Dakota Searchlight, it’s part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: [email protected]. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.
Advertisement





Source link

South Dakota

SD Lottery Mega Millions, Millionaire for Life winning numbers for July 17, 2026

Published

on


The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at July 17, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Mega Millions numbers from July 17 drawing

22-34-45-48-55, Mega Ball: 14

Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.

Advertisement

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 17 drawing

03-19-38-48-58, Bonus: 01

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize

  • Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
  • Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
  • Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.

When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?

  • Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
  • Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
  • Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

South Dakota

Meet Mayor Christine Erickson

Published

on

Meet Mayor Christine Erickson


Christine Erickson is the 33rd Mayor of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, serving since July 2026, and the first woman to hold the office. Born in Rapid City and raised in a working-class family, her values were shaped by hard work, service, and integrity – principles she continues to carry into every facet of her professional and public life.



Source link

Continue Reading

South Dakota

South Dakota opera ‘Giants in the Earth’ finds new audience

Published

on

South Dakota opera ‘Giants in the Earth’ finds new audience


The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra has captured the national imagination with innovative programming, original productions, and artistic tendrils of community engagement. Now, they’re planning for the future. They are challenging themselves to answer the question: What’s next?

Music director and conductor Delta David Gier stopped by the SDPB studios for an update. SDPB’s Lori Walsh asked the maestro about the recent release of a professional recording of the SDSO’s “Giants in the Earth.”

DELTA DAVID GIER

Well, it may seem like old news for a lot of people, your listeners perhaps, because we did this opera, you know, a year ago, April, and then SDPB made the video production of it and aired it last fall.

Advertisement

But this is the commercial recording, which is being released internationally. It actually was released in Europe before it was released here because the record label is in the Netherlands.

So, yeah, it’s really exciting. It’s very high quality. You know, it’s just top-standard recording and it sounds great.

LORI WALSH

Tell us about what goes into releasing a recording like that. How intensive is that for you? Is that something that you pass on to other people and then it comes back to your hand, or are you intricately involved in it?

DELTA DAVID GIER

Advertisement

Well, I spent, you know, a year ago, actually. I was in New York with a recording engineer in the Dolby studio there, and, you know, we were making a lot of decisions. So I haven’t had much to do with it in the last year. And the release of it, the timing of the release, that’s all up to the recording company. When they feel like it’s the best time, when they can get the most traction in terms of press and all of that.

LORI WALSH

So what happens next to a recording like that? What are your hopes for it in the world? Because the performance and the community aspect of it is largely what you focus on as the music director and conductor of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

Now it has a life beyond you. How important is a recording to you as a conductor?

DELTA DAVID GIER

Advertisement

Well, it’s important for posterity, first of all. I mean, there was no recording of this piece of music, a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece. And so part of it was due diligence. This story takes place right here where we live in South Dakota. It tells the story of the first Norwegian immigrants coming here, and nobody could ever hear this piece before, so that’s part of it, is just sort of an altruistic thing.

The other is to make it available for people here, and again, the video that’s available on your website to watch free of charge from anybody at any time, that’s great. This is something that people can, it’s a piece of history they can either own or like you say, you can stream it.

The other thing is, I hope that, well, I mean, there’s also the recognition beyond South Dakota. Like the last recording we released had a lot of really good press, I mean, BBC, Music Magazine said, you know …

LORI WALSH

The last recording, which would have been …

Advertisement

DELTA DAVID GIER

Atlas of Deep Time by John Luther Adams.

That was the piece that we commissioned for our 100th anniversary season. But you know, BBC Music Magazine referenced the excellent South Dakota Symphony Orchestra players. I mean, that’s really great validation coming from press like that. So we would hope for that.

And then lastly, I would say that I would hope that other, that opera companies, orchestras, now that they have a chance to hear it, that they would pick it up and do it. That it would begin to take on a life of its own.

LORI WALSH

Advertisement

It’s a starting line. It’s a finish line for you, and it’s a starting line for the piece in some way.

DELTA DAVID GIER

It’s like we’ve midwifed this piece. It’s out there in the world now.

LORI WALSH

Yeah, with an imprint on it that is undeniable for future performances and programming of Giants in the Earth.

Advertisement

DELTA DAVID GIER

The story is out there of what the South Dakota Symphony did. I mean, it’s in the liner notes of the CD, but it’s online, so yeah.

LORI WALSH

All right, so speaking of press, I was reading Joseph Horowitz, who is a scholar in residence for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

DELTA DAVID GIER

Advertisement

Still is, actually.

LORI WALSH

Still is. And in the New York Times and in the American Scholar and both times, he’s really referencing heavily what is happening as he looks at 250 years of classical music in America and how often, in our reflections on America at 250, scholars left out any reference to the arts and what that means, what’s unique about American art, what’s unique about our canon.

Every time, he references the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. I think he said, “The repertoire is brave and the vibe is exhilarating.”

DELTA DAVID GIER

Advertisement

There you go. What more could you ask for? Yeah, I mean, our personnel manager will often reference that, that the reason that players come to play in this orchestra as she’s trying to fill out the orchestra — It’s not the money, because we don’t pay that well, but it’s the repertoire that we play and what she calls the vibe.

It’s the hang. It’s the fact that we have a happy orchestra, which is actually rare in our industry, like a lot of union orchestras and a lot of discontent and grousing about this and that and the other, you don’t find that in our orchestra.

It’s a very happy bunch. We’re happy to be making music together and people enjoy playing with us. So, it’s good.

LORI WALSH

You’re asking the big question, which is what’s next?

Advertisement

DELTA DAVID GIER

Yeah, right.

LORI WALSH

You’ve done 100 years. You’ve done Lakota Music Project, which is ongoing, of course. You’ve done Giants in the Earth.

How do you envision the future?

Advertisement

DELTA DAVID GIER

Well, we just spent three days last week tackling that question. I have a new friend, his name is Tom Morris, and he’s about 80, I think, or so. He was 50 years at the top of the industry. CEO of the Boston Symphony, CEO of the Cleveland Orchestra, CEO of the Ohio Music Festival.

And he, through various channels, learned about the SDSO became intrigued with it, actually came to the production of Giants in the Earth last year, and that was the question he asked.

After the dress rehearsal, we went out for a drink, and he says, So what’s next? We got the whole nation’s attention now. Don’t squander this moment.

And so he actually put together a group of four people that came and spent three days with us last week, just exploring the question of what’s next for the SDSO.

Advertisement

And, you know, it was a huge validation because all four of these people who, like Tom, had been in the industry for decades and are retired now and giving back. They came free of charge, just, you know, they do this with other orchestras occasionally too, but they just said, you know, It’s extraordinary what’s happening here.

What they were enamored with — yeah, the programming and so on — but the tendrils that we send out into the community for every program that we do, like the impact.

So if you look, if you read that article in the New York Times that Joe Horowitz wrote a couple of weeks ago about classical music in America at 250, he talks about the troubles that some American orchestras are having.

The epicenter of it right now is the Boston Symphony. Yeah, financial troubles, but audience troubles and relevance issues. Just the whole classical music relevance issue. And basically, we don’t have that issue because we’re going deep into the community. And whether it’s education, and our education is K through higher ed, like universities to kindergarten, and everything in between. And we worked really hard to make sure that each one of our programs has those elements in it.

It’s different, different ethnic communities, Lakota Music Project, of course, but also our Bridging Cultures program with South Asian, Chinese, Hispanic, communities within our community and how we connect with them.

Advertisement

For example, our opening concert in the fall, it’s all rhapsodies, famous rhapsodies from our repertoire, but we have a new rhapsody, a Guatemalan rhapsody that’s being composed for us will premiere it by a Guatemalan composer, and right now we’re working on making connections with the Guatemalan community here in Sioux Falls, which I understand is the largest Hispanic population we have here.

So really looking forward to that, but we’ve done quite a bit of it, and it’s a matter of sitting down with the people of that community and asking the question, what’s most meaningful for you?

What’s most impactful for your community? How can we serve you? How can we partner together? We’re not trying to get anything out of that community. We’re trying to figure out ways that we can enrich the life of Sioux Falls by making music together.

LORI WALSH

How do you open the door for really innovative answers?

Advertisement

DELTA DAVID GIER

Right. It’s mostly listening, honestly. You go into the initial meeting like that, whether it’s with an ethnic community or principals of the high schools. Like Brian Maher put together this meeting. I walk in there and he’s talking about, you know, the orchestra engaging with the high schools and the principals are like, what? What are we talking? Math teachers, you know, whatever. What are you talking about? You know, so we’re going through this. And Tim Haslett from Roosevelt, the principal at Roosevelt said, at one point, Hey wait, you could build a program around the Holocaust for me, couldn’t you?

I said, you’re absolutely right, I could. Every 10th grader in Sioux Falls reads Romeo and Juliet. I can build a program around Romeo and Juliet to deepen their engagement with that.

These are the conversations. You gotta get through the bridge, or break the ice of What’s a symphony orchestra? What does this cultural institution do for the community? It’s not just an entertainment option for people who happen to kind of like that stuff. This is like history and all of that.

LORI WALSH

Advertisement

So how do you measure outcomes of different programs?

DELTA DAVID GIER

Well, that’s more difficult in terms of: sometimes it’s ticket sales, sometimes it’s number of students engaged. I think about one of the Joseph Horowitz programs we did, Copeland in Mexico, which we worked really hard to engage the Hispanic population here. And through the National Endowment for the Humanities, we had tickets available. And we had 1,000 vouchers out to the Hispanic community for free tickets to this concert. And over two concerts, we had 650 of them redeemed. So that’s pretty good. I think the metric changes depending upon who we’re engaging.

SDSU loading up a couple of buses to bring students to a concert after Joe and I have been in the classrooms up there for the last couple of weeks talking about Shostakovich or whatever. How many people stay for a post-concert discussion?

We did that for Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, and we had about 50 chairs set up on the third floor for this, and there were like 180 people that showed up because everybody wanted to talk about what they just experienced, you know. It’s a small kind of metric, but it’s like, yeah, okay, we struck a chord, so to speak.

Advertisement

LORI WALSH

So how you measure outcome is continuously measuring it and measuring in different ways. Different ways, different formats — from participation and raw numbers of ticket sales to the “vibe,” as we were saying. The people in the room who want to talk about something, the press coverage that you’re getting, the excitement that the orchestra is building, the way that you can sit in a room and hear innovative ideas from a community that you haven’t engaged with yet, whether that’s in a high school or whether it’s with a Spanish-speaking group. All of that and more.

DELTA DAVID GIER

And the desire to re-engage.

Like if we did Lakota Music Project once and never did it again, then that would not be a good metric. But the fact that we’ve been at it for over 15 years now and people invite us back and want to continue the engagement, that’s a good metric.

Advertisement

LORI WALSH

What’s next for you personally? What are you excited about? When somebody asks that question, What’s next, it’s easy to focus on the community, it’s easy to focus on the musicians, the quote-unquote happiness of the orchestra. How about you personally and professionally?

DELTA DAVID GIER

I’ve basically devoted the second half of my life to this, this orchestra in this community. So I’m pretty excited about where we are and where we can go.

I think that the outcome of these three days with these industry professionals last week was we’re doing really great stuff. You need to be, we, we need to figure out ways to, to basically, honestly, fund it so that you can do more and deeper. You know, it’s not doing more for the sake of doing more. It’s how can we do this deeper and better.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending