Monday morning — It’s a cloudy morn, but temps are in the low 50s after a record temp of 82° set Sunday. What a difference a week makes! From minus-0° one week to record-setting highs the next. We are very short on moisture and no burning is advised. I haven’t seen the James River this low for some time and there is no runoff from snow. The stock ponds are also low.
Westen and Aurelia White spent the week at the VanLaecken’s. Rick Hansen helped Cindy with chores and watching the kids and Ardis Nelson also stepped in to help babysit when a cow needed help delivering a calf. Nick Miller also helped. Murray and Lacey VanLaecken and Jeremy White were out having fun in the snow in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and arrived home Wednesday. Joshua and Lukas VanLaecken also took part in the snowmobiling.
Thursday, Letcher Community Church held its last community dinner for the year. Pork loin and all the trimmings were served. Hostesses were Barbara Campbell, Marilyn Shawd, Cindy VanLaecken and Dvonne Hansen. The women held their meeting following the dinner, presided over by President Becka Nelson. Dvonne Hansen gave the lesson and Guest Day was discussed.
Jeff Hansen is home from Topeka, Kan., visiting for a few days and also visited an old schoolmate in Vermillion.
Cindy VanLaecken cooked up a banty chicken for dinner and Dvonne Hansen ate with them and visited with Joshua VanLaecken before he made his way back to Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Deb Addler, Jeremy White’s mother, spent Wednesday night and Thursday with Jeremy, Westen and Aurelia.
Rachel Bucholz was a supper guest at grandparents, Rodney and Marilyn Shawd’s, Monday evening.
We all gathered at the Mike and Leah Murray home Thursday evening for Missouri River walleye. Those present were Murray and Cindy VanLaecken, Doug and Holly Hansen, Barbara Campbell, Dave and Ardis Nelson, Trevor and Shane, Jeremy White, Westen and Aurelia, Rick Hansen, Jasten and Angie White and Skya and Dvonne Hansen. Mike and Leah had to leave early as Leah was experiencing temporary back pains from her pregnancy.
Malorie Hoffman spent Saturday with Rodney and Marilyn Shawd and they went to Tyler and Shelly Hoffman’s for supper.
We finally got Aurelia’s birthday celebrated Friday evening at the White’s South Dakota home. Those present were Dan and Deb Addler, Doug and Holly Hansen and Emily Anderson, Murray and Cindy VanLaecken and Lacey, Barbara Campbell, Dave and Ardis Nelson, Trevor and Shane, Tim Hoffman, Madison and Mason, Dvonne, Rick and Jeff Hansen and Jasten White. We also celebrated Emily Anderson’s birthday, which was March 12.
The men, Doug Hansen, David Nelson and Murray VanLaecken, went fishing Saturday. What started slowly ended successfully and now we get to eat walleye again. We women practiced a song for church Sunday with Jessica on piano and we all had supper at Dvonne Hansen’s
Rodney and Marilyn Shawd went to Tyndall Sunday to visit her father and had a family gathering at the home.
Roadside History of South Dakota
Linda Hasselstrom noted author and rancher from Hermosa, traveled South Dakota highways writing about towns and their stories. At the beginning of her book are dates and things happening in that year. I picked out some of the more interesting ones.
Did you know — two million years ago glacial lakes formed in South Dakota and 24,000 BC short face bears, mammoths and peccaries died in sinkholes near Hot Springs.
From 1731 to 1744 Verendrye explored the Dakotas, Montana and Saskatchewan and built a chain of French forts.
In 1803 France sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.
From 1804 to 1806 Lewis and Clark charted a course to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1831, Yellowstone was the first steamboat to reach Ft. Tecumseh (Fort Pierre).
1843 Audubon visited Dakota Territory.
From 1856 to 1857 Fort Ridgley and South Pass Wagon Road was surveyed through Woonsocket and Wessington Springs.
1873 saw the railroad reach Yankton and in 1881, the first artesian well was drilled in Yankton.
1890 was the Wounded Knee Massacre and homesteaders and barbed wire took over the West River cattle open range.
1922-1923 the banks failed. Over 71 percent during the ‘20s lost over $39 million and there were over 34,419 farm foreclosures.
In 1934 was the first black blizzard.
Three state weather records were broken in 1936: Gann Valley reached 120° F; McIntosh got to -58° F; and Ludlow recorded only 2.89 inches of moisture.
From 1952 to 1963, four dams were completed on the Missouri River.
The Rapid City flood killed 238 people and destroyed $100 million worth of property in 1972.
In 1979 the last eight-party telephone line was eliminated.
1985-86 Deadwood recorded 200 inches of snow.
AND… Record high temperatures for March 12, 2015 of 78° F broke the previous record of 76˚ set in 1900 and on March 15, 2015, a high of 82° F broke the 75° high record from 1935 (recorded by Dvonne Hansen).
Hasselstrom also wrote under the topic of Forestburg — After glacial Lake Dakota drained away down the James River, sand blowing off the old lake bed turned the entire region into a wilderness of dunes.
Son Jeff Hansen was home visiting and taking in the migratory journey of birds through the area. He observed hooded and common mergansers, green wing teal, red head canvasback, wigeon, pintail, godwall mallard, golden eye and scaupe ducks and Canada, snow, blue, white front and cackling geese. He also saw three eagles north of Letcher and sandhill cranes on the ground and in the air east of my place. Robins, meadowlarks, killdeer and black birds are also arriving indicating that spring is here. Now we need to get some moisture.