October's Best

Fall color as seen from the overlook at Little Moreau Recreation Area in Dewey County on October 1st.

Here are twelve of my favorite photos from the month of October, 2013.  For those visitors to this blog who may be new, check out "January's Best" entry for the rhyme and reason of why twelve photos per month.  It will be an interesting task to cull the best of 2013 at the end of the year.  It's been a fun process so far.  As always, click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in!

Rare red aurora borealis in central Minnehaha County in the last hour of October 1st.

A self portrait with the northern lights on the dock at Island Lake taken during the first hour of October 2nd.

A windmill and corn field at twilight in McCook County in mid-October.

Beaver Creek Lutheran Church at Heritage Park on the campus of Augustana College in Sioux Falls.

Evening light highlights this autumn splendor in Brookings County just after a rain shower passed.

Sioux Fall's Old Courthouse Museum at twilight.

Harvesting corn with farm equipment of yesteryear at Beaver Creek Nature Area.

Allen Severtson looks back from his seat on a 1954 SC CASE tractor at the corn picker doing it's thing.

Fall along the Big Sioux River near Newton Hills State Park.

Golden leaves dress up these overhanging limbs along the Big Sioux River.

The setting sun through aligned openings of an unused barn west of Wakonda, SD.

Ghost Town Hunting - Chapter III

What is left of Sitka, SD in Walworth County

During my travels across the state in late May, I was able to visit two more authentic South Dakota Ghost Towns, both of which are located East River.  Sitka, a few miles east of Mobridge, SD in Walworth county as well as Argonne, SD which is in Miner County.  Neither have any residents left and both have only a few of the buildings remaining.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by.

Abandoned residence in Sitka.

The old outhouse is leaning a bit nowadays!

Argonne appears to have been on an old railroad line.  There are a nice stand of trees among the town's abandoned streets and lots.  Only a few buildings remain as well as an old bank vault.  I got there in the evening as the sun was getting ready to set.  It was eerily beautiful.

A Cute Little Fox

A fox kit near a den a few miles west of Sioux Falls, SD

Earlier this month,  a co-worker of mine, who lives in the Buffalo Ridge area west of Sioux Falls, told me that her family had noticed an active fox den in one of their hay fields.  She said there were three fox kits playing around the dens in the evenings.  Naturally I asked if I could come out and see if I could get a few photos.  The first evening, I saw nothing.  The next day I went out about 20 minutes before sunset when some clouds in the west starting blocking the sun making it really dark by the time I got to the den.  I was able to get this shot of one of the kits in the low light however:

I returned the following evening and had superb light to work with.  There was only one of the three kits at the den and he was just waking up so I was able to get fairly close in order to get some candid photos.  Cute little guy, isn't he?  Enjoy the photos and click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by!

Ghost Town Hunting - Chapter II

The ghost town of Owanka, SD

The last week of April, I traveled to Rapid City for work mid-week.  On the way out and on the way back,  I was able to take some major detours in order to satisfy a few of my ghost town curiosities.  Another SD photographer (Robin Hao Gonzalez) had been posting shots of a little town called Owanka that intrigued me.  Come to find out, it is not that far off I-90 and just west of the Cheyenne River.  I found it on a hot (84 degrees), Wednesday at about three in the afternoon.  Not the greatest light to shoot, so I only got a couple shots from the ridge above.  Below is a shot with my long lens of the abandoned elevator.  I used the (new to me) photomatix plug-in in Aperture to get the black and white image of the same photo.  I think it looks pretty cool.  As always, click on a photo for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by.

Last December, I tried to find Tinton, SD as it was reported to be a ghost town with many buildings still standing (abandoned sometime in the 1950s). The problem was that it was located high up in the Northern Black Hills, so it was covered in a lot of snow and unless I rented a snowmobile, I was unable to get there.  So I decided to go and find it this time around.  I was successful, sort of.  I found the edge of town, but it is apparently located on private property and there were "no trespassing" signs posted quite clearly everywhere.  I resisted the temptation to explore further and shot the photos below from the road.  I'd love to go in and explore more down the barely visible road because if you look on google maps, the satellite photos show many more buildings beyond these.  I need to find out who to call to get permission to go back there.  If anybody knows, feel free to leave the info in a comment and thanks much!

Ghost Town Hunting

An abandoned building on the edge of Dewey, SD

I took the week off before Christmas this year in part because I wanted to go ghost town hunting in Western South Dakota. Ghost towns offer some pretty interesting photo ops as well as give my back road meanderings some focus and purpose. I saw a lot of country side I had not seen before and want to go back out this spring to find some more. This post shows some of what I found last month. Click on the photo for a larger file to view and enjoy!

Along the Cheyenne River in the southwest corner of the state is the old town sight of Burdock. There are no buildings left, just a sign marking the spot. I was able to see and photograph a Bald Eagle at the sight though.

The next series of shots are from Dewey, SD. Dewey lies a little further north up the Cheyenne River along the railroad line. The internet told me that Dewey was a ghost town, but I found out that wasn't completely true as there are one or two inhabited houses in what used to be the town. There are, however, several abandoned buildings including a school and a church, so I guess it could be considered a "near" ghost town.

The next two photos are of Ardmore, SD. This town lies south of Edgemont very near the Nebraska state line. I arrived just before sunset and it was eerie. It was almost like every inhabitant just up and left sometime in the 1980s and left everything as is. The only activity I witnessed was two trains rolling through just fifteen minutes apart.

I tried to visit a few more sights in the Black Hills area, but I couldn't find one and the other was only accessible via snowmobile. So I next went up to the Short Pine Hills area of northwestern SD to find Harding, SD. On my way there, I was able to capture this magnificent Golden Eagle in flight.

Here is a shot of downtown Harding. Just as I snapped this shot a gentleman arrived in his pick-up and I asked if this was indeed Harding and he told me "You are smack dab in the middle of it." We chatted for a few minutes. He was the only resident and owned everything on his side of the road. I didn't stay to much longer to explore as the day was getting late and I had a couple more hours to drive that night to get home.

The next two shots are of Huseboe or Lightcap, SD at dawn. Apparently it was originally called Huseboe due to who owned the store, then changed names when some of the buildings were bought by a man with the last name of Lightcap. There is only one building still standing on the town site now. When I was a kid I seem to remember three standing. There are remains of at least three other buildings there. Just a quarter mile to the north, the Lightcap schoolhouse still stands as well. My great aunt used to help run the store I'm told. My aunt has also told me she helped at the store one summer when she was a teenager. This site is about 15 miles north of Isabel, SD on highway 65.

The last ghost town I went to investigate was Okobojo which lies northeast of Pierre, SD. I did not shoot any photos there but I was able to spot and shoot a couple photos of this snowy owl that was perched on a round bale. I have not seen a snowy owl in South Dakota before, so I was pretty pumped to see this one.