America~SOUTH DAKOTA~by rldubour

 

 

SOUTH DAKOTA

“Here is the place!” quoted Borglum,
As he viewed a side of Mount Rushmore.
“American history shall march along
That skyline!”~~ And it has for sure!

At the age of sixty years he carved
The face of George Washington.
And Borglum also sculptured from rock
The faces of Roosevelt, Lincoln and Jefferson!

The people are called South Dakotans
The motto is “Under God the people rule.”
Known as the Mount Rushmore state
In the Black Hills some still travel by mule.

The bird is the Ring-Necked Pheasant,
The insect is the Honey-Bee.
The flower is the Pasque and
The Black Hills Spruce is the state tree.

The song is “Hail, South Dakota”
The slogan is Great Faces, Great Places
The name Dakota comes from the Sioux
Means friend or allies their peoples embrace.

Home of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota
These tribes make up the Sioux Nation.
Deadwood is highly publicized
And well deserved of its reputation.

 

Wild Bill Hickok lies in an unmarked grave
At Crazy Horse Mountain in progress now.
Will be the world’s largest sculptured memorial
For the North American Indians to avow.

A group snuck into North Dakota
The year was nineteen-fifty-three.
Exhumed the bones of Sitting Bull
Brought him home to rest for eternity.

 

Duncan Park Baseball Stadium a minor league
In Spartanburg, it’s the oldest in the nation.
And Sweetgrass basket making for the last 300 years
Has been passed on from generation to generation.

 

Again it’s time for famous names
Lawrence, Humphrey and Crazy Horse
Brocklin, Hart and Cheryl Ladd
Bonnin, Brokaw and Sitting Bull of course!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Statehood, November 2, 1889 40th state
Capital is Pierre

AUTHOR NOTES:
Every few years, Irmo has a sighting of some kind of water monster that inhabits Lake Murray. The monster first ‘surfaced’ in 1973 when residents of Irmo and Ballentine saw a cousin of the Loch Ness Monster. It was described in The Independent News in 1980 as “a cross between a snake and something prehistoric.”  The Isle of Palms was originally named Hunting Island and then Long Island, it’s thought to be at least 25,000 years old, and was first inhabited by the indigenous Seewee Indians.
Fountain Inn is proud of the town’s most famous native son. Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates lost his leg in a cotton gin accident at the age of 12; he overcame his tragedy to become a famous dancer. His signature step was the “Imitation American Jet Plane,” in which he would jump five feet in the air and land on his peg leg, with his good leg sticking out straight behind him. During his career, Bates performed more than 20 different times on the Ed Sullivan television show more than any other artist.
The Columbia City Ballet, South Carolina’s oldest dance company, has developed into one of the most broadly supported performing arts organizations in the state.
TheUpperWhitewaterFalls is the highest cascade in easternAmerica; it descends for nearly 411 feet.