Advertise on podcast: The Travel South Dakota Stories

Meet our new co-host,10-year-old Rosalie (and her dad), for a wild family adventure through South Dakota, where the animals are anything but ordinary.   Join us as we visit Reptile Gardens in the Black Hills, home to more than 200 species. Rosalie meets Orville, a giant tortoise celebrating his 121st birthday, comes face-to-face with a massive saltwater crocodile, watches a talented painting parrot, and gets up close with her favorite animal, the adorable axolotl.    Next, we travel back 67 million years to the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, where Rosalie meets Stan, a Tyrannosaurus rex, and discovers why dinosaurs can be the gateway to a lifelong fascination with science.   Brian Thacker, presenter   Rosalie Thacker, co-presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   John Brockelsby "Johnny B" and Katherine Schliep Larson from Reptile Gardens (reptilegardens.com)   Peter Larson from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research (bhigr.com) Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   FIND OUT MORE   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

South Dakota is a state with room to breathe, and plenty of room to create. From a horse barn turned welding studio to spinning globes that transform familiar places into otherworldly landscapes, this is a journey into the artists, stories and sounds that make South Dakota unique.   We meet sculptor John Lopez in Lemmon, where he turns scrap metal into extraordinary animals and powerful works inspired by the history and landscape around him. In Spearfish, artist Dick Termes takes us inside his mind-bending Termespheres, where paintings wrap around and inside three-dimensional globes. In Sioux Falls, Yankton Sioux artist Jerry Fogg shares the stories, history and cultural traditions behind his deeply personal mixed-media works, and musician Andrew Reinartz explains how South Dakota's wide-open spaces influence his music.   - Brian Thacker, presenter   Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   - Sculptor John Lopez (johnlopezstudio.com) - Termesphere artist Dick Termes (termespheres.com) - Yankton Sioux tribal artist Jerry Fogg (Facebook: @nativesoulart) - Musician Andrew Reinartz (andrewreinartz.com)   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In South Dakota, where you stay can be just as memorable as where you go. From sleeping above an underground winery to exploring a working cattle ranch on the edge of the Badlands, these are accommodations that turn a night away into part of the adventure.   Join us as we meet 80-year-old Eldon Nygaard at Valiant Vineyards, South Dakota's first winery. We then head to Circle View Guest Ranch, a working cattle ranch with spectacular views across the Badlands, where we go searching for a missing herd of cows. Then we check into the historic Hotel Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, where the living aren't the only guests. We hear stories of the hotel's resident spirits, including Alex Johnson himself and the mysterious Lady in White, before Brian spends the night in the hotel's most infamous room.   - Brian Thacker, presenter   Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   - Eldon Nygaard from Valiant Vineyards (valiantvineyards.us) - Philip and Amy Kruse from Circle View Guest Ranch (circleviewranch.com) - Mitch McKeithan from Hotel Alex Johnson (alexjohnson.com) Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

The Black Hills are home to more than 100 known caves - including the world's third-longest cave system at Jewel Cave National Monument with its miles of unmapped passageways, and the complex caves systems at Wind Cave National Park, which are not merely a geological wonder they also make up a sacred site for the Lakota people. We join pioneer explorer Chris Pelczarski for some hands-on spelunking in seriously narrow caves (that are sometimes home to mountain lions). Then we meet Indigenous park ranger Sina Bear Eagle and learn about the Lakota emergence story and its deep spiritual meaning. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: Chris Pelczarski and Adam Weaver from the Black Hills Cave and Nature Conservancy   Sina Bear Eagle from Wind Cave National Park Recorded on location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there. It's designed to let you feel what it's like for real. Find out more at TravelSouthDakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure. Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In South Dakota, the deep agricultural roots mean that visitors have plenty of chances to get a true hands-on experience, from exploring vineyards to see how wine is made to meeting farm animals and learning how to make cheese. When you participate in agritourism, you're tapping into a way of life that few visitors see. Join us as we take a stroll through a hops farm on our way to a brewery, help brew some beer, and make cheese with some friendly emus. Along the way we learn about family farming legacies, hands‑on food and drink production, experimental craft beers, and the sensory joy of tasting locally grown ingredients. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: Lee and Josh Anderson from A Homestead Brew Chad Blase from Farm Life Creamery Blake Thompson from Fernson Brewing Company Recorded on location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there. It's designed to let you feel what it's like for real. Find out more at TravelSouthDakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure. Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the biggest two-wheeled party in the world, drawing hundreds of thousands of riders. Set in the stunning Black Hills, it's a spectacle filled with roaring motorcycles, live rock concerts, custom bikes, and communal camaraderie. Join us as we take in the stunts and music at Buffalo Chip, ride Main Street on a Fat Boy Harley Davidson, meet a 100-year-old rider, and hit the road out to Bear Butte to learn about its spiritual significance to the Lakota people.  - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: Buffalo Chip founder Rod "Woody" Woodruff Photographer Michael Lichter Sturgis veteran Milton "Mac" McKinney Centenarian rider Gloria Struck Sturgis Hall of Famer Cris Sommer-Simmons Recorded on location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there. It's designed to let you feel what it's like for real. Find out more at TravelSouthDakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure. Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry armchair-productions.com

p]:text-[#242F2F] max-w-prose text-base lg:text-lg [&>p]:text-base lg:[&>p]:text-lg leading-[1.5]"> There are two sides to every story. That's especially true when Lewis and Clark met the Teton Sioux. Their 1804 journey through South Dakota wasn't just about exploration — it was where two worlds met along the Missouri River. Long before the Corps of Discovery arrived, Boyd Gourneau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, says his ancestors and other Indigenous tribes had already built full lives here, rooted in storytelling and protecting the land. When Lewis and Clark reached Fort Pierre, they encountered the Teton Sioux at Fischers Lilly Park — a meeting that began in ceremony and curiosity but soon turned uneasy as trust gave way to tension. In this episode, host Brian Thacker sits down with guests to revisit that moment through both Native and explorer eyes, revealing how hope, pride and misunderstanding shaped one of America's most powerful early encounters. You'll hear from: Boyd Gourneau, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Jay Vogt, retired director of the South Dakota State Historical Society Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to let you feel what it's like to be there for real. Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com for ideas, inspiration, and eveything else you'll need to plan your great South Dakota adventure. Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry.

The Black Hills Powwow is the biggest powwow in the U.S., where dancers, singers, artists, and spectators come from across North America to honor the spirit and beauty of the Great Plains Indigenous culture. The powwow comes alive through handcrafted regalia and the spirited dancers who embody history.   Join us as we take in the sounds and stories from this enduring celebration that bridges generations and cultures. We meet Ruben Little Head who has been an MC at the Black Hills Powwow for 17 years, dancer and former Miss Oglala Lakota Nation winner Santana Young Man Afraid of his Horses and we get a private concert from singing and drumming group Showtime. - Brian Thacker, presenter   Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: -  Ruben Little Head -  Santana Young Man Afraid of his Horses -  Showtime singers, Hunter Blasingame, Xavier Little Head and BJ Braveheart   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In South Dakota, hunting and fishing traditions run deep and are woven into the very fabric of the state's culture. Folks come from across the country to experience the pheasant-hunting capital of the world and to cast for walleye in the state's serene rivers and lakes.   Join us at Thunderstik Lodge, South Dakota's most luxurious pheasant-hunting retreat, for a hunt with veteran guides and some of the happiest labradors you'll ever meet. Then we hit the water, jigging for walleye and saugeye on the wide Missouri River and beneath the hydroelectric dam at Lake Francis Case. But it's not just about hunting and fishing — it's about sportsmanship, storytelling, respect for nature and sharing the day's abundance. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: -  Hunting guides Garrett, Jay and Gary -  Carey Story from Thunderstik Lodge -  Texan hunter Scott Senter -  Michael 'Buddy' London from Central Dakota Guide Service   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In the winter of 1879, a man by the name of Charles Ingalls brought his family to South Dakota, fell in love with the area and filed for a formal homestead in the small community of De Smet. Charles Ingalls was the father of Laura Ingalls, the author of The Little House on the Prairie series. Join us as we roll across the prairie in a horse-drawn cart to Laura's homestead, take part in a spelling bee in the 1889 Little Prairie School, drop into rehearsals for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant and uncover treasures in the archive room at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society Museum. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: - Ann Lesch from the Ingalls Homestead - Christie Hubbard from the pageant society - Mary Jo Wirtz from the Memorial society Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real. Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure. Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

The South Dakota culinary scene is heavily influenced by Indigenous people, Scandinavians, Germans, Russians, farmers, hunters… and even church basement ladies. From all those sources the state has a smorgasbord of local specialties with names as exotic as some of the dishes themselves.   Join us as we go on a four-course road trip around South Dakota. Our appetizer is the state's 'official nosh' chislic, followed by a James Beard winning restaurant in a town of 1,800 people, and finish up with some world-famous donuts from Wall Drug for dessert. Then of course we need a digestif. Although the one we try is… just dangerous. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   -  Joy Ann Smith and Andrea Bear from the Chislic Festival -  Joseph Raney from Skogen in Custer -  Sarah Hustead from Wall Drug -  Jerry Sailer from Black Hills Contraband Distillery -  Cowboy Keith from the Blue Bell Lodge Chuckwagon Dinner Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

The Lakota people called it Mako Sica. It means bad lands. It's probably not a name that a tourism office would come up with. It sounds more like a desolate and forbidding landscape.   So, is it a fitting name?   Join us as we hike through a colorful geological tapestry of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires in Badlands National Park in search of ancient fossils, become an unwelcome visitor in a prairie town, and go horseback riding through an endless sea of grass under the shadows of rocky buttes straight out of a western movie. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   -  Ed Welsh and Paul Roghair from the Badlands National Park -  And Casie Donald from Hurley Butte Horseback   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

As soon as we walked into the barracks at Fort Sisseton, we were handed muskets - heavy Springfield 63s from the Civil war era.   That's because we enlisted in the army. The Union Army that is.   Join us as we march back in time to 1864 at the annual Sisseton historical festival, where calvary, artillery and infantry reenactors come together and bring the camp to life for a weekend, with period accurate food and music, military demonstrations, dances and much more.   But we aren't just there to watch the festival. We are in it. Listen as we take part in marching drills and then perform them in front of a big crowd, join some old-timers from the cavalry regiment for some tales around a blazing fire, sleep in the haunted military hospital and step on toes at the Military Ball. - Brian Thacker, presenter   Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:   -  Ali Tonsfeldt from Fort Sisseton -  Captain Bruce Bekkering and Amy from the Cavalry troop -  Captain Kevin Ganz and the rest of the 13th Sioux Falls regiment   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

Rodeo in the United States is a pure reflection of the spirit of the American West, and it's a tradition rooted in the folklore and culture of the country. And in South Dakota, it's not only the official sport - it's a way of life.   Join us as we go on a wild ride at the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo where over 300,000 people from all over the world descend on Rapid City to watch over 120 different events. We join a father and son team at the ranch rodeo, cheer on Gill the border collie at the sheep dog trials, take part in a bachelor cattle auction and watch seven-year-old Kreed hang on to a sheep for dear life in mutton bustin'. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: -  Sheepdog handler and dog lover Linda Loulias -  Sheep shearer Mike Por and Loren Opstedahl -  Kreed, our fearless mutton buster -  And the boys from Lakota Funds and the Corn Creek Bandits   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

In Africa, people go on safari in search of the Big Five: the Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo. But in South Dakota, you can go in search of the huge five: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Raptor and Mammoth. South Dakota is a major hub for paleontology and in the past three decades alone some of the most famous dinosaurs in history have been unearthed here.   Join us as we head out with Paleo Adventures in the northern Black Hills on a dig for 67-million-year-old T-Rex teeth and Stegosaurus bones. We then head down the road from Custer State Park, which was home to something wilder and woolier than bison: mammoths. In 1974 a mass graveyard of mammoths was found here and today it's now a museum built over an active dig site. We join the dig, work on mammoth bones in the fossil preparation lab and find a whole lot of mammoth dung in the archives. - Brian Thacker, presenter Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode: - Walter Stein and Ethan Turpin from Paleo Adventures -  Dr Chris Jass, Kelly Lubbers and Alex Gardner from The Mammoth Site   Recorded on-location, this audio adventure is designed to do more than just let you hear what it's like to be there; it's designed to let you feel what it's like for real.   Find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com where you'll find lots of inspiration, ideas and everything else you need to know to plan your great South Dakota adventure.   Produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com