This online calendar of events emphasizes educational, archaeological, preservation, and history related programs throughout the year across South Dakota. Green entries denote activities at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Blue entries denote off-site activities sponsored by the SD State Historical Society and/or the Heritage Fund. If you would like to submit an event to be included on the calendar, please complete and submit the following form: Events form, PDF or Events form, Word.

September 2010

Event: "The People's House: Celebrating the Century" Exhibit
Description: This exhibit on the capitol’s 100th anniversary features include a wall-size mural of the capitol’s exterior telling about the building’s architectural elements. The original vault door from the Secretary of State’s Office holds a monitor running capitol construction photos. Artifacts include an original legislator’s desk and the 44-star flag that flew over the first capitol in 1889. Interactive stations let visitors try their hand at constructing a capitol with arches, columns and pediments, and laying a tile pattern with a special blue tile. People can see how well they can identify the capitols of South Dakota’s neighboring states with a matching game.
Location:  Cultural Heritage Center, Hogen Gallery, 900 Governors Dr., Pierre
Date/Time: through 2010, Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sun. & Holidays 1-4:30 p.m. CT
Admission:  Members free; Adults $4, Seniors $3, 17 & under free (Free to all 1st Sunday of every month)
Sponsor: South Dakota State Historical Society
Contact: 605-773-3458

Event: SD State Archives Open
Description: The State Archives is open every 1st Saturday of the month. Staff will be available to assist with research. The State Archives manages a collection of photographs, films, maps, books, newspapers, state and county records, as well as personal and organizational records.
Location:  Cultural Heritage Center, 900 Governors Dr., Pierre
Date/Time: September 4, 2010; 9 a.m to 4:30 p.m. CT
Admission:  Free
Sponsor: South Dakota State Historical Society
Contact: Archives (e-mail or web), 605-773-3804

Event: Free admittance to the Museum of the SD State Historical Society
Description: Admittance to the museum is free the 1st Sunday of the month. The Museum has 15,000 square feet of exhibition space with exhibits divided into five galleries.
Location: Cultural Heritage Center, 900 Governors Dr., Pierre
Date/Time: September 5, 2010; 1- 4:30 p.m. CT
Admission:  Free
Sponsor: South Dakota State Historical Society
Contact: 605-773-3458

Event: Watertown artist Patricia Johnson at the State Capitol
Description: Patricia Johnson will be displaying some of her watercolors and demonstrating her watercolor technique. This is a great opportunity to meet the artist, see her at work, and see some of her paintings. The art will be for sale.
Location: Capitol Building, first floor near the Heritage Store at the Capitol and First Lady Inaugural Gown Collection
Date/Time: September 8, 2010; 10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. CT
Admission: Free
Sponsor: South Dakota Heritage Fund
Contact: Dorinda Daniel (605) 773-6006, dorinda.daniel@state.sd.us

Event: 2010 Annual Meeting of the SD Archaeological Society
Description: Talks, tours, banquet speaker, and many other activities are planned. This meeting will be a venue for speakers to present the results of their most recent field and research work. Excavation projects, cultural history, technology and individual archaeological specialties in South Dakota will be featured. Researchers, vocational and volunteer archaeologists, teachers, students, and the public are encouraged to attend and/or present papers. This year's banquet speaker will be Dr. Michael Michlovic, Minnesota State University Moorehead. His topic will be The Northeastern Plains Village Culture of Later Prehistoric Times. It will detail Dr. Michlovic's work at the Shea, Sprunk, Lucas, and Peterson sites in Southeastern North Dakota.
Location: Northern State University, Student Union, 1200 S. Jay St., Aberdeen
Banquet: AmericInn, 301 Centennial St. S., Aberdeen
Date: September 10-12, 2010; All times Central Time
Schedule: Sept. 10, 6 p.m. - Brat Party, Centennial Village,
               Sept. 11:
                   8-9 a.m. - Board meeting, NSU Student Union
                   9-10 a.m. - Business meeting, NSU Student Union
                   10 a.m. - Noon - Presentations & Posters, NSU Student Union
                   Noon - 1 p.m. - Lunch on your own
                   1-5 p.m. - Presentations & Posters, NSU Student Union
                   5-7 p.m. - Reception, AmericInn
                   7-9 p.m. - Banquet, AmericInn
               Sept. 12, 10 a.m. - Gunderson site tour
Registration: Early-bird deadline August 25, 2010
                    Fees & online forms available by clicking here
Sponsor: SD Archaeological Society (SDAS), Northeast Peripheral Chapter of SDAS
Contact: Ray Psarysky (e-mail), 605-415-3198, website

Event: Grandparents Day Workshop
Description: Join the education crew for a chance to share memories across generations at the Grandparents Day Scrapbooking Workshop. Children of all ages & their grandparents are invited to view historic scrapbooks & photo albums from the Adams collection, spend quality time together, & create their own memories through scrapbook pages. All supplies & refreshments provided. Family should bring their own photographs. Reservations required, see Contact below.
Location: Adams Museum, 54 Sherman St., Deadwood
Date/Time: September 12, 2010; 1-3 p.m. MT
Admission: $10 for members, $15 for non-members
Sponsor: Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission; Adam-Mastrovich Family Foundation, Mary Adams Balmat; Rapid City Journal; Black Hills Pioneer; Celebrity Hotel; Chubby Chipmunk Hand-Dipped Chocolates; The Historic Bullock Hotel; Saloon No. 10; TDG Communications
Contact: Anne Rogers, museum educator (e-mail, website), 605-578-1928

Event: Oral History: What It Is and How To Do It - Preservation Wednesday
Description: Jennifer Jones will give the presentation. The public is encouraged to attend.
Location: Vermillion Public Library, 18 Church St., Vermillion
Date/Time: September 15, 2010; 7 p.m. CT
Admission: Free
Sponsor: Clay County Historic Preservation Commission
Contact: Jim Wilson (e-mail or web), 605-624-4579
Additional Comments: Preservation Wednesdays are held every 3rd Wednesday of the month September through May.

Event: Historic Transportation Routes to the Black Hills Gold Rush - Preservation Thursday
Description: Lonis Wendt will highlight the early transportation routes that connected to Deadwood during the Black Hills Gold Rush era. The historic routes from Cheyenne, Sidney, Bismarck, Ft. Pierre, Miles City, & Medora will be discussed as well as what is currently being done to rekindle the interest in these transportation corridors, from modern wagon trains to increased documentation of the sites along the way.
Location: Deadwood City Hall, 102 Sherman St., Deadwood
Date/Time: September 16, 2010; Noon MT
Admission: Donations welcomed
Sponsor: Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission; Adam-Mastrovich Family Foundation, Mary Adams Balmat; Rapid City Journal; Black Hills Pioneer; Celebrity Hotel; Chubby Chipmunk Hand-Dipped Chocolates; The Historic Bullock Hotel; Saloon No. 10; TDG Communications
Contact: Adams Museum (e-mail or web), 605-578-1928

Event: 1880 Blizzard & the Flood That Followed - Minnehaha County Historical Society monthly meeting
Description: Bob Kolbe, historian and current Minnehaha County Historical Society president, will present the program about the 1880 blizzard, its magnitude, effects, and the flow afterward. The flood not only covered the Sioux Falls area but most of Dakota Territory. This was the "Little House on the Prairie" blizzard and not the "Children's Blizzard" of 1888. This free program is open to the public. Bring a friend.
Location: Old Courthouse Museum, 200 W. 6th St., Sioux Falls
Date/Time: September 16, 2010; 7 p.m. CT
Admission: Free
Sponsor: Minnehaha County Historical Society
Contact: Jim Carlson, 605-366-8403

Event: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan - History & Heritage Book Club
Description: The Dust Bowl was the product of reckless, market-driven farming that had so abused the land that, when dry weather came, the wind lifted up millions of acres of topsoil and whipped it around in "black blizzards," which blew as far east as New York. This ecological disaster rapidly disfigured whole communities. Egan's portraits of the families who stayed behind are sobering and far less familiar than those of the "exodusters" who staggered out of the High Plains.
Location:  Resurrection Lutheran Church, 103 N. Taylor Ave., Pierre
Date/Time: September 21, 2010; 5:30 p.m. CT
Admission: Free
Sponsor: South Dakota State Historical Society & the South Dakota Heritage Fund
Contact: Dorinda Daniel (605) 773-6006, dorinda.daniel@state.sd.us
Additional Comments: The History & Heritage Book Club is open to everyone. People who want to join the discussion by telephone are welcome to do so by making arrangements in advance with Dorinda (see above).

Event: "You Don't Know Bertha Constantine" Test Screening & Fundraiser
Description: A test screening will be held for the almost finished short film about a woman traveling to the Black Hills to bury her husband. Pierre native Andrew Kighlinger wrote and directed the film. Fellow Pierre natives Adam Emerson and Luke Schuetzle are producers. The movie, currently being edited in Los Angeles, is expected to be ready by Thanksgiving when it will be submited to various film festivals. As part of the test screening, the public will get a chance to fill out a questionnaire about their reactions to the film, which is about 35 minutes long. The event, open to the public, is a fund-raiser to help pay for the film’s expenses and also as a fundraiser for sponsoring partner, the South Dakota Heritage Fund. Following the screening, a wine and dessert reception will be held at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center where participants will have a chance to talk with the director and producers.
Location: Screening - State 1-2-3 Theatres, 123 W. Capitol Ave., Pierre
              Reception - Cultural Heritage Center, 900 Governors Dr., Pierre
Date/Time: September 23, 2010; Test screening - 7 p.m. CT, Reception - 8 p.m. CT
Admission: $30 advance tickets (limited to 250 tickets) are being sold at the Heritage Store at the Cultural Heritage Center, the Heritage Store at the Capitol, State 1-2-3 Theatres, and Pier 347.
Sponsor: South Dakota Heritage Fund
Contact: Dohui Kim at 773-6346 or e-mail dohui.kim@state.sd.us

Event: 18th Annual West River History Conference: "Relative Riches"
Description: What is your family's story? Scoundrels or Unsung Heros - they all have a story. Make plans to attend and discover more about your heritage. Keynote speaker is Brad Tennant, Assistant Professor of History at Presentation College in Aberdeen and current president of the South Dakota State Historical Society Board of Trustees. His speech will be "No Graves or Epitaphs - Remembering the Forgotten of Past Generations". Guest speakers, special entertainment & displays, presentation of papers, book signings, and selected rare booksellers booths will be a part of the weekend of historical activity focused on the heritage of the region.
Location: Surveck Center, SD School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City, SD
Date/Time: September 23-25, 2010
Registration:
Full Conference, pre-registration $30 ($35 at the door)
All Day Friday, pre-registration $20 ($25 at the door)
Student/accompanying adult $10 (1 day)
Thursday Evening or Saturday Morning, $12.50 ($15 at the door)
Meals: Friday lunch - $10, Friday banquet - $19, Saturday breakfast - $8
Sponsor: South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission, the Black Hills Corral of Westerners, International, the Society of Black Hills Pioneers, and Dode Lee
Contact: West River History Conference (e-mail or web), 605-343-4852

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