Hubby and I were invited to a 80th birthday party in Pierre this weekend. Because Hubby has so many friends there from high school, he always looks for an excuse to visit his old hometown.
Even though Pierre (pronounced ‘peer’) is the state capitol, the population is about 15,000 people. It’s set on the banks of the Missouri River, where the Bad River joins from the west. It was settled first by the Lakota, Arikara, and Crow tribes. Louis and Clark went past the townsite in 1804 and 1806. They were followed by a fur traders who established Fort Pierre Chateau. I volunteered on a couple of archeological digs there where we found a lot of pipe stems, buttons, nails, boards, and various other trinkets from an old fort. After the fur trading years, a military fort, Fort Pierre, was built there near where the town sits on the west side of the river; the town of Pierre is on the east side. Fort Pierre is in the Mountain Time Zone and Pierre is in the Central Time Zone.
This trip, Hubby and a friend hiked on Farm Island which is now a state park along the river. When our kids were young, we camped out there quite a bit. Hubby has lots of memories of the place, from ice skating out there to mowing the grass and cleaning bathrooms with his summer job. My kids remember the camping, campfires, and swimming.
On our way to get to Pierre, we left very early to get to there in time for lunch with friends. Timing is critical because we drove east facing the rising sun. Hubby has driven the route so often that he knows what time to leave so that the sun is behind the sun visors in the truck and still get to our destination on time. His engineering brain has it all figured out.
On the way home facing west, we took our time and enjoyed the morning scenery. Our prairie has few trees which is why I feel claustrophobic back east in states like Tennessee and George. I need to see big skies above my head, not tree leaves.
We stopped at Wall Drug for a little bit. It’s the end of the season so it’s not crowded and they have great prices on Black Hills gold jewelry. We talked about eating breakfast there but decided to keep going. The food is good, and their dining rooms are full of amazing western artwork which is fun to peruse. If you’re ever near Wall, South Dakota, we recommend you stop in and see the amazingly successful tourist stop that all started in 1931 by offering travelers free glasses of iced water.
