South Dakota

Name: South Dakota's Mathis Murders
Brand: Noel Hamiel
SKU: 9781467150750
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Hang out with the most fascinating characters in South Dakota history, a state where profiles get set in stone. Accompany fossil hunters through the Badlands and retreat with Calvin Coolidge to the Black Hills. Wild Bill talks shop in Deadwood, W.L. Dow gives shape to Sioux Falls and a cowboy governor finds a way through the Dust Bowl. Pick up a South Dakota history book to saunter through a passenger car packed with unforgettable personalities.

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South Dakota's Mathis Murders

Capturing the Younger Brothers Gang in the Northern Plains

Bull Trains to Deadwood

Haunted Deadwood

On This Day in South Dakota History

South Dakota Wine

The Ku Klux Klan in South Dakota

Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills

South Dakota’s Cowboy Governor Tom Berry

Black Elk Peak

Prohibition in South Dakota

W.L. Dow:

South Dakota's Mathis Murders

9781467150750

$24.99

South Dakota's Mathis Family Murders brought death and deception to the heartland.

It was perhaps the most infamous murder case in state history. Ladonna Mathis was shot twice in the head at point-blank range inside the family's metal shed serving as their makeshift home. Two of her three children, ages 2 and 4, were also shot in the head. The brutality of the killings shocked the state and set off a frenzy of law enforcement activity. Despite its intensity, the investigation never found the murderer or the murder weapon. Though charged with the crime, the husband was acquitted, leaving the door open for endless speculation about what really occurred on that late summer morning of Sept. 8, 1981.

With renewed insight from those involved, veteran South Dakota journalist Noel Hamiel explores this cold case of murder and mystery that still haunts the Mount Rushmore state.

Capturing the Younger Brothers Gang in the Northern Plains

9781467152365

$21.99

Capturing the Younger Brothers Gang in the Northern Plains: The Untold Story of Heroic Teen Asle Sorbel is a historic tale of vigilante valor

Near sleepy Hanska slough, September 21, 1876, Norwegian teen Asle Sorbel made a daring "Paul Revere ride'? into Madelia, Minnesota. His efforts, and those of the Madelia Magnificent Seven, led to the capture of the Younger Brothers of the Jesse James-Younger Gang. The gang's botched Northfield bank raid and infamous Madelia Shoot Out were well reported. But, Alse's story was lost to history. Friends of the outlaws planned reprisals. Alse changed his name, his persona and his location. He kept his mount shut. In 1883, he quietly reestablished himself in Dakota Territory. As years passed, he became the premier horse doctor in the Webster, South Dakota area, all the while haunted by vigilant fear.

Author Arley K. Fadness uncovers the lost secrets and remarkable life of valiant Asle Oscar Sobel.

Bull Trains to Deadwood

9781467144223

$23.99

Pandemonium wafted up out of Deadwood Gulch whenever bellowing, muddy oxen teams led wagons rattling into town. For a decade, thousands of bull trains hauled all that miners, settlers and ne'er-do-wells needed to survive in that isolated prairie oasis. The bulls, thousands of them in mile-long, meandering trains, had last known civilization in Fort Pierre, two hundred miles to the east. After weeks on the harsh prairie of the Sioux, the exhausted convoys appeared out of the prairie dust, each team of twenty or more oxen pulling sturdy, white-bonneted wagons filled with provisions. Author Chuck Cecil restores the glory of the near-forgotten yet indispensable symbols of the West that made life possible on the frontier's western fringe.

Haunted Deadwood

9781609493257

$23.99

The Wild West may be tamed, but Deadwood's notorious past has not relinquished its hold on its corner of the Badlands or its place in popular imagination. And no wonder. If Wild Bill Hickok found its streets a little too rough, it should come as no surprise that the gamblers, gunslingers and general mischief-makers who put down roots at Deadwood's saloons and brothels did so in a ferocious and unforgettable manner. Mark Shadley and Josh Wennes prospect for ghostly activity as industriously as the town's former inhabitants dug for gold--and strike it just as rich. Greet Calamity Jane, Al Swearingen and a host of other characters as ready-made for haunting as they ever were for television.

On This Day in South Dakota History

9781467119351

$21.99

South Dakota is quietly nestled in the grasslands and Black Hills, but its history is far less hidden. One day at a time, author Brad Tennant presents intriguing, event-driven anecdotes of state history. On July 17, 1925, the state American Legion passed a resolution to initiate American Legion baseball. On April 29, 1930, Congress passed an act honoring the deceased chiefs of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the valiant men who made the supreme sacrifice in service in World War I. Celebrate an entire year of history in the Mount Rushmore State or enjoy it one day at a time.

South Dakota Wine

9781625858436

$21.99

A young commercial wine industry notwithstanding, winemaking traditions run deep in the Mount Rushmore State. Sodbusting pioneers like Anna Pesä and Jon Vojta defied South Dakota's harsh terrain and paved the way for Prairie Berry Winery. University biologists, including Dr. Ronald Peterson, cultivated the unique grapes needed for the climate, like the Valiant, Marquette, Brianna and Frontenac grapes. Despite subzero winters and torrid summers, strawberries, buffaloberries and rhubarb have grown on both sides of the Missouri River. Since the 1996 Farm Winery Bill passed, the state welcomed thirty vintners, including Strawbale Winery, Wilde Prairie Winery and Belle Joli' Winery. Denise DePaolo and Kara Sweet explore the heritage behind winemaking from the harvests of the prairie.

The Ku Klux Klan in South Dakota

9781467154246

$24.99

A startling rise and retreat

In the 1920s, a reborn Ku Klux Klan slithered into South Dakota. Bold at times, the group intimidated citizens in every county. KKK anti-Catholicism sentiment resulted in the murder of Father Arthur Belknap of Lead. Idealized Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore, operated as a white supremacist and KKK leader. In 1925, animosity between the KKK and Fort Meade soldiers came to a clash one night in Sturgis. The clatter of two borrowed .30 caliber Browning cooled machine guns split the air over the heads of a Klan gathering across the valley. Author Arley Fadness follows the Klan’s trail throughout the Rushmore state.

Calvin Coolidge in the Black Hills

9781467119313

$21.99

On August 2, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge shocked the nation by announcing he would not seek reelection. The declaration came from the Black Hills of South Dakota, where Coolidge was vacationing to escape the oppressive Washington summer and to win over politically rebellious farmers. He passed his time at rodeos, fishing, meeting Native American dignitaries and kick-starting the stagnant carving of Mount Rushmore. But scandal was never far away as Coolidge dismissed a Secret Service man in a fit of anger. Was it this internal conflict that led Coolidge to make his famous announcement or the magic of the Black Hills? Veteran South Dakota journalist Seth Tupper chronicles Coolidge's Black Hills adventure and explores the lasting legacy of the presidential summer on the region.

South Dakota’s Cowboy Governor Tom Berry

9781467119412

$21.99

As South Dakotans endured the Great Depression and developing Dust Bowl in 1932, they elected a cowboy as their governor. Tom Berry rode in the great, iconic 1902 cattle roundup ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt. He established the successful Double X ranch next to the Badlands. Big voiced and tireless, Berry commanded the attention of all, including President Franklin Roosevelt, who broke protocol and called him "Tom" or "Cowboy" in White House meetings. Berry faced bitter political rivalries and weather that threatened to blow South Dakotans off their land, but he is remembered for his humorous wit throughout. Author Paul S. Higbee traces the history of South Dakota and its iconic governor.

Black Elk Peak

9781625858702

$21.99

The history of Black Elk Peak--previously known as Hinhan Kaga and, more recently, as Harney Peak--remained segmented and scattered throughout the shadows of antiquity, until now. The natural landmark's namesake, Black Elk, experienced his great vision here, solidifying his status as a Sioux holy man. Obstructed by the insurmountable granite, General Custer and his horse nearly summited during the 1874 expedition. On that granite, sculptor Gutzon Borglum made the decision to carve a grand monument into the face of nearby Mount Rushmore. Prior to serving as the first Pine Ridge Reservation Indian agent and then mayor of Rapid City, Valentine McGillycuddy documented his ascent to the peak in 1875, where his ashes would come to rest. Author Bradley Saum chronicles the unique and untold stories that are intrinsically linked to the highest point in the Black Hills.

Prohibition in South Dakota

9781467137126

$24.99

South Dakota has always had an intermittent relationship with prohibition. Constantly changing legislation kept citizens, saloonkeepers, bootleggers and other scofflaws on tenterhooks, wondering what might come next. The scandalous indiscretions of the lethal Verne Miller and the contributions of "agents of change" like Senators Norbeck and Senn kept ne'er-do-wells on edge. In 1927, the double murder of prohibition officers near Redfield dominated headlines. From the Black Hills stills of Bert Miller to the Sioux Falls moonshine outfit buried under Lon Vaught's chicken house, uncork these oft-overlooked and tumultuous eighteen years in state history. In the first book of its kind, award-winning journalist Chuck Cecil delivers the boisterous details of an intoxicating era.

W.L. Dow:

9781626191525

$21.99

Wallace L. Dow's enduring legacy is visible throughout Sioux Falls and across South Dakota. His distinctive structures, whether civic buildings or private residences, are beholden to no single architectural style. A New Hampshire native, Dow was brought to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s by Governor Nehemiah Ordway. Dow quickly established himself as the preeminent architect of the Dakota prairie, designing iconic structures like Sioux Falls Courthouse and the penitentiary, as well as many beautiful private residences. Using local Sioux quartzite, Dow's buildings gave the emerging Dakota Territory an identity. Yet the architect himself remains something of a mystery. Join author and Dow documentarian Jennifer Dumke as she uncovers Dow's story, recounting the life and work of a true Sioux Falls original who left his mark statewide.