Opinion

Almost every memory I have from my childhood is outdoors. I think my parents used to send us kids outside as an attempt to keep us out of trouble.

Even before statehood, the Missouri River divided the State of South Dakota and her people into two distinct regions, East River and West River. With farming in the east and ranching in the west, South Dakota has always had a split personality.

Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA It was last March, when out of the blue, the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule to allow the importation of fresh beef into the United States from the South American country of Paraguay. The problem with Paraguay is that it is not free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which is a highly contagious foreign animal disease that affects cattle, sheep, hogs, and cloven-footed wildlife.

The first h i g hway s into the prairie grasslands of what would later become South Dakota were the rivers used by the earliest adventurers, explorers, mountain men, and fur trappers. For the late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury travelers west of St. Louis, their road was the Missouri River.

District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Vice Chair Agriculture and Natural Resources, Member of Local Government Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

Senator Erin Tobin District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Chair of Health & Human Services, Executive Board, Agriculture and Natural Resources, State Affairs Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

In my State of the State Address, I talked about the freedom to be secure. We are so fortunate to live in a nation where we have many Freedoms, including the Freedom to feel secure in our own communities. Unfortunately, that security is now being threatened. And today, we are even more at risk of having our security ripped out from under us than ever before.

District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Chair of Transportation, State Affairs Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

Senator Erin Tobin District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Chair of Health & Human Services, Executive Board, Agriculture and Natural Resources, State Affairs Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

The military post, Fort Randall, stood along the west bank of the Missouri River in southeastern Gregory County for thirty-six years and five months between June 1856 and November 1892. During that time, it was one of the most important military posts on the Upper Missouri River and had quarters for five companies.