- This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting - Donors to the Explore South Dakota Fund support the production of local documentaries and other programs of local interest presented by SDPB.

Friends of STPB appreciates their support of this program - Driving the roads of South Dakota.

Today a cell phone provides any route we need yet, not long ago a piece of paper dubbed the highway map called the Shots.

Sure, with a press of a button, we get the fastest route available.

But why not venture off that digital path and discover a tangible moment in time, a historical landmark or a personal story different from ours?

Join me as we crisscrossed the South Dakota countryside on Dakota Life detours.

We travel to an area west of Oneida where a former slave stakes his claim in Sully County.

- During slavery times, it was against the law.

There were laws that were made for the slaves to be taught how to read and write, and sometimes they'd learned on the sly, but there were times if they did get caught, they would be severely punished if someone knew how to read or write.

They didn't let that knowledge be known.

They can take your home, they can take your money, but they can never take your education.

So learn all you can so that you can be a success.

- I can't even begin to express the horrible things that was in their background, their ancestors had endured.

And now there is this proclamation that says it's over and now you, you can go forward and do something and be something and be the man and women that you've always known you could be, but were never allowed to be.

- To think that during the middle of a crisis, during the middle of that war, that proclamation freed all of those people.

How would that feel?

How could you wrap your head around that and then move on and make a plan?

Okay, now I'm going to do this.

Where am I gonna go?

How am I gonna feed my family?

- I think everyone who moved north or west wanted to get away from the culture of the South.

There was no reeducating former slave owners.

I don't think.

There were very many abolitionist ideals in the South and oh Lord, this is gonna sound terrible once a slave owner, always a slave owner.

So they had that mentality about African Americans and their place in their society.

So if you had your own society and your own land, then you wouldn't have to be treated.

Demeaning isn't a good word.

- It's - Far beyond demeaning.

I don't know if Lincoln knew what he was doing in 1862 when he made the homestead acts so that people could move further west and enjoyed the prosperity of the land and how it would affect the people who were newly freed.

- The very fact that people were considered property wives and children could be sold away from fathers, families could be split up.

And then to get to the revolutionary idea where those same people that were owned property could then own land of their own and shape their own destiny.

It made this country, it made our neighborhood.

It was revolutionary.

- There's no racial disparities, there's no gender disparities.

Anyone has this opportunity, the code of the homesteader.

If you worked hard and you minded your business and you did it well, you had the respect of everyone.

And with the Blairs, with the Magruder, with the species, with the people who settled there in the Blair Colony, that was what the neighbors talked about, was how hardworking they were, how industrious they were, how committed they were to making something of themselves.

'cause that was at the core for all homesteaders.

Here was our opportunity to be more than we were before - They were using the Homestead Act.

But many of the people who came were already prosperous.

So they had about a 10 year timeframe so that they could amass wealth and if they were forward thinking, possibly move to a new community where they didn't have to interact with the people who had enslaved them so that they could be on their own and prosper for themselves.

- You know what, what's amazing to me, the evidence that we have that Norville Blair left Tennessee and then landed in central Illinois.

But then to have the home state of Abraham Lincoln and people who profess to carry his values, treat them so badly, they were denied the vote swindled in land deals and financial deals, and they decided there's gotta be a better place.

And I think it was at that time that his son, Ben and pH then headed west looking for land.

- They sent word back that it was a place for everybody to come to.

So in 1884, they moved from Illinois to along the Missouri River in Fairbank.

- Early on, Fairbank was actually targeted as possibly going to be the capital.

There was talk that the railroad was gonna come through there and it would cross the Missouri there.

But as with many of those stories about where the railroad was gonna go and where the railroad actually went, it wasn't the same thing.

So Fairbank was one of those towns, it, it blew up, then the railroad didn't materialize and people just kind of dispersed in a million different directions.

- However, the beauty of it was it left the land for the Blairs to homestead farmstead and invite other people to come to this area.

- So Nova Blair had a family, his daughter Betty, started marketing to more people from back in Missouri to encourage more to come and experience this same freedom, true freedom.

Freedom to be their own person, freedom to have autonomy.

She - Was willing to step out there and not only as a black woman, but as a woman at that time.

To go to work as a land agent for a land company with a specific goal of bringing qualified people out to Salt Lake County is remarkable.

- The way that she got most of the people who were interested purchasing land in South Dakota, she would tell them that there were no flies in South Dakota, - Whether she had her fingers crossed when she said it, but there are truly flies in Salt County.

- They had so many dreams.

They wanted to give 1700 acres to the Northwest homestead movement so that African Americans could come and stay with other African Americans and to learn from each other, share with each other so that they could all be prosperous and successful.

They wanted to also have a university on this during this movement, but it kind of fell short.

But they still did have a community of people who were like-minded and could prosper from one another.

And when you are successful, I cheer you because I'm successful because you're successful.

So we can all join in and be a success for one another.

- The numbers I've seen is that there were 200 or more, and that was at a time when the total population of Salt Lake County was maybe 1700 people.

So that's a good population.

But how improbable was it that former slaves ended up in the very center of South Dakota, owning land on their own and becoming very successful?

The fact that we had a significant portion of our population as freed slaves is just remarkable to me.

- There was this idea the rain will follow the plow and so let's just plow up as much of this countryside as we can and then the rains will come.

But what we know is that the rains didn't come.

As a matter of fact, what came was the Dust Bowl, - The 1930s were hard and it didn't make any difference what your gender was, your race was.

Sully County suffered during the thirties.

- So when the Blair Colony finally met its demise, there was no viable way to harvest their agriculture anymore.

So they went probably further west and moved into towns.

I'm thinking that they were all optimists and no matter what they had endured in the past, they believed that there was always something better.

- In the old days, we would've called it grit.

The the grit that those people showed because yeah, there could have been an excuse that I was born a slave and you can't expect much of me.

But that wasn't their deal.

That wasn't their deal.

They came here for a better life.

They came here to, to make their mark and to make a better life for their kids and their families.

- Isn't it really something to think of?

Because for many of those of us who are white people who have lived here, owning land is just part, it always was.

It was always an option.

So to put yourself into the shoes of someone for whom it was not an option for years and years and then to hear the news, it's one of those things, if you wanna get into the real idealistic American dream, that's what it was all about.

It's this equal opportunity for everybody.

Remarkable - Under their circumstances.

It could not be possible, but they did not know that they wanted to be just like everybody else.

And once they got their freedom, they could be just like everybody else.

There may have been setbacks, but there was nothing but hope for the future.

And it all depends on what you call success.

Perhaps they might have had just a little plot of land and that was their success.

And if you look at them, were they successful?

I'm thinking that they were pretty much like me.

Oh no, that's just something I did because they lived their lives the way they saw fit.

So what do you call success?

- Staying on the banks of the Missouri River, we head south and find a group of cyclists re-imagining the shores of Lake oa.

- Are there times you don't wanna ride?

And then when you get out there, you're glad you did.

Yeah.

Talk about, talk about that.

- I'm trying to remember when I started getting really serious about riding and what it felt like to then make it a part of who I am and what I do.

Sometimes when circumstances aren't perfect, - There's definitely, obviously with anything, there's days that you don't wanna, and when you get out there in it, it's so easy to just find yourself smiling.

- You don't need to be inspired to do it all the time, but you have to be dedicated to doing it all the time.

- Now that I have kids to show my kids that you don't have to be like, oh, I'm a adult now.

I don't do these things.

That's why I think cycling's so important too, is just, it keeps you going and it gives you a reason to, to keep moving.

- I've never regretted going on a ride.

It always feels good once you're done doing it.

Sometimes it's the difference in a day as well.

Had I slept in, had I skipped that, I may have been lethargic to the rest of the day and not that inspired, but if I go out and ride, I'm gonna have a good day.

Our club kind of started on a whim, really just some friends who had been riding together and one of them, dusty OTA Covin said we had to call ourselves a club and like make some sweet jerseys.

Like, yeah, that sounds, that sounds cool.

But as it happened, we kind of got interested in doing more about riding in town and thought there should be an active club in town to support riding in any form that you may wanna ride a bike.

- You know, in a lot of communities you'll have mountain bike clubs, you'll have road bike clubs, right, or gravel clubs.

We realized that that was not gonna be effective to get anything done.

We needed everybody at the table and using that combined effort, we could get more done, you know, through the network of small town, got the word out and organized those people.

And then that was the creation of the OA women.

- Uriah's involvement in the club has been really inspirational.

He is enthusiastic and energetic and he keeps coming up with these fun new ideas for us to do.

- The outdoors and recreation obviously comes to mind if you know anything about Pier four Pierre in the Missouri River, but it's fishing and hunting and it's really, it like it's so narrow focused on that scope that like, I feel like people are staring at the river all day fishing.

But like the bluffs to me, when I looked up at them, you know, I look at a little hill and I'm like, Ooh, you could, you know, do this or that.

It's not a huge mountain, but you know, there's fun stuff in there.

And actually for mountain biking it's, it's almost perfect.

- The West shore trails is one of the proudest accomplishments I think the club has, has had in its time.

It really is handbuilt with love and it's a place that I love to go ride - That is all Handbuilt single track.

So when we talk about what trail is really old school, I mean all built with a tool called the Pulaski.

Essentially a pickax on one side and an ax on the other.

- Took us three years to do that.

Five miles worth of track out there.

In fact, we even tried one day with a tiller.

We took a tiller out there and thought we might be able to get some accomplishment and it, it destroyed the tiller.

- The grass that's out there has a root system that's impenetrable and can take six to seven of the hardest wax you can with a pulasky just to bust a clo of dirt free.

I myself have, you know, well over 500 hours of just hand building trail of just swinging a pulasky in a shovel out there.

- It also takes a lot of work to maintain those trails and I will absolutely do the work to maintain the trails so that I get to ride there.

I don't, I don't walk at the number of times I have to go out there with a brush mower or some big bladed weed eater because it, it brings me joy.

It really brings me joy and peace to be out there because it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.

To me, interest in cycling is increasing - Every day.

A bike is inexpensive transportation, good recreation and good exercise.

- Even if you're a little kid, you remember, you know, seeing bikes in the front yard.

I know that's not really the calling card anymore, but previous generation might say that was how you found out where everybody was, is where the bikes were.

- I don't remember a time when I didn't have a bike.

I've seen the pictures of me as a toddler with one of those little trikes with training wheels.

I remember the banana seat with the chopper handle bars that I had next.

And from there I got a huffy Bandit was this new model that came out.

And then the Schwinn 10 speed that I got once I got to middle school, junior high age, I've always been riding a bike and it was a way to get around.

It was a way to go see your friends.

It was a way to adventure when you were a kid.

And I, that's never left me, - You know, at our core it's, it's the explorer in all of us.

And like you can go hike for sure and find out about a new place, but what you can hike in an hour, you can triple on a bike.

And so if you want to find out, you know what's around, you get on a bike and you, you go figure it out.

So yeah, adventure's built into the bicycle, you know, that is just part of what it is.

- The best bike is the one that you have and that you will ride and you don't need all the rest of the gadgets and the gizmos just jump on the bike and ride.

- Having an open mind to things and you know, just trying new experiences in life.

Obviously that's adventure through and through is it's constantly a new experience and you never know what it's gonna be.

You know, and that definitely comes with riding your bike.

I mean, for sure because it's, it's the first way when we talk about kids riding your bike.

That was how you explore it.

Like that was your freedom.

- Some of the funnest rides are ones where you're not going fast or trying to accomplish anything.

You just kind of venture around and you see corners of the community you would've never seen before.

- Whatever it is, that's your motivating factor.

Whether you want to get healthier or a new hobby, I mean, do it.

Just do it.

At the end of the day, it's probably the best thing that you can start doing.

- Don't let it hang in your garage from here on out.

Go around the block with it, take it for ice cream, just and ride it.

'cause there's joy to be had there.

- For our final story, we pack up our bikes and drive 100 miles to a ranch near Cottonwood, where a family built their first home out of sod, their second out of Bad River timber, and their third arrived through a Sears Roebuck catalog.

- I remember as a kid, I didn't have a lot of friends that got to come home very often because we lived 23 miles in the country.

But you know, I'd get to have a friend home and we'd come in the house and I was like, any kid, I wanted to just run upstairs, go play in my room, you know, or go do whatever we were going to do and you would come to the house and they were kind of of taken back.

My friends were like, oh, that's your house.

Yeah.

And so we'd go inside and, and then they would kind of stop, literally stop and look around - Because - My friends would say something or ask something.

It would kind of make me realize that this wasn't the home that everybody lived in.

This wasn't just your traditional house.

I just realized as I got older that I was very blessed in many ways to live in this house.

In just one of those ways was the uniqueness of it.

- 19 three, my great-grandpa, he came out with these two older boys and looked around for some land and he came to this bend in the river and wanted to homestead here.

There was a squatter living here, so he had to trade a team of horses and a buggy for a signed release of the squatter's rights.

And then he went home to his farm and they came out the next spring.

And homestead - Past are the hazards of the trail, unknown streams, the dreary monotony of day after day under the blazing sound for their present home.

They will use the small dugout built last spring during the planting and cultivation of the first crop of corn.

- First of all, they came out with whatever they could haul in their wagon.

You had to come with it, or you had to do without it, or you had to make it or create it or find it.

- The first challenge was that someone stole the logs that he dealt for.

And so they had to live in a dugout on the creek bank.

- I can't imagine having dirt over your head, dirt on the floor, dirt all around, you know what's in the dirt, animals, creepy crawly bugs and just the dirt.

How do you sweep the floor?

How do you keep a house like that clean?

- My great-grandparents had five children when they came, so they weren't completely kids.

They'd already been, had their suffered, their ups and downs.

And one was that the banker skipped with everyone's money.

So they were starting over on financially too.

- So here you are, you want to start your life, you want to build a home, you want to buy a place, and what resources do you have to do that?

If you were blessed with some type of family resources and as you came out here, wonderful, but many people were not.

And then they were not able to go in and say, Hey, can I get a loan?

I'm gonna, you know, buy this many cattle, or I'm going to build a home or build a barn and return down.

- When my great grandparents ordered this house, they didn't want to take out a loan because of their past experience.

So in the case of Sears Homes, they actually would offer a mortgage, they would finance their customers.

They even advertised that they would finance a, a single mother or a black family, which must have been something the banks wouldn't do.

- Sears in and Uck were ahead of their times.

- In 19 eight, Sears offered a catalog of homes.

- It was to me, very similar to what you could do with Amazon or what we could do with online only.

It was in paper form.

Every - Single piece of this house except the stucco and the plaster came in two railroad cars.

And they had it packed so efficiently that once you offloaded, you had what you needed first.

On the top.

- Everything has already been thought out, designed, cut, every part of it was already figured out, ready for you and ready to be put together.

- So I really think that Sears in designing the Alhambra, which of course is a nod to the Spanish castle, thought that they would market them in Florida, California.

Whereas it was so unique that it's all over the nation, this model of home.

- I can't imagine going from a dugout to the log house to a house with 409 window panes and, and 10 foot ceilings and woodwork and chandeliers, and it's crazy.

It's kind of amazing.

Yeah.

Very unique choice for Sears to have and for my grandparents to choose.

- It was panic.

16 and a half million shares of stock sold in a single day sold hopelessly desperately at any price.

- And so it was a gamble.

And in the early teens and twenties when they started, it was boom time.

And they did sell about a hundred thousand homes, and I don't know how much percentage they held mortgages on, but then during the Great Depression, that became very problematic and they were holding all these mortgages and finally they closed.

Then in 1940, - This type of house, this program will never, will never happen again.

Like this is it.

Whichever ones are built, whichever ones are out there, whatever state they're in, whoever's taking care of them, using them, living them, this is it.

There's no more Sears Homes.

You're not gonna go order anymore.

I think that's one wonderful thing about this house is not only was it well-built to begin with, so it's lasted, but that we have tried to maintain it in a way so that it'll be here for future generations.

- It isn't just our immediate family who feels like it's home here.

Sometimes when our guests are saying, oh, I would love to live here, and, and I, I say to them, well, I don't know if I'd be brave enough to live anywhere else because in a way, if you remove me from this, who am I?

- It's my grandparents.

It's the history before me.

It's the life I lived growing up here.

It's all the everyday things and the special things, all the memories.

It's just a a wonderful thing to to know you have home and it's still there and you can come back, you can always come back home.