(gentle country music playing) ♪ Back roads and by ways ♪ ♪ Camp fires will lie awake ♪ ♪ Sweet grass and summer sage ♪ ♪ Come on baby ♪ ♪ Come and take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ We're Dakota bound ♪ (gentle country music playing) - [Narrator] Join us on the road as we tour around the great state of South Dakota, sharing stories and songs.

(gentle country music) South Dakota is known for its wide open spaces and rugged landscapes.

This is particularly true in one of the least populated counties located in the farthest Northwestern corner of the state.

Harding County's population was under 1300 folks as of the 2010 census with an area around 2,700 square miles.

That means the population density is roughly one person for every three square miles.

So, unless you stop in the county seat of Buffalo you're probably going to see the greatest concentration of human beings only when driving through the County on the CanAm highway but don't let the small population fool you.

The area is rich in beauty and scenery.

Our destination for this episode is a peculiar chain of white sighted buttes that rise up from the Prairie like a tiny mountain chain with only cattle, horses and wild bands of deer, pronghorn and elk to disturb the grasses at their base.

(cows lowing) These Buttes are made up in part of quartz which explains their unusual color.

Some of the formations are from the late Cretaceous period which represents the end of the Western Interior Seaway that used to cover most of the Dakotas.

Ponderosa Pines, grace the top of the Buttes part of Custer National Forest established as a reserve in 1904.

The high points of the Buttes tops are never more than a few miles wide as they tower 300 to 400 feet above the Prairie and give a hint as to the destination's name.

The Ridge itself is roughly 30 miles in length and makes a natural L-shape.

There are only three passes from one side to the other.

Two of these passes are paved.

Highway 79 crosses the Buttes to the South and highway 20 to the West of Reva, South Dakota at the Reva Gap.

There is also a campground and hiking area there with majestic views of the Castles area of the Buttes.

In spring and summer, wild flowers are everywhere as are Mountain Bluebirds, Goldfinch and various varieties of swallows who dart among the rock formations.

The roads into and through nearby Cave Hills are rugged but also well-worth the time to explore.

The Slim Buttes experience is one of the treasures our great state has to offer.

The expansive windswept wonder of the plains, viewed from on high, a gift to behold.

(gentle guitar music) - Hello!

We're in the Slim Buttes and we wish you were here!

We are really, really thrilled to be in the midst of this beautiful beautiful place on a beautiful beautiful day.

So we're going to start out with a song that we wrote about the biodiversity of the short grass Prairie, which is where we live.

And I have to say, I don't know that there's a lot of folk songs dedicated to biodiversity but maybe we'll start a trend.

This song is called, follow me (gentle guitar music playing) ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ To the wild Prairie ♪ ♪ Western wheat ♪ ♪ Little leap ♪ ♪ Plains will leap ♪ ♪ Singularly ♪ ♪ Friendly sage ♪ ♪ Tall bluestem ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ (gentle guitar music playing) ♪Hi sparrow ♪ ♪ Little loons ♪ ♪ Swainson's ♪ ♪ Sandpiper ♪ ♪ Sage fresh grown ♪ ♪ Prairie dog ♪ ♪ Stand up tall ♪ ♪ Stand up tall.

♪ ♪ Ooh!

Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ Ooh!

Follow me ♪ ♪ To the wild Prairie ♪ ♪ Ooh!

♪ (gentle country music playing) ♪ Corn Kornel ♪ ♪ Silver leaf ♪ ♪ Prickly pear ♪ ♪ Watch out there ♪ ♪ Ooh!

Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me ♪ ♪ Follow me to the wild Prairie ♪ (sombre country music playing) Our next song was inspired by a poem written by our producer Christian Begeman.

So he also happens to be a great photographer and he was out taking photographs in a pioneer cemetery, East River And while he was there walking through kind of contemplating the Prairie, but also the grave stones all of a sudden a song sparrow came up out of the grass and landed on the barbed wire and kind of broke him out of his reverie and he wrote this poem about it and sent it to me and I was equally inspired.

So I turned it into a song.

It's called 'Song Spirits.'

(sombre country music playing) ♪ Painie is laid to rest ♪ ♪ For he'll pray regrets ♪ ♪ Ever looking to the west ♪ ♪ I won't stay today ♪ ♪ Faded names along the away ♪ ♪ Faded memories in the storm ♪ ♪ Not my own ♪ (soft country music playing) ♪ From the depth I thought she came ♪ ♪ A song sparrow feathered faith ♪ ♪ And flew away ♪ ♪ To sing through song ♪ ♪ And the winds they gathered ♪ ♪ Then scattered seeds as they rushed past ♪ ♪ Whispered none of this ♪ ♪ We'll rest ♪ (sombre country music playing) ♪ So if you've got a song to sing ♪ ♪ Sing all the comfort that it brings ♪ ♪ And for the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ You've kept your voice my friend ♪ ♪ For the comfort that it brings ♪ ♪ And for the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy.

♪ (gentle country music playing) ♪ So if you've got a song to sing ♪ ♪ Sing for the comfort that it brings ♪ ♪ And for the joy ♪ ♪ For the Joy ♪ ♪ For the Joy.

♪ ♪ You've kept your voice my friends ♪ ♪ For the comfort that it brings ♪ ♪ And for the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ Before the joy ♪ ♪ For the sorrow ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ Before the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ ♪ For the joy ♪ One of the biggest adjustments for me when I moved from the city to South Dakota was how much people thought about, talked about, lived with the weather and it makes sense, I mean, when you live in a city, you buy your food at the grocery store.

The rain I something you avoid as you're running from your work to your car and back but, when your livelihood revolves around the land the weather becomes absolutely essential to everything you do And that was a big adjustment for me.

I got a real education in it when we had a drought several years ago which was early in my stay at the ranch.

So this is another chapter from my book, Accidental Rancher.

It's called Drought.

It's dry, very, very dry.

A year ago, last spring, a drought looming large.

My husband was glued to the weather channels, radar app watching the colored clouds of rain pass us by.

This year, he rarely bothered.

There were no storms anywhere, just sun and endless wind.

In May, when we still had hope of moisture we had planted an Antie Apple tree, a gift for our infant daughter, from her aunt and a sister tree to the one we had planted just before my son was born.

The man of the ranch dug into the earth and the metal shovel clanked like he was striking stone.

Every few minutes, he had to stop and refill the hole with water to soften the soil before he could get any dirt out at all.

We watered the tree all summer letting the hose run and run.

And even so the tree lost most of its leaves by July and the remaining leaves were tinged, a brutal brown.

The trees' slim branches leaned East too exhausted to stand upright.

Of course, that wasn't the worst of it.

Cow - calf pairs began showing up at the sale bar mid summer because folks didn't have enough grass.

As the days clicked by, the time for hen came and went and still there was no rain.

Before the end of July, our grass was grazed stubble.

So the man of the ranch put cows in the winter pasture and opened the gates for our small flock of sheep.

They would be free ranging for the rest of the summer finding what they could in the windbreaks and the yard.

Since then we've said goodbye to every animal we could part with and thanked our lucky stars.

We didn't have to say goodbye to them all For a girl from the suburbs it's been an education.

Agricultural work means your livelihood rests on the spine of a fickle beast, sometimes friend, and sometimes foe.

Like the Prairie grass, those born and raised to work The land here have set down deep dense roots the cycles of bloom and bust scrawled on their DNA.

For my part, I would never have guessed.

I would spend so much time praying for rain or so much time lamenting the lack of it.

All of this is a preface for why.

When the County Conservation Office in town held its annual tree sale, one tree for $1 I probably shouldn't have spent $20.

It was a classic mistake made by a person raised with a sprinkler green lawn but I should have known better after all.

I'd watch the man of the ranch the Antie tree.

I'd mostly picked sensible trees, Russian olive, Buffalo Berry, and three beautiful resilient Armour Maples but I'd also gotten two willows and two dogwoods trees that I missed from back East.

For a dollar each I figured we could plant them by the dam and if they died, it was no great loss.

Of course, that was a terrible idea even on a year when water was plentiful if they weren't behind fences, the cattle knock small trees down to nubs and then tramp or whatever is left.

But because my husband loves me he forgives me for being equal parts, hopeful and foolish.

So we planted them anyway.

There was over 90 degrees in the shade on the day we went down to the dam.

I was still holding my son's hand and my daughter was strapped to my back, watching the man of the ranch dig a hole in the dark dirt.

"Come look at this!"

He said, when he'd finished.

Beside the hole on the other side of a stand of scrubby Buffalo Berry bushes was the largest rose bush I'd ever seen.

And every snaking branch was covered with hundreds of tiny pink buds.

As we marveled, we realized there were rose bushes everywhere, curling around the base of an ash tray, curving beneath a hedge of Snowberry brush, all of them ready to burst into flower like birds into song.

"How had we never noticed these before?"

Well, usually the grasses are towel in June obscuring the soft music of those blossoms with their green shadows.

So, while the few clouds passing overhead may not contain rain, they do contain a silver lining.

Henry Vaughan writes in his poem Revival "and here in the dust and dirt, Oh, here, the lilies of his love appear."

It was too dry for lilies this year, but we still had roses their roots reaching deep into the earth and yes, so much love.

This next song is a tune.

I actually started writing when I was living on the coast of Maine and I was imagining a woman looking out across the ocean and reminiscing about a lost love but I couldn't quite get the song to finish.

So I had to wait as it turned out pretty long time.

And I moved back to Minnesota and then out to Western South Dakota, before I discovered that this song was actually about a woman homesteader who was looking out at the sea of grass and remembering where she had come from and was missing the ocean.

So that being said, we all live out in the plain.

So it's a real treat for us to come here to the Buttes and get to see a different landscape but I think we can all relate to the feeling of looking out at the sea of grass and the overwhelm that sometimes comes with feeling yourself to be so small in that vast ocean of the Prairie.

So this song is called 'Bury me' (upbeat country music playing) ♪ I'm waking up ♪ ♪ Dreaming of the sea ♪ ♪ And waking up ♪ ♪ To the sea ♪ ♪ To the West ♪ - ♪ [Both Women] To the North to the South ♪ ♪ We are drowning in grace.

♪ ♪ When a good girl has to weep ♪ ♪ and pray to God man ♪ ♪ Shouldn't keep it ♪ ♪ Take this part of you ♪ ♪ Bury it and bury it deep ♪ (upbeat country music) - ♪ And the wind how are you through ♪ ♪ But it never rains ♪ ♪ If I could touch your face ♪ ♪ One more time will you ever change ♪ ♪ It could add change ♪ - [Both Women] ♪ when a good girl has to weep ♪ ♪ And pray to God man ♪ ♪ Shouldn't keep it ♪ ♪ Take this part of you ♪ ♪ Bury it, ♪ ♪ Bury it deep ♪ (upbeat country music) - [Both Women] ♪ when a good girl has to weep ♪ ♪ and pray to God man ♪ ♪ Shouldn't keep it ♪ ♪ Take this part of you ♪ ♪ Bury it ♪ ♪ Bury it deep ♪ (upbeat country music) (bright accordion music) This is my accordion, Rick, and we've been hanging out together for a few years and I've learned a lot of things and had a lot of interesting social interactions.

since I met Rick.

For instance, there are some people that say not every song is an accordion song to which I say and to which Rick says, but it could be.

- This song is called 'God on the Plains' and this is written by our friend, Jamie Lynn who is just one of our absolute favorite songwriters of all time, and also happens to be a fellow Dakotan.

So we just, we love the song and we hope you do too.

(soft country music playing) ♪ Couldn't stay ♪ ♪ more than 3 days ♪ ♪ Where the beauty or the blakers ♪ ♪ Would astound ♪ ♪ You'd fade away ♪ ♪ Even though you carry fire ♪ ♪ See prairies and the stars ♪ ♪ This holy land that you have come ♪ ♪ To keep rolling now their gone ♪ ♪ They hit the trail and now they're gone ♪ ♪ I am a pilgrim on my way ♪ ♪ I look for God out on the plains ♪ ♪ Though I cannot find Him still ♪ ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ ♪ Though I change I need to call His name ♪ ♪ Can I ever really own it ♪ ♪ With the blood upon my hands ♪ ♪ Truth be told ♪ ♪ Despite my sin ♪ ♪ I feel that I was whole ♪ ♪ The very moment I rolled in ♪ ♪ The very moment I rolled in ♪ ♪ I'm a pilgrim on my way ♪ ♪ I'll look for God out on the plains ♪ ♪ Though I cannot find Him still ♪ ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I am a Pilgrim on my way ♪ ♪ I look for God out on the plains ♪ ♪ I cannot find Him still ♪ ♪ But I think He's closer in here ♪ ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ (sobre country music) ♪ I think He's closer in here ♪ - ♪ Back roads and byways ♪ ♪ Camp fires will lie awake ♪ ♪ Sweet grass and summer sage ♪ ♪ Come on baby.

♪ ♪ Come and take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ We're Dakota bound.

♪ (gentle guitar music playing)