Just in time for the Sturgis invasion, Tourism Secretary Jim Hagen says what the Lakota should have said to all of us white folks in the 1880s: thanks for visiting, now leave our land the way you found it:
Modern information sharing means there are almost no undiscovered places anymore, and that’s led to some negative effects that state tourism officials are trying to counteract.
Travel South Dakota, an arm of the state Department of Tourism, is launching a campaign encouraging visitors and South Dakotans to pledge that they’ll travel respectfully. The campaign, which incorporates the state’s only area code, is called Forever 605.
“Forever 605 is about letting the wild be wild, not overcrowding destinations, and leaving nothing behind but your boot prints,” said James Hagen, secretary of the Department of Tourism, in a news release.
People can take the pledge online at Forever605.com. Everyone who pledges will receive a Forever 605 sticker and be entered for a chance to win additional prizes [staff, “State Seeks Pledges to Explore South Dakota Respectfully,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.08.02].
Secretary Hagen and marketing/brand chief Mike Gussiaas laid out this new stewardship campaign in a June 15 webinar.
Of course, by encouraging visitors to crowd the hotspots (Mount Rushmore, Trail 9 to Black Elk Peak, Falls Park) less and seek out the less-traveled areas, Secretary Hagen runs the risk of turning more out-of-the-way places into the next overinstagrammed Hippie Hole. If visitors take Hagen’s new pledge to heart, they’ll realize, “Hey! We haven’t been to Wounded Knee and Eagle Butte! Let’s go!” and then 1876 all over again for our Native neighbors.
But there’s that old paradox again: how do we travel the state we love without trampling it?
Like a local??? Who’ve turned prairie with 100plus plants to monocultures of corn and beans.
“care like a local”??? Evidently Hagen hasn’t walked a trail or road ditch lately. I’m quite sure all the sacks of
garbage, tires, mattresses ,just to name a few can not be blamed on tourists. South Dakota should clean its own
house before expecting visitors to do it for them.
Yes ,Cibvet, “care like a local” is a gross overstatement of South Dakotan’s commitment to keep the environment pristine, or even clean. South Dakotans enjoy being portrayed heroically in state sponsored advertisements and various state provided publications. We are often credited, by state paid shills, for having made sacrifices or having earned the right to a certain moral superiority which is just a clannish effort to establish solidarity. It is so much nonsense.
Sheeeeit, we won’t even feed kids or keep the gold mines from polluting their water. Fund the removal of the polluters instead of funding phony ads.
Listening to Leonard Cohen had me setting imaginary booby traps to protect the places being molested….in my secret life.
And this, Mr. H, is why grudznick is against all out-of-state visitors. This car won’t do anything, but I fear when more of these biker fellows get a taste of our FREEDOM in South Dakota they will want to stay. We need an ad campaign like Nebraska has.
Grudz appears to refer to Nebraska’s 2018 adoption of “It’s not for everyone” as its tourism slogan.
Governor Noem spent $400,00 to build a fence to keep people from visiting the Governor’s mansion. Why not just put more fences around Mount Rushmore, Black Elk Peak, Sturgis…?
Don’t fret, dear grudz. When visitors meet people like you, they’ll quickly move on to welcoming states with real mountains, real wild, wildlife, and really welcoming people. Stay mean, ornery, and unpleasant grudz.
VISIT COLORADO ~ YOU KNOW, FOR THE SCENERY #grins
For grudznichts – Issued by the South Dakota Tourism Bureau to ALL visitors:
1. Don’t order filet mignon or pasta primavera at Al’s Oasis. It’s a diner. They serve breakfast 24 hours a day. Let them cook something they know. If you upset the ladies in the kitchen they’ll kick your ass.
2. Don’t laugh at the names of our little towns (Wall, Murdo, etc.) or we will just have to kick your ass.
3. Don’t order a bottle or a can of soda here. Here it’s called Pop. Accept it. Doing otherwise can lead to an ass kicking.
4. We know our heritage. Most of us are more literate than you. We are also better educated and generally a lot nicer. Don’t refer to us as a bunch of hicks or we’ll kick your ass.
5. We have plenty of business sense. You have to to make a living here. Naturally, we do sometimes have small lapses in judgment from time to time, but we are not dumb enough to let someone move to our state in order to run for the Senate. If someone tried to do that, we would kick her ass.
6. Don’t laugh at our giant fiberglass cows and our turtles made out of car parts. Anything that inspires tourists to buy 50,000 postcards can’t be bad. And in Rapid City don’t point at the genitalia on the giant plastic dinosaur or we’ll kick your ass.
7. We are fully aware of how cold it gets here in the winter, so shut the hell up. Just spend your money and get the hell out of here or we’ll kick your ass.
8. Don’t order the vegetarian special at the local diner. Everyone will instantly know that you’re a tourist. Eat your steak well-done like God intended and have some potatoes with that, for heaven’s sake! Also, don’t ask what a hot dish is or we’ll kick your ass.
9. Don’t try to fake a Dakota accent. We don’t have an accent. Do NOT mention the movie “Fargo” because that WASN’T us. That will incite a riot and you will get your ass kicked.
10. Don’t talk about how much better things are at home because we know better. Many of us have visited big-city hell-holes like Detroit, New York, and Minneapolis, and we have the scars to prove it. If you don’t like it here, Interstate 90 is ready when you are. Move your ass on home before it gets kicked.
11. Don’t complain that South Dakota is flat and that there aren’t enough trees. If you whine about OUR scenic beauty we’ll kick your ass all the way back to Milwaukee.
12. Don’t ridicule our mannerisms. We only speak when spoken to. We hold doors open for others. We offer our seats to old folks because such things are expected of civilized people. Behave yourselves around our sweet, little grey-haired grandmothers or they will kick some manners into your ass just like they did ours.
13. So you think we’re quaint or losers because most of us live on the prairie? That’s because we have enough sense to not live in filthy, smelly, crime-infested cesspools like New York or LA. Make fun of our fresh air and we’ll kick your ass.
14. Writing it “Sue Falls” is NOT a joke. Your ass will be kicked.
15. Last, but not least, DO NOT DARE to come out here and tell us how the prairie should “go back to the buffalo.” This will get your ass shot (right after it is kicked). Just mention this once and you will go home in a pine box. Minus your ass.
Now enjoy your visit and then go home.
Hey. the ladies (grudznick uses that term loosely) at Al’s have kicked my ass. Over breakfast. Let me tell you, Jack, it’s no joke.
grudz – Don’t do an Ebenezer Scrooge and order extra gravy and then cancel the order when the lady tells you it will cost another couple bucks.
Your cheapness is famous among local Breakfast Diners.
What really irks them, Mr. AItch, is when I bring my own bladder of sausage gravy along with my usual array of condiment selections. Have you ever seen the look on a lunch lady’s face when you pull out your own spicy sauce instead of using the usual options provided at a typical establishment? But since I’m such an enormous tipper, we all make friends at the end.
You’ve always seemed like you’d be a big tipper, grudz.
Just ask my good friend Bob. He spends like $25-$30 bucks on breakfast for the two of us at some local Hills joint, like the Hermosa Coffee House or the Sugar Shack, and I tip like $15-$20 bucks, mostly of Bob’s own money he lost to me in cribbage the night before. It irks him a lot. It irks him.