Nickname: The Sunshine State

Capitol: Pierre

The state capital is pronounced “peer.”

Mount Rushmore was never finished. Rushmore Borglum, the sculptor, died unexpectedly and World War I required all the funds it could get so the project was disbanded. This is one reason that Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor of the Crazy Horse Memorial, refused any government funding.

A prairie occurs when there’s not enough rain for trees to grow, but there’s too much rain to make it a desert.

The Massacre of Wounded Knee occurred here in 1890. Nobody sees fit to honor it by taking care of it. It’s a sad place for more than one reason.