On June 15, 2026, The Rapid City Sentinel submitted a formal press questionnaire to both campaigns competing in South Dakota’s first-ever gubernatorial runoff election.

The questions were sent to Governor Larry Rhoden’s spokesperson Ian Fury and to Toby Doeden’s campaign at their public press address with a follow up email sent June 20,2026.

The deadline was today, June 22, 2026.

Neither campaign responded. Not a partial answer. Not a request for more time. Not a decline. Silence.This is not a complaint. It is documentation.

Independent press is not entitled to access. Campaigns are under no legal obligation to answer our questions. But voters are entitled to know who answered and who didn’t — and what was asked.

Gatekeeping?

The Rapid City Sentinel is not alone in navigating a closed door. KELOLAND Media Group, one of the state’s largest broadcast outlets, extended a debate invitation to both campaigns for a televised one-on-one forum. Doeden accepted, but Rhoden declined — with a spokesperson explaining in a written statement that responding to his opponent’s claims simply takes too much effort.

Now, as the July runoff approaches, the candidates’ willingness to answer direct, unscripted questions hasn’t vanished entirely, but it has certainly receded from public view.

It feels less like a targeted decision about which specific outlets matter, and more like a collective decision by both camps to simply retreat from scrutiny, lower the blinds, and stick to the safety of managed talking points.

The Weight of Silence

When the political landscape gets difficult, the standard playbook often calls for silence. But independent journalism is either part of the accountability mechanism or it isn’t. Transparency shouldn’t scale back just because the cycle gets tense.

Because here is what matters more than campaign access. The questions we sent were not abstract. They were grounded in active issues that do not pause for an election cycle, and problems that will land on the desk of whoever becomes or remains governor of this state.

The ongoing oversight concerns surrounding state land sales and the foreign-owned GCC Dacotah operation. The strain resource-heavy data centers will place on local infrastructure and the environment. The lingering gap in voter registration laws for those using Tribal IDs. These are not hypotheticals. These are the realities on the ground.

Rapid City’s own mayor would presumably like to know where the next governor stands on some of these questions. So would Rapid City’s residents. So would anyone paying attention to what is actually happening in western South Dakota.

Neither candidate offered an answer. Not one word.

The Rapid City Sentinel Gubernatorial Questionnaire

The questions we sent were these:

1. Inflation is hammering people at the pump and the grocery store. Beyond simply criticizing federal policies, what specific, measurable state-level actions will your administration take to ease this localized financial burden for South Dakotans?

2. How will you balance the integration of AI in state government functions with the strict need for transparency and municipal accountability to the taxpayers?

3. In the wake of the GCC Dacotah fallout and ongoing concerns regarding long-term industrial oversight, what specific, stringent compliance measures will you implement regarding state land sales to foreign entities?

4. As development expands, specifically regarding resource-heavy data centers, how will your administration weigh the environmental impact and strain on local infrastructure against corporate interests?

5. South Dakota’s relationship with the federal government is constantly in flux — sometimes a partner, sometimes an obstacle. When Washington and Pierre’s interests diverge, where does your administration draw the line, and what’s an issue where you’d actively push back against federal direction?

6. Tribal ID cards are accepted at the polls and now qualify as proof of citizenship under SB 175, but they still can’t be used on their own to register to vote. As governor, would you push to close that registration gap?

7. Why should the average resident care enough to show up for this runoff?

8. Prior to active campaigning, what was the last book you read?

9. The Rapid City Litmus Test: A Pterodactyl at Dinosaur Park—yes or no?

These are not partisan questions. They are not gotcha questions. They are the minimum any voter deserves before casting a ballot for the person who will hold the most powerful office in this state.

South Dakota’s runoff law, SDCL 12-6-51.1, exists because the legislature decided in 1985 that a plurality wasn’t enough. That legitimacy requires a threshold. That voters deserve more than whoever happened to finish first.

Both men asking for your vote on July 28 declined to meet the threshold this outlet set.The record is clear. They were asked. The deadline passed. You are reading this.

We asked if they believed in dinosaurs.

They answered by becoming one.

The Droehdon-A-Saurus – An Editorial Cartoon

The post The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored

The post The Droehdon-A-Saurus – An Editorial Cartoon appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

It’s grey over Memorial Park this morning, a thin drizzle that hasn’t decided if it’s committing to rain. The geese don’t seem to mind. The ganders are out in full force right now — necks low, eyes sharp, putting their whole bodies between their goslings and anything that moves too fast. Watch them long enough and you’ll see one charge something three times his size without hesitation. That’s not performance. That’s instinct doing exactly what it evolved to do.

It won’t last. By the time the goslings are nine or ten weeks old, that fierce vigilance starts to loosen. By next spring, the parents have moved on to a new clutch, and the offspring that once couldn’t leave their sight are simply… independent. No conversation happens. No falling out. It’s biology, clean and indifferent, scaled exactly to how much protection is needed and not a day more.

Humans don’t get that mercy. Our estrangements aren’t governed by hormone cycles and fledgling windows — they’re built out of things far messier: words said or never said, pain misdirected at the wrong person, distance that calcifies before anyone notices it happening. And sometimes a relationship doesn’t get to taper at all. Sometimes it’s cut off mid-sentence, and the people left behind spend years trying to find an ending that never naturally arrived.

That’s part of what makes today complicated for a lot of people who’ll never say so out loud.

The History of the Day

Father’s Day, as it happens, wasn’t always the institution it now seems. It traces to Sonora Smart Dodd, a woman in Spokane, Washington, who in 1909 sat in a Mother’s Day sermon and thought of her own father — a Civil War veteran who raised six children alone after his wife died — and wondered why no one set a day aside for men like him.

It took far longer to become official than most people assume. Woodrow Wilson tried to formalize it in 1916; Congress balked, worried it would become commercialized. They weren’t wrong to worry — they just lost the argument anyway. Calvin Coolidge backed it in 1924. It wasn’t until 1972, under Richard Nixon, barely over fifty years ago, that it became a permanent national holiday at all.

Which is its own kind of irony: a day born out of one daughter’s grief, fought over for sixty years by people who could already see the greeting-card aisle coming, now mostly observed through a phone screen.

The holiday used to look like burnt coffee delivered to bed and a tie nobody needed, a backyard grill, a card with a crooked crayon signature.

Now it’s increasingly a feed — a performance of gratitude staged for an audience, sometimes more about being seen having a good father than about the father himself.

None of that is a judgment on anyone celebrating today sincerely. It’s just worth noticing what got swapped out along the way.

For everyone for whom today isn’t simple — who lost a father, who never had the one they needed, who’s estranged for reasons too complicated to fit in a caption, who wanted to raise a child and didn’t get the chance — the geese might have something to offer after all. Not an answer. Just a reminder that protection and love don’t require a clean ending to have been real while they lasted.

The post A Different Kind Of Vigilance – Fathers Day 2026 appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

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Rapid City’s Ordinance 6717 folds an existing Code of Conduct into municipal law, but complaints against elected officials stay sealed in executive session by default, with no guarantee the public ever learns the outcome.

The post The Opaqueness of Transparency – Editorial Cartoon appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

There is a dangerous kind of alchemy that happens at City Hall when the cameras are rolling but the microphones go quiet.

On Monday night, navigating a grueling 34-item agenda, the Rapid City Council pulled off a masterclass in municipal sleight-of-hand, demonstrating exactly how to shift liability and bury history in plain sight.

The tone for the evening was set immediately. The very first item on the docket was a bureaucratic victory lap: a presentation honoring the Community Development Department with the “2026 American Planning Association Vernon Dienes Comprehensive Plan Honor award.” The room clapped. The plaques were presented. The photos were taken. The illusion of perfect municipal planning was firmly established.

Yet, the moment the photo op wrapped, the actual business of the city took a strange turn.

Right after the smiles and camera flashes, Councilwoman Meyers was spotted physically placing a piece of paper at each alderman’s seat. Was it an off-the-record distraction? Or was it the missing paperwork for the heavy-industry votes coming down the pipe? The public has no idea, and that is exactly the problem. Unrecorded, off-microphone handoffs on the dais immediately following a public celebration speak to a fundamental culture of municipal opacity.

With the dais now armed with whatever was on those papers, the council moved through the agenda, and the warning signs kept flashing.

Catalyst TIF Amendment – No Guarantee

At Agenda Item 19, Elevate Rapid City stood before the council to present the Catalyst TIF amendment—a massive ask that leaves taxpayers holding the bag without a personal guarantee if the project fails.

It was a structural blind spot so glaring that it couldn’t be entirely ignored. Councilor Roberts saw the trap, voiced the financial risk out loud on the record, and then pushed the “yes” button anyway. In the end, only Alderman Tamang refused to play along, choosing to abstain entirely rather than attach his name to the liability.

But the real magic trick was saved for the non-public hearing items.

GCC Dacotah and “Revised” language

Armed with their off-the-record handouts, the council pushed through Agenda Items 31, 32, and 33 without a single syllable of public debate.

Strip away the procedural sheen and look at what was actually approved.

Item 31 (No. 26RZ008, Ordinance 6718) rezoned property along Cement Plant Road to Cement Plant District.

Item 32 (No. 26RZ009, Ordinance 6719) rezoned a separate, larger tract—between Sturgis Road and the railroad right-of-way, south of the Pennington County line—to Mining and Earth Resources Extraction District, the same parcel whose boundary lines got rewritten without ever being spoken aloud in the room.

Item 33 (No. 26RZ010, Ordinance 6720) rezoned yet another tract near Industrial Avenue to Cement Plant District.

Three ordinances. Three readings. Three separate rezonings, covering ground most of the room likely couldn’t have pictured without a map in front of them, passed in the time it takes to clear a throat.

Let’s be clear about what these items actually represent. This wasn’t a standard industrial expansion. The council was quietly masking over a massive, 25-year zoning error for GCC Dacotah, using unanimous and near-unanimous votes to sweep a quarter-century of municipal failure under the rug.

The bitter irony? The formal applicant requesting these rezonings to heavy industrial and cement plant districts wasn’t just the corporation. It was the City of Rapid City Community Development—the exact same department that had just smiled for the cameras and taken a bow for their award-winning “master planning.”

Worse, they had the audacity to approve Item 32 (No. 26RZ009) with a “revised legal description.” The council voted to alter the map using boundaries that were not read into the record. They governed by placeholder, asking the citizens of Rapid City to blindly honor a blank check while they choke on the dust.

The illusion of routine procedure only shattered when the vote came down on that specific parcel.

Councilor Evans broke ranks and voted “no.” That single dissenting vote proves the structural flaws of this retro-zoning performance were visible from the dais. Evans saw the reality and refused to play along. The rest of the council lined up to keep the corporate machine fed.

Your “Status Quo” City Council ?

What makes this collective silence so bitter is the sheer lack of effort from the rest of the room.

Several of these council members just fought for and won their seats. The voters put them there to turn on the lights, not to quietly endorse the status quo.

Ignorance is no longer an excuse. The baseline of municipal failure has already been laid bare. Decades of data on local mining operations have shown exactly what happens when industrial oversight is treated as an inconvenience. The council had that history in front of them. Yet, given the opportunity to demand transparency, nearly all of them chose to pass the buck, hiding behind last-minute handouts and rushing toward adjournment.

What else is Passing without Proper Process?

And that’s the question I can’t put down: if a 25-year zoning error for a 563-acre industrial site can clear three readings buried at the tail end of a 34-item agenda, what else has?

Items 2 through 23 moved as consent items—a single vote, no individual debate, the kind of bundle where citizens trust that nothing buried inside needs a second look. Most nights, that trust is probably earned. But “most nights” isn’t a standard. It’s a hope. And hope is not oversight.

I watched the vote happen from home, and when the meeting ended I lay in the dark for a long time without moving.

The first feeling was just grief—for a process that’s supposed to protect people and chose not to. Then it turned into anger, because grief on its own doesn’t get you out of bed to keep digging. And underneath both of those, if I’m honest, was something closer to fear: not of GCC Dacotah specifically, but of how easily a city can decide that 25 years of looking the other way is something to vote on instead of something to fix.

I don’t need to be a doctor to know what decades of unregulated extraction can do to the people who breathe it every day—children especially. I just need to know that nobody on that council asked the question out loud.

I won’t pretend to know yet exactly what this means for Rapid City’s future. But I know what it means to spend 20 minutes staring at a ceiling because a council I trusted to ask hard questions asked none, and I’m not willing to let that be the end of the story.

The post Smoke and Mirrors: An Award-Winning Performance at City Hall: An Editorial appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

​

The Collateral Damage of Small Town USA

Growing up, the shadow of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant was a constant, quiet hum in the background of my childhood.

You learn early on what it feels like to live next to an environmental wild card—a facility where the true cost of “production” isn’t always something you can see until the alarms are already ringing. It instills a specific kind of dread: the fear of the invisible threat.

​History is littered with towns that found out too late that the invisible threat was already at their doorstep.

In the 1970s, the residents of Times Beach, Missouri, thought they were just getting their dirt roads sprayed to keep the summer dust down. It took over a decade for the EPA to admit that the “waste oil” coating their town was actually laced with deadly dioxin, turning the municipality into a toxic ghost town that eventually had to be bulldozed and buried.

​When corporate cost-cutting meets regulatory silence, communities become collateral damage.

​Which brings us to Rapid City, and the 563-acre industrial footprint of GCC Dacotah. For 25 years, this massive cement and mining operation has existed in a municipal zoning void—a quarter-century regulatory blackout in our own backyard. And while our roads aren’t being sprayed with waste oil, we need to ask ourselves: what exactly is being burned in those kilns?

​A 25-year administrative blackout doesn’t just mean misplaced paperwork; it means a critical lack of community oversight.

While residents are left in the dark, industrial giants quietly optimize their bottom lines. In the case of GCC Dacotah, that optimization looks a lot like what we traditionally call a tire fire — and the federal government already signed off on it.

What’s Already Been Approved, Quietly

​For years, the corporate playbook has leaned heavily on “alternative fuels” to cut coal costs.

Behind the clinical, regulatory language of federal correspondence lies a stark reality: in 2020, with almost no local notice, the EPA approved GCC Dacotah’s request to burn Auto Shredder Residue (ASR) — the plastic, foam, rubber belts, and scrap left over after junked cars are stripped of metal — as fuel in its Rapid City cement kiln.

Let’s strip away the corporate jargon. The EPA’s own documentation reveals that 20 to 50% of this material is a highly combustible cocktail of dashboard plastics, foam seating, rubber belts, and scrap tires.

​Here’s the part that should stop you cold: the entire approval rests on data GCC supplied about itself.

EPA’s letter spells it out plainly — the agency would consider ASR a non-waste fuel “provided specifications in your request are maintained,” and warns that “if these specifications are not maintained, the Agency may reach a different conclusion.”

In other words, the federal government’s blessing is conditional on an honor system, based on test results from 2015 and 2018, administered from an office in Washington, D.C., for a kiln that sits at the center of a 563-acre footprint bordering our neighborhoods.

​Five years later, in a city that still can’t get its own zoning map to reflect what’s actually operating on that 563 acres, who is checking whether GCC is still meeting the conditions it promised back in 2020?

Nobody — because almost nobody here even knows to ask. This is the same 25-year pattern of administrative drift that produced the zoning gap, showing up again in what’s legally allowed to go into the air we breathe.

A Familiar Pattern

​And when it comes to accountability, GCC’s parent company has a track record worth knowing.

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua spent years fighting a $36 million arbitration judgment — first losing in Bolivia’s courts, then watching a U.S. federal court in Colorado confirm the award and order company assets seized to satisfy it, then losing again on appeal to the Tenth Circuit.

An international conglomerate that fights a confirmed legal judgment across two countries and multiple courts for nearly a decade tells you something about how it weighs the cost of accountability against the cost of compliance.

That is the corporate culture standing behind the entity whose self-reported data is the only thing standing between “non-waste fuel” and a kiln full of shredded car interiors.

The Rapid City GCC on site Fatality

We do not need to look at international courts to see the consequences of this corporate culture; the tragic results are already on the record right here in Rapid City.

On February 22, 2025, a contractor died at the GCC Dacotah facility when a bridge providing access into the kiln shifted, causing the equipment he was operating to fall backward into a chute.

The subsequent Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigation revealed that the mine operator bolted the bridge to a pedestal but failed to secure it to the floor as required by the manufacturer’s manual.

Furthermore, investigators found that the operator did not develop or provide the necessary installation training for the bridge assembly, directly contributing to the fatal accident.

​Whether it’s a bolt that was never secured to the floor or fuel specifications that were never re-verified, the pattern is the same: self-certification, minimal local oversight, and a community that finds out only after something goes wrong — or, in this case, only because someone finally asked.

Historical Environmental Disasters

​This isn’t an abstract corporate exercise. Look at Niagara Falls, New York, where for over a decade Hooker Chemical Company quietly buried 20,000 tons of toxic chemical waste in an old canal bed, then sold the land for a dollar with a buried liability disclaimer. Houses and a school went up on top of it.

By the late 1970s, the chemicals were leaching into basements, children were getting chemical burns on the playground, and the federal government had to evacuate hundreds of families and declare a state of emergency. Love Canal became the reason Congress created the Superfund program — because nobody had been watching what was buried beneath the neighborhood until it was too late.

​Look at West Virginia, too. The history of Appalachian coal mining is a tragic syllabus on what happens when communities surrender their backyards to industry.

It is the abandoned ghost towns like Hammond, where former industries extracted what they needed and eventually left only ruins behind. These tragedies all share the same DNA: corporations acting with impunity, regulatory agencies turning a blind eye, and communities left holding the bag.

Time to Take Our Backyards Back

​We build our backyards to be safe havens, not buffer zones for corporate fallout. But for 25 years, the residents surrounding the GCC Dacotah plant have been unknowingly living in a 563-acre regulatory blind spot — one where even the federal approvals that exist were granted on the company’s own word, five years ago, with no local mechanism to confirm they still hold true today.

​It is time to pull the plug on the 25-year blackout.

We need confirmation that GCC is still meeting the conditions of its 2020 ASR fuel approval.

We need our municipal leaders to finally draw a hard zoning line in the sand.

And we need to stop assuming that a federal letter from 2020 means anyone, anywhere, is still checking. Because the slow burn has gone on long enough, and it is time to take our backyards back.

The Health Risks of Burning Auto Shredder Residue & Tires

​It’s worth noting that EPA’s 2018 testing data — the data underlying the 2020 approval — showed most contaminants in GCC’s ASR fuel at levels comparable to or lower than coal, including zero measured sulfur.

That data is now several years old, self-reported by the company, and there is no public record of anyone re-verifying it since. The following is what the broader scientific literature says about what can be released when ASR and tires are burned — context for understanding what’s at stake if those 2018 conditions are no longer being met.

The Incineration of ASR and Health Dynamics

​The incineration of ASR (which inherently includes plastics, PVC, synthetic rubber, and tires) is a scientifically documented health hazard. When these materials are introduced to industrial kilns, they release specific, highly dangerous compounds into the surrounding air and ash:

• ​Dioxins and Furans: Created directly by the combustion of chlorinated materials like PVC plastics (found abundantly in vehicle interiors and ASR). The World Health Organization classifies dioxin as a known human carcinogen. Chronic exposure is linked to endocrine disruption, severe immune system suppression, liver toxicity, and reproductive health issues.
• ​Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): The burning of automotive tires and rubber releases highly toxic compounds including benzene, styrene, and butadiene. Butadiene is a potent liver carcinogen. These airborne emissions are directly linked to central nervous system damage, leukemia, and various other cancers.
• ​Heavy Metals: The combustion process releases heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic into the air and the residual ash. These metals penetrate the cardiovascular, neurological, and reproductive systems, posing a severe risk to long-term community health.
• ​Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5): The smoke generated contains microscopic particulate matter that bypasses the body’s natural defenses and penetrates deep into lung tissue. This is a primary driver of long-term respiratory diseases, including asthma and chronic bronchitis, with children and the elderly facing the highest risk of hospitalization.

Citation Index

• ​The Rapid City Sentinel — GCC Dacotah 563-acre zoning investigation, ongoing series
• ​EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, letter to Jim Anderson, GCC Dacotah Inc., Nov. 12, 2020, Non-Waste Fuel Determination for Auto Shredder Residue (rcrapublic.epa.gov/files/14937.pdf)
• ​Compañía de Inversiones Mercantiles S.A. v. Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua S.A.B. de C.V., 58 F.4th 429 (10th Cir. 2023); U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, confirmation order, March 26, 2019 ($36.1M)
• ​Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) — Feb. 22, 2025 Fatality, Final Report, GCC Dacotah
• ​Love Canal history — SUNY Geneseo, Britannica, Center for Health Environment & Justice
• ​YouTube: The Missouri Ghost Town Poisoned By Toxic Waste (Times Beach)
• ​Rapid City Council Agenda, June 15, 2026; Rapid City Planning Commission, June 11, 2026 meeting (26RZ011 continuance to July 9, 2026)

​CIVIC ALERT: TOMORROW’S CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Tomorrow, June 15, 2026, 6:30 PM — Rapid City Council Chambers, 300 6th Street.

Three ordinances affecting the GCC Dacotah 563-acre footprint are up for first reading tomorrow: Ordinance 6718 (26RZ008), Ordinance 6719 (26RZ009), and Ordinance 6720 (26RZ010) — all part of the 25-year rezoning correction this paper has been documenting. A first reading introduces an ordinance but doesn’t enact it; final passage typically comes at a second reading roughly two weeks later, often with a public hearing where residents can speak.

​A fourth related rezoning, 26RZ011 — covering the LDR-1/Mining and Earth Resources Extraction overlap near Hidden Valley Road — was continued by the Planning Commission to July 9, 2026 for further legal clarity on land use designations. Mark your calendars for both dates if you want to be heard.

The post What is Burning Next to Rapid City’s Neighborhoods? Inside the GCC Zoning Void appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

For Immediate Release
Rapid City, SD –From the Desk of the Press Secretary, Office of Waterfowl Affairs, Memorial Park Division

“The Office of Waterfowl Affairs notes the historical precedent set by the 25-year oversight of the aforementioned 563-acre mining operation.

We applaud the city’s long-standing tradition of looking the other way when it comes to expansion of operations, zoning enforcement, and tax assessment.

We trust this exact same level of bureaucratic flexibility will be applied to our current assumption of jurisdiction over the local park facilities. We are prepared to offer zero property taxes and aggressive hissing in exchange for official recognition.”

The post The 25 Year Precedent: SATIRICAL EDITORIAL CARTOON appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

Echoes in the Reeds: The wisdom and memory of our city are not lost They are carried by the wildlife that calls the flood plain home because of a love for Rapid City that transcends death.

Remember the Names of the 238 Souls Listed Here :

• ​William ALBERS – 57
• ​William Dean ALBRIGHT – 13
• ​Russell Wayne ALCOTT – 9
• ​Susan Carol (Williamson) ALLEN – 22
• ​James Carroll ATKINS – 88
• ​Clara (Knutson) ATWATER – 89
• ​Raymond Sebastian BACK – 67
• ​James Howard BALDWIN SR – 76
• ​Blanche Mary (Cariveau) BALSLEY – 64
• ​Daisy Estella (Long) BARBER – 82
• ​Henry ANDREW BAUCH, JR – 26
• ​Valerie Jean (Weddington) BAUCH – 25
• ​Roland “Babe” BAUMBERGER – 50
• ​Henry K BEBERGER – 87
• ​Elmer Leonard BENDERT – 66
• ​Nellie Katherine (Beatty) McKay BISCHOP – 49
• ​Wilbur “Bill” BISCHOP – 54
• ​Patricia Marlene BLOMLIE – 19
• ​Christel Blum BOSTICK – 49
• ​MATILDA June (Olson) BRODERSON – 56
• ​Albert BUCHHOLZ – 56
• ​MARY E (Mulcahy) BUCHHOLZ – 54
• ​MARY (Peterka) Collins CAMPBELL – 77
• ​Cheryl McBride CAPLINN – 20
• ​George Anthony CARTER – 40
• ​Olive Pearl (Case) CHAMBERLAIN – 76
• ​MARY Frances (Smoak) CHASE – 52
• ​Twyla Rae (Schilling) CHASE – 18
• ​Joyce CHRISTIANSON – 10
• ​Cecil LeRoy COKER – 74
• ​Flora Napier Allen COKER – 73
• ​Gertrude “Peggy” (Wakefield) COLDWELL – 71
• ​Rufus McRee COLDWELL – 73
• ​Rev. Francis Joseph COLLINS, S.J. – 69
• ​Myron Henry CORBIN – 44
• ​Mary Bea (Baxter) CORNER – 48
• ​Arla Estaline CORWIN – 18
• ​Opal Estaline (Barber) CORWIN – 56
• ​Annette Rose (Hodek) COSTELLO – 78
• ​Daniel Brent CROWDER – 16
• ​Mathew Lloyd CROWDER – 14
• ​DR. Richard Brent CROWDER – 51
• ​Lance Arnold CUMMINGS – 6 months
• ​Tamara Dee CUMMINGS – 2.5 yrs
• ​Durwin John DAVIDSON – 4
• ​Agnes (Pletcher) DETWILER – Born 1914
• ​Erma Luella (Jenkins) DICK – 50
• ​DR. Lowell Henry DIETER – 40
• ​Patricia Hope DIETER – 8
• ​Gwendolyn Ray DIETZEL – infant
• ​Thomas Patrick DOHERTY – Born 3/54
• ​Joni Rodrigues DUCHENEAUX – 2
• ​Harold Peter ELLIOT – 62
• ​ENA ELLISON – BRN 1881
• ​Gary M. ENGELSTAD – 26
• ​Leila J (Henle) ERICKSON – 58
• ​Orville J ERICKSON – 63
• ​Robert Van FAIRBANK – 17
• ​Leon James FERBER – 6
• ​Noel Arthur FERBER – 3
• ​Sharon Lea (Behlings) FERBER – 31
• ​Margaret (Uptegrove) FOX – 57
• ​Raymond FOX – 56
• ​Alice Hazel (Wieczorek) GALL – 50
• ​Theophil GALL – 56
• ​Cathy (Neal) GALL – 19
• ​Norvel Raymond GALL – 22
• ​Lawrence Anthony GENOVESE – 48
• ​Martin Carl GENZLER – Brn 1910
• ​Ruth Lorena (Huehl) GENZLER – 58
• ​Jason Wayne GIRTON – 8 mnths
• ​Madeline Hazel (Hamer) GLOVER – 64
• ​Oliver Clarence GLOVER – 65
• ​Dale Clell GOODROAD – 34
• ​Delores Ohnstad GRASS – Brn 1927
• ​Mark Edward GREENLUND – Brn 1945
• ​Antonie Hokey HAJEK – 78
• ​Pearl Celeste (Berry) HALFF – 69
• ​Janice Elaine (Lytle) HALL – 25
• ​Earnest Edward HARRIS – No age given
• ​Roger C HARRIS – 34
• ​Edwin Barkley HARRY – 52
• ​Doris M HAUSMANN – 40
• ​Henry “Harry” HAUSMANN – BRN 1895
• ​Donald E. HAUSMANN – 45
• ​Edward Everett HEALEY – 17
• ​Sheila Marie (Pike) HEATON – Bn 1949
• ​Harry Victor HENRICHSEN – 66
• ​John Fletcher HERATY – 57
• ​Beatrice Judd (Carlisle) HOGAN – 64
• ​Christopher John HOGAN – 65
• ​Cloris Martha HOLLIS – 62
• ​Wilfred HOPKINS – 75
• ​Lois Eilene (Hausmann) JACKSON – 50
• ​Donald F JOHNSON – 44
• ​Elmer Howard JOHNSON – 32
• ​Jamie Edward JOHNSON – 13
• ​William Marion JOHNSTON – 61
• ​David Evan JONES – 10
• ​Walter Albert JUHNKE – Brn 1911
• ​Grace Agnes (McLennen) KEISER – BN 1895
• ​Leo Francis KREBER – B 1912
• ​Delores D LARVIE – 2
• ​Julie Ann LARVIE – 20
• ​Noreen Agnes LAUGHLIN – 55
• ​Anna Regine (Natwick) LODMELL – 63
• ​EDWIN Frances LODMELL – 65
• ​Edwin H LONG – 22
• ​Daniel Richard MACARTHUR – 19
• ​Jeffery Ralph MAGNER – 22
• ​Norma E MAGNER – B 1924
• ​William Edgar MAGNER, SR – 52
• ​Leonard MAGNOTTO – N/A
• ​Lucy (Perry) MAGNOTTO – N/A
• ​Jonathan Ward MASTERS – 8
• ​Stephen Ronald MASTERS – 12
• ​Timothy Wayne MASTERS – 2
• ​SSGT Otis W MATTHEWS – 36
• ​Beatrice Helena (Valle) MCPHERSON – 73
• ​Harry D MCPHERSON – 76
• ​William G MEDLEY – 50
• ​Annette Marie MELBY – 16
• ​Arlen Kilray MESTETH – 9
• ​Margaret Ann MILLER – 22
• ​Burton Harris MILLETT – Brn 1917
• ​Ida (Dunham) MOORE – 70
• ​Fred Harold MORROW – 76
• ​Michael James MORTENSEN – 23
• ​Richard Lee MUNDELL – 27
• ​Mary Melissa NAPIER – 61
• ​Gayle Lynn NEMETI – 17
• ​Michael T NEOFEK – 19
• ​Hannah NEW – 58
• ​Cora A (Valentine) NEWSOME – 38
• ​SGT Billy Wayne NOBLE – 21
• ​Arnold James OZUNA – 7
• ​Ronald Joseph OZUNA – 8
• ​Stanley Julian OZUNA – 5
• ​James Wesley PATRICK – 42
• ​Rosa Kathryn PAULSEN – 75
• ​SSGT Marvin Eugene PEPPER – (No age listed)
• ​Audrey Jane PETERSEN – 40
• ​Drusilla Ruth PETERSEN – 9
• ​Estel Merl PETERSEN – 17
• ​Freeman Franklin PHILLIPS – 21
• ​Beth Marie PHIPPS – 4
• ​Carla Jo PHIPPS – 5
• ​Lonelle Rae PHIPPS – 6
• ​Forrest Edgar PICHT – 67
• ​Mardell (Porter) PICHT – 64
• ​Christine Ruth QUICK BEAR – 19
• ​Dennis Wayne QUILT – 14
• ​Ronald Rossel RATHMAN – 26
• ​Brenda Lea RAWLINS – 11
• ​Frances Arlene (Rhodes) RAWLINS – 48
• ​Jolie Ann RAWLINS – 8
• ​Lori Jean RAWLINS – 10
• ​Edna E REAVES – 74
• ​Judy Leann (Schner) RINGENBERG – 25
• ​Tammie Jeanette RINGENBERG – 3 mnths
• ​Neva LaVonne (Schutt) RIPPE – 22
• ​Richard Gary RIPPE – 24
• ​Mary A ROBBINS – 67
• ​Laura A ROBINSON – 33
• ​Tina Louise ROBINSON – child
• ​Elmer Henry ROHRS – 79
• ​Bernie Neil ROAST – 53
• ​Glenn Albin ROOT – 21
• ​William Harold ROUGH – 26
• ​Mable Eleana (Fish) RUHE – 85
• ​Cheryl Ann (Roth) RUNESTAD – 22
• ​Ruthella Gimlet (Taylor) RUUD – 75
• ​Marlene Fannie (Haveman) SAMPSILL – 34
• ​Bill Allen SAMPSILL – 11
• ​Michael John SAMPSILL – 8
• ​Paul Phillip SAMPSILL – 38
• ​Maxine Mary (Young Strom) SAVELY – 54
• ​Mable Alta (Hoesli) SCHOLLIAN – 78
• ​Ervin Alice (Murphy) SCHOSTER – 83
• ​Jacob Herman SCHWEIGMANN – 82
• ​Lucy Lolie Laroche SCHWEIGMANN – 83
• ​Lillian E SCRIVER – 77
• ​Randy Lee SHACKLETT – 17
• ​Claudia Jane (Lease) SIMPSON – 19
• ​Billie Claire SMITH – 42
• ​Carl Eugene SMITH – 47
• ​Sen. Eldon LeRoy SMITH – 44
• ​Gerald Wayne SMITH – 45
• ​Jane Francis (Austin) Hanson SMITH – 51
• ​Paula Jean SMITH – 10
• ​Nella Ferne (Lugenbeel) SMITH – N/A
• ​Vinton Parmen SMITH – N/A
• ​Elaine F (Glanzer) SMOLNIKAR – 24
• ​Wilfred Matthew SMOLNIKAR – 28
• ​Louise May (Sotter) SPRAGUE – 73
• ​Annette STAR – 2
• ​Alberta STAR – 29
• ​Louis STAR – 9
• ​John J STROUP – 49
• ​Geraldine K (Larrabee) STUART – 30
• ​George Albert SUMNERS – 35
• ​Mary Louise SWANSON – 11
• ​Roger Barney TADLOCK – 18
• ​Henry W TANK – 36
• ​Flora Ellen (Clarkson) TAYLOR – 79
• ​Shannon Vale TAYLOR – 4
• ​William Allen Nelson TAYLOR, Jr – 5
• ​William Edwin TAYLOR – 6
• ​Richard M TELL – 23
• ​Jean M (Harstad) THOMAS – 40
• ​John C THOMAS Sr. – 44
• ​John C THOMAS Jr – 21
• ​Lisa (Aase) Hixson THOMPSON – Brn 1887
• ​Paul THOMPSON – 1889
• ​Blake Evans THORNTON – 33
• ​James Edward TOUTGES – 30
• ​Brandy Terry TOWNER – 23
• ​Jennifer Rose TRAVERSIE – 4 mnths
• ​Jeremy Paul TRAVERSIE – 2
• ​Margaret Lamont (Winn) TURNER – 74
• ​Nelle TWO BEAR – 56
• ​Helen Jean (Hage) VANDER BEEK – 39
• ​Mark Hollister VANDER BEEK – 14
• ​Robert H VANDER BEEK – 42
• ​Frances Glenn VAN LEUVEN – 53
• ​Portia Fay (Buithead) VAN LEUVEN – 49
• ​Rosemary (Totzien) VOGT – 42
• ​Anna (Egnatich) VUCEREVICH – (No age listed)
• ​Herbert Michael WEISZ – 69
• ​Evelyn WHITE BULL – 37
• ​Herbert Loren WHITING – 47
• ​Phyllis Arlene (Reich) WHITING – 44
• ​Daniel Delano WICKARD – 26
• ​Lisa Marie WINSEL – 2
• ​Rachel Rae (Gall) WINSEL – 25
• ​Tracy Allen WINSEL – 5
• ​Charles J YOUNG – 2
• ​Anton Bernie ZEIGLMEIER – 31

For further information regarding each individual listed above please visit this site:

https://1972flood.omeka.net

The post Echoes of Broken Generations – A memorial appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.

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The post The Elephant in the Cement Truck – Editorial Cartoon appeared first on THE RAPID CITY SENTINEL.