FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Oct. 19, 2007
CONTACT:  Ronette Rumpca, (605) 773-6011, Ronette.Rumpca@state.sd.us                                                        

Sportsman’s Paradise opens Oct. 20 at Cultural Heritage Center

PIERRE, S.D. -- South Dakota has a long tradition of outstanding hunting and fishing. Sportsman’s Paradise: Hunting and Fishing in South Dakota, a new exhibit at the museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre, examines the history of hunting and fishing and the vital role hunters and anglers play in game conservation and management.

Opening day for Sportsman’s Paradise will be Saturday, Oct. 20. Events that day include a kids’ story time reading at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. of Tatanka and the Lakota People: A Creation Story, an award-winning book illustrated by Donald Montileaux, and told in both English and Lakota. Visitors can sign up in the Hogen Gallery to win a copy of the wildlife print “Early Snows” by John S. Wilson and some other wildlife photographs. The museum has free admission, and cookies and coffee will be served all day. 

Visitors will learn how pheasant hunting in South Dakota grew from a one-day season in 1919 to the current 79-day season. The birds drew over 170,000 resident and non-resident hunters into the field in 2006.

Artifacts in the exhibit include a large mammoth bone, buffalo hide and items made from buffalo, early U.S. Fish and Wildlife materials, cannons used to net birds for banding at Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge, an ice-fishing shack, and pheasant hunters dressed for a day in the field.

“Hunting and fishing have a long history,” said Jay D. Vogt, director of the South Dakota State Historical Society. “This exhibit showcases these important outdoor activities and gives visitors a chance to learn what hunting and fishing is all about in South Dakota. It’s a great way for people to learn more about ice fishing or pheasant hunting, even if they do not hunt or fish themselves.”

Sportsman’s Paradise also looks at early conservation efforts in South Dakota, including Peter Norbeck’s work to establish Custer State Park as a wildlife preserve starting in 1911. Today, the park’s 71,000 acres are home to a wide variety of game and non-game species, including mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, wild turkeys and prairie dogs.

No hunting or fishing trip is complete without a good story. The exhibit features a share-your-story section where visitors can write down their personal tales of the “one that got away.” Kids and adults alike can practice identifying rubber models of South Dakota fish at a catch-and-release station.  

Sportsman’s Paradise will be on exhibit in the Hogen Gallery of the Cultural Heritage Center through the spring of 2009.

The museum in the Cultural Heritage Center is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-4:30 p.m. on Sundays and most holidays. Call (605) 773-3458 for more information or visit www.sdhistory.org.