Today’s journey was so long it’s going to take a couple of days to explain.
About 9:30am CDT, we start at the top of the triangle and I’m on my way southeast towards Reliance, SD where that elusive TV tower is that I have trying to find the last few times I have been in South Dakota. But in my journey, I discovered something even bigger. I mentioned I would get to Oahe Dam just north of Pierre. Well, I came across another dam at Fort Thompson, SD called the Big Bend Dam, which carries South Dakota State Route 47. According to Wikipedia.Com:
“The dam, 95 feet high and 10,570 feet in length, was constructed as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan for Missouri watershed development authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944. Construction began in 1959 and the embankment was completed in July 1963. Power generation began at the facility in 1964 and the entire complex was completed in 1966 at a total cost of $107 million. The hydroelectric plant generates 493,300 kilowatts of electricity and meets peak-hour demand for power within the Missouri River Basin.
“Located near Fort Thompson, South Dakota, just south of a major bend in the Missouri River (from which the dam takes its name), Big Bend Dam creates Lake Sharpe, named after South Dakota Governor Merrill Q. Sharpe. The lake extends for 80 miles up the course of the Missouri River past Pierre to Oahe Dam, another major power-generating and flood control embankment. Lake Sharpe covers a total of 56,884 acres.”
In addition to the power generation plant, the site has a beautiful park complete with picnic tables and charcoal grills.
Add to that, go back about 6 miles north on Route 47 and you see this huge, and I mean huge, collection of high tension power line towers feeding what are most likely extreme duty circuit breakers and switches.
A good 100 towers with a ½ mile radius of what appears to be the major distribution point of South Dakota Public Utilities for this part of the state. Wish I had gotten closer but there was this guy in a yellow utility truck and I just wanted to play it safe. And to be honest with you, I really wouldn’t want to be near here during a thunderstorm.
So across the dam we go and we are out in the vastness of South Dakota once again. A few miles south then west on Route 47 and I find that elusive tower… and 2 of its buddies.
The 660 foot tower on the left is KPLO-TV 6, a rebroadcast site belonging to KELO-TV 11 based in Sioux Falls, SD and just before the top of the channel 6 antenna is the FM antenna belonging to KTSD-FM 91.1 of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. The tower on the right holds a combination of cellular and microwave antennas.
And the above 1283-foot tower (the only one that I could see before) is KTSD-TV10, which is also part of SDPB. They are located on, of course, Tower Road on Medicine Butte. Oh, and did I mention the scenery:
And a side note about KELO-TV: there are 2 other rebroadcast sites located in Florence (KDLO-TV 3) and Rapid City (KCLO-TV 15). Plus KELO-TV has translator facilities in Aberdeen, Custer, and Land Andes, SD. The combined facilities allow KELO to provide full coverage for South Dakota plus large parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, using the trademark "KELOLAND" with network affiliation with CBS. A unique feature of KELO's coverage area is that it includes two time zones – Central and Mountain. This means that viewers of Rapid City's KCLO watch CBS's prime-time schedule from 6pm to 9pm Mountain Time (instead of 7pm to 10pm Central Time) with The Late Show with David Letterman airing at 9:35pm MT. And I thought I was busy at Newschannel 8.
So south on Route 47 and on to I-90 eastbound to the towns of Oacoma (oh-CO-ma) and Chamberlain, which are on the west and east sides, respectively, of the Missouri River. At milepost 264, there is a rest area, which has a beautiful overlook of the Missouri to the north.
And while I was at the rest area, I couldn’t help but notice a number of black labs, yellow labs and golden retrievers out for their noontime walk with their owners. Come to find out that this weekend is the beginning of pheasant hunting season in South Dakota. Which explains why this morning the girl behind the counter at the Super 8 Hotel in Pierre had no rooms available. BTW, anybody see Dick Cheney today??!!
After lunch at the rest area, it is a 150 miles jaunt west to Wall, SD, home to Wall Drug. And at the halfway point near Murdo, I come across this wide load convoy. And I was surprised to see its load. Remember that power-generating windmill just north of Valentine, NE?? Well here before me is one of the 3 prop blades for another power generating windmill on a long extendable flatbed tractor-trailer.
And about 20 miles later when I stop at the Okaton rest area, the blade truck passes me by:
Very cool, indeed.
Anyway, that’s the first half of today’s journey. We’ll finish the second half tomorrow. And we’ll meet my friend Jenn and her role in public service in Pierre.
I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Okaton, South Dakota.
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