Horses eyes are usually covered with transparent mesh to prevent flies from biting at their eyes. This fly-mask allows the horse to see and hear just fine but prevents flies from gathering on their face and eyes.
I thought it was like why they cover falcon's heads with those little leather helmets, to blind them so they will stay calm and not attempt to fly away. But yeah, flies can be a real problem for horses, so that totally makes sense. Thanks for explaining that!
We appreciate that your videos are so different from those of other chanels. The slow pace makes them both informative and relaxing. Keep it up and don't change anything!
I grew up in the 50’s and there is not much that attracts me to today’s popular culture, but I just love RU-vid! What a great resource whether you want to play a musical instrument, learn a language, bake an apple pie, fix the carburetor on a 53 Studebaker or take a stroll through South Dakota just before bedtime.
Thanks for this video, Once a Day I google rural parts of the US and hope for a video on what life is like in these towns. Today I saw your video on Blunt South Dakota. Thank you
A wonderful video, as always. It's so relaxing and interesting, just driving around and taking it all in. I love exploring new places. Thanks so much, Joe and Nic.😊💚
Whew! After watching your video, my blood pressure just dropped 20 points. So beautiful and peaceful. I grew up spending a lot of time in South Dakota with my grandparents and I just loved it. Now I live in Fort Lauderdale and it’s just crazy-town. Roads are always clogged with traffic, high rise apartments on every corner, no green space, and the temperature has been at least 95 degrees every day for the last month…South Dakota is an undiscovered treasure!
I was born in Watertown. I just love South Dakota, but wife doesn't want the winters! It's peaceful. The bad- South Dakotans haven't heard of, "Southern Hospitality".
That's sad to hear. I have an excellent long-term memory. I was born there in 1960, and we left when I was 11. Life was like the movie, "Sandlot", and Charlie Brown. I've occasionally gone back. It's very sad when I'm there to know my loved ones there are almost all dead or moved away. @@SamMaass-s5h
Born in Sioux Falls in '52, my parents moved the family to rural, southwest Minnesota in '55. Our little town of Dudley, MN no longer exists. It was great growing up in the country, but it all seems so far away now. Wonderful videos, folks...thank you.
@knrdvmmlbkkn • The business that made Dudley a town was the pair of wooden, grain elevators. A new, metal facility was built several miles away in Marshall, MN, and the wooden structures were set ablaze and burned to the ground. The railroad tracks were removed, and the town disappeared. There is a small collection of homes there, but nothing else except memories.
Harrold's school consolidated with Highmore many years ago. The big red and brown building is the gym and lunch room. The old brick school building has the bathrooms and cloak rooms all divided by gender, so the girls were to stay on one side of the school and the boys on the other. When I attended school there the classes were mixed but we still hung our coat on opposite sides of the building. The locker rooms were also on opposite sides of the school.
So is the big school still serving the community? Great piece of architecture. Guess it did not clue in that it was summer so yes it was deserted on a weekday morning.
When I first got to South Dakota, I figured I had wronged someone in a past-life. Eventually it grew on me and it became home for 8 years. Brutal winters and scorching summers, but there were things to do...with some ingenuity and a bit of travel.
Thank you for driving through the Highmore neighborhoods. My dad grew up there & went to that school. My grandfather had the first car in that town & owned the lumber mill. Was hoping to see their house - I believe it’s still standing. Sad to see it’s a dying town.
It's interesting to hear the praises and jealousy as Road Trip proceeds through rural SD. I did note that there was at least one comment that the focus he had was escaping the doldrums without losing the ship. It is clear that rural life has some advantages but there is a trade-off that is difficult for non-rurals: the peace and quiet are lovely but the tedium and the lack of stimulation are enervating . There is little to no poverty, everyone is law-abiding and there are no confusing cultural experiments. The sheep like one place, goats the other. Presently, this is the great divide in the US.
Really relaxing! My busy life kept me from roaming so its great for you to show me round . Each place has its individual service points, school town hall , fire dept, I hope the post offices do not close, here in NZ that killed off small towns! Loved the lonely railway crossing shot! Thanks again
Maybe .. them house`s in small towns in Nz will cost you over $500 k (if you can find one ) those US towns are what $61 K- 130.. do not be fooled by the illusion that the usa presents .. it will cost you more trouble , then what its worth been there done that
@@minime8048 What illusion? That you can move to the middle of nowhere for a pittance? Same in Canada. Kiwis should be able to move there. Surely there is some lonely spot in Australia you can get for a song. Have a big enough country and there is bound to be some property you could afford if you don't mind your own company. :)
Many of these young families in these communities would have lived on rural farmsteads years ago, For schooling, it's easier for dad to commute to the farm than for children to spend hours per day going back and forth. Thanks for covering my hometown of Highmore, I'm class of 1975,
The Great Depression must have had a big impact in that area as most peak populations were in 1930. My Dad’s uncle became the Lutheran pastor in Colome, SD in 1929 and reported through his letters home of the economic despair there.
@@minime8048court houses are the main building in most of these small towns. It makes sense that the main government building would be one of the first things built in the downtown.
Rural SD is about what I expected. I liked the beautiful courthouses. There were some beautiful homes sprinkled into these towns. The school with the separate entrances reminded me of my grammar school, Sacred Heart, in Chicago in the 1970’s. Heaven forbid we see a Hardy Prep boy! 😂. Have a great weekend !
What is happening to these towns is that the kids graduate high school and then almost all move to Sioux Falls. That's why their population drops and the median age goes up.
I noticed the 2nd town with the birdseed plant loading up the Walmart truck has had a bit of a population bump lately. Mostly kids and adults in their 30’s in town. Probably one or both of most parents work at the plant and most people have kids in their 30’s now. I don’t know how many people a birdseed plant employs or how much it can expand but what causes towns to grow is a good employment base. So there may be hope for this town to rebound somewhat (still only 139 people in town but it’s a start)
Hi Joe from a very blustery 20C south London, UK - yep I'd say South Dakota is the "bread basket" for that part of the USA judging by all the grain silo's!
I used to work for the Dakota-Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, and ran trains between Huron and Pierre. We ran through Highmore and Blunt, and would make a side trip to the Onida grain elevators to pick-up or deliver cars. We very rarely stopped at any of these towns, except for maybe a work train. Had to stop at Highmore one winter after I hit a road grader at a crossing--he didn't see us and didn't hear me laying on the horn. Bent to grader into a U, but the operator was OK.
You were tempting fate stopping on those live railroad tracks ;-) When they are shiny, it's a good indication that they are still in use. Somehow, I think you could see, for miles, that it was all clear ;-)
Looks like a good place to put combination holding areas, courtroom, and a prison for illegal aliens. Would end the recently publicized flooded with illegals problems in NYC, Chicago, LA, and other places. Would assure illegals will be where they can be found instead of disappearing before their immigration judge date. An added bonus is it would provide jobs for Americans in an area where jobs are hard to find. The income earned by construction workers, prison guards, burial crews, maintenance & support workers, courtroom staff, judges, and all the stores & businesses they would need, would revitalize the area. What’s the holdup?
Almost wish you'd headed east instead of west on 14. You might have ended up in De Smet, which is where Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on The Prairie fame came of age and spent the first few years of her married life. Most of the town itself is involved with the Little House tourist industry, but there are farms around as well. Its a lovely small town, a tiny bit more lively than most of the towns in SD!
@@minime8048 to ride. You can have cars and other vehicles and still have horses to ride for entertainment. But with that there are Amish populations that do not have any motorized vehicles just horse and buggy.
They are trying to keep the flies off of the horses. It's a good idea to keep bot flies off or the horses can have bot larvae in their digestive track. The covers on their faces keep face lies off and out of the eyes; they can see through the material. I'm not sure about the leg raps unless it's to protect them from snakes.
You think it’s cool now, stop by in January. You’ll need a warm coat….and gloves, warm/waterproof boots, long underwear, goggles, wool scarves and a hat with ear flaps. Looks like one could buy a nicer home for a low cost, but then one would have to live in South Dakota. 😉 I have to chuckle that you couldn’t figure out why the horses have masks on. Silly explorer….those are eye cover! They’re playing hide & seek! **they’re fly masks to protect the horses’ eyes from torment all day long.
Crime is in fact not "high." That's just the illusion of proportionality because the base population is so low. When considered in absolute numbers, the total annual crimes are typically well under 10. A single bar dispute could easily account for all the crimes that year. I am not persuaded that "most probably grow to be drunks." A good deal more evidence is needed.
The roads are so wide in these small towns. And they look well maintained. Also the bird near the end and you asked if it was a road runner, looked to be a killdee. They will flutter and act injured to draw you away from their nest.
My wife and I along with some friends visited South Dakota several weeks ago. It was pretty amazing. We saw the Black Hills, Deadwood, the Badlands and visited Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial. It was an amazing trip
Dear Joe and Nicole. I think this is a great road trip you guys are on. I find it strange, as a Dutchman, that you see so few people on the streets in those villages. No one walks, no one cycles. Do the neighbors know each other? Do the residents in a neighborhood know who lives on the next street? I think I know 100, maybe 150 neighbors. We talk to each other on the street, ask how things are going and help each other with odd jobs or lend tools to each other. Questions, questions, questions. Oh, I saw your suitcase lying loose in the backseat. NOT GOOD! Should you ever have to make an emergency stop or have an accident, God forbid, that suitcase will fly. And you never know where to go, but always forward. It becomes a projectile. You and Nicole, stay safe and I look forward to your next video.
I know I'm butting in, and I appreciate Joe filming on Sundays when it is quieter, and he can move around easier. There aren't many people around and he can concentrate on his goal of giving his time to his audience. I know it's not always on Sundays but many times it is.
Sundays in small town America are quiet. If you think anything can happen in a small town that everybody doesn't know about, you don't understand human nature. :) And if you don't think they share and help each other, you don't know what neighbors mean to each other when the the weather hits you hard and the only way you survive is to band together. It normally isn't the Dakota way to get into a neighbor's business as you described, but that in no way means they aren't fully engaged in each other's lives.
Highmore, SD 680 population 59f in July yea I wanna move there now. I hate the town I’ve lived in for the last 35 years. It has grown so much. Dozed thousands of acres for new houses and BMW Manufacturing Plant(s) 2 now, went from a 2 lane road to 4 lanes. Just miss the quietness and the slow pace it used to be.
Seeing how you like these quiet towns to check out, might try to get your hands on a WPA Guide to South Dakota and take a trip through the past in the eyes and pens of 1940’s writers and researchers. There were editions for all 48 states…AK and HI were not included.
I think those abandoned homes there are old folks that passed away and either no family or family didn't want to deal with it. I remember seeing that growing up in the early 80s visiting my grandma who lived in a small town.
Hope you do a video on Herrick, SD. It is almost a ghost town now but some people still live there. I understand they have a big hog roast every year. My dad’s relatives are from that area. My grandma & uncle lived a few miles outside of town.
I was in an unincorporated town in South Dakota on 212. Near the Minnesota border. And the main road was a gravel road !! Maybe 500 people in it. I'd love to live there. Hardly any expenses for unnecessary sidewalks and stuff.
I have an aunt from highmore. Being a teacher for a long time, she can be thanked for some of the graduation rate. I have another aunt from Onida. The massive wheat farms there make it the wealthiest County in the state. Farmland ownership to the tune of 30,000 acres. And sparsely populated. I did a motorcycle adventure ride in northwest SD, i felt for sure it was the most remote landscape in the state. According to metrics i looked up, the most sparsely populated area in SD is near Highmore.
Great tour. Those of us who live in highly populated areas have no knowledge of how people in rural and farming communities live. If these towns were in Utah, near a national park, there would be ten hotels and 20 restaurants.
My dad told me that in the area he grew up the farmers had 40 acres to farm and his family was as large as he could make it. Kids were expected to help on the farm.
@@dagwood1327 And now 40 acres would be uneconomic. Average farm size is now 445 acres. Depending on what you are doing, 500 acres can be one person. You may need to get in seasonal work, for example for harvest.
It could mean a huge increase in employment due to the amount of cash available to buy things. The east side of South Dakota has very successful farming due to having more precipitation, and many prosperous towns. According to you the place should be practically devoid of people by now but the reverse has happened. The bulk of the state's total population is in the east.
@@653j521 The general trend is fewer and fewer working the land. Highmore, 1950 - 1158 people, down to 682. Harold 1950 - 263 down to 101 Blunt 1950 423 down to 342 Onida 822 down to 666 [Avoid that if you believe in Satan! :-)] I picked one at random in the east, off the main roads. Oldham, 349 down to 121 So is it the roads De Smet 1,180 down to 1056. So there's evidence that it may be easy of transport. But its still down.
Highmore is the sight when on September 12, 2020 the Attorney General of South Dakota hit a pedestrian late at night on Hwy US14 and didn't stop. He came back the next day. It raised a big stink in the government and he was eventually impeached and barred from holding an office in the future. He was also investigating charges against the Governor (Noem) that she influenced an official in order for her daughter to obtain a building license.
I remember that - he was the Attorney General & he killed a guy in a hit & run. Also was never given a blood alcohol test. Nothing happened until the story went viral & he still refused to resign. Noem is sketchy as well - no accountability in these red state governments. The AG almost got away with murder.
You have to remember most of these communities were built around farmers. So large populations did not really exist. Back then they also had big families. Today not so much.
Hello, Thanks for showing me around different parts of America, (trivia) - did you know that Australia has the same land size of America, one big island, Take care 😊
Hey !! I,m near Lake Alexandrina. Thing is- in OZ, we dont have 'interesting old towns' much- as our history so young and most houses were built of wattle and daub and went to ruin pretty quick, so I love seeing Joey's drives through USA.
Great tour. Any plans to visit NORTH Dakota? Talk about dead end towns...My wife's family was from Barton, N.D. which, 25 years ago at least, was a 'near ghost' town. Thanks for this and all your tours.
I really enjoy your videos of your across the USA road trip ! Next best thing if a person such as myself is unable to do it myself.....I just wanted to address the statistics of average incomes which are quite a bit higher in this video,..even though the towns do not appear especially prosperous. I think that may be do to perhaps 20 to 30 people being multi-millionaires. Big AG,...grain companies and huge farms....This is farming today in that part of the country. Those indivduals are raising the average income way up in towns with a scant few hundred people,....'in my opinion'........
Did someone comment on Onida SD. Pronounced with long I not Oneda. You said the bird was a road runner. It was a Killldeer bird. SD does not have Road Runners. Nice videos. I grew up on a small farm near Dante SD, population about 100.
I can say that my husband makes over 50,000.00 a year and after taxes and road expenses he only brings home around 350.-400.00 a week which is not much after you considered your bills so I don't see that you say that is good money when most places rent from 850.00-2000. a month plus bills and if you have insurance that comes out of that and 401k
Also, that little bird is a Kildeer. I grew up close to that area and they were all over. They run fast on the ground and always chattering Kill-deer. That's how they got their name. Very noisy. A very smart bird and if their nest is threatened, they will put on the broken wing act to lure the predators away. And will fluff themselves up to look larger to a predator.
You totally should have cruised through the town of De Smet South Dakota where Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family lived. I've explored that area on Google and a lot of the towns you cruised through in this video look the same as De Smet. The house in town that "Ma" lived in until she died is now a museum...the store building "Pa" built is still standing and their homestead just outside De Smet is now a nice little visitors center and museum.
I can't help but love seeing a nice, wide, clean and uncluttered street. If you're had to deal with the annoyances of too-narrow city streets, seeing their country cousins is a treat. A person can park, turn around, and navigate their journey without fuss.
I wonder what the internet access is for these isolated towns. Your videos are always interesting, no matter what town or city you are visiting. I have also wondered, as has Mr. Scorebord below, why there are virtually no people visible outside. This is something I have noticed for a while.
I've passed through a few isolated towns in my state that don't even have cell phone service. Everyone in the towns still have landlines. They get television with big antennas or subscribe to satellite and probably everyone is in their houses watching television.
Gov. Janklow in the 1990s made it a priority to get computers in all the schools in South Dakota. He was a visionary from Chicago, loved and hated. Since then, not much progress in getting computer access to poor families, as vividly evidenced in the pandemic, trying to keep school going by zoom. It is really expensive to just get internet, let alone internet and tv. Sunday morning is for church or sleeping in. Sunday noon is for gathering and eating. Sunday afternoon is for socializing.
just found your channel. this was fantastic. super small towns, 300 people. dang, i would love a town like that. QUIET, PEACEFUL, i wonder if you could buy one of those abandoned homes for a lot less and fix it up. on Soc. Sec. i couldn't afford 79K. but i really enjoyed the tour.
I’m sure you could get one of those abandoned homes from the local government for the price of Back taxes. I’m sure they’d love for someone to fix them up
I lived in a small town like this for 23 years of my life. The only question nagging persistently in the back reaches of everyone's mind , is how to get out without losing one's shirt in the process , and how did we get trapped here ?
I lived in SD for 6 years in Rapid City and my folks eventually moved to a very small town near ND. I went to visit once and wanted to go to a gas station/convenient store so I called them to see how late they were open before I drive 30 minutes. The guy asked "Who is this?" Really weirded me out...I hung up. I went to the 'Grocery Store' to look for some beer and was gawked at by the locals who eventually told me I had to go across the street to the bar to buy a 6 pack. So I did that, and was rudely stared at by an old couple the entire time sitting at a table. If your not in one of the 2 cities, its a strange scary place that kinda creeped me out, the people weirded me out and I felt like I was trespassing. Idk what the deal is there...
What do you expect when you walk into the bar naked and order bud light .. or a man dressed as a women (which is quite common today ) what did you say your name was again .. Dylan Mulvaney ?
I've noticed some old farmers/ranchers tend to stare, and they're expecting you to notice them so either you or themselves will initiate conversation. Or they're nosy and judging you
I moved out of Pierre 2yrs ago because of how small, secluded, and cold it is (fellow Texan here, too)… I live in Florida now, and my Floridian boyfriend and I really enjoyed this portion of your trip! Your videos did a great job portraying life there. P.S. - oh-nEYE-duh 😉
Lake Itaska, Mn. Can't wait for the next video. I hope you make it to Bemigi then Cass Lake where my dad was born in 1921. Both are down stream on the Mississippi to the North East and not far from Itaska where l walked across the great river, allten feet
Bob Dylan is from Hibbing, that would be nice too see. American small town style is bit different than in my country. In my country there is always a big grocery store that is center of everything even in very small towns, and not much else.
The poorest county in the USA, as measured by median annual household income in 2021, is Buffalo county, South Dakota. Its 2022 population was estimated as 1861. About 85% of the county's population is Sioux.
I’m in New England North Dakota, you need to check Out the Birth place of Lawrence Welk up near the border on I think that highway on the way to Bismarck! Then come over and visit up in New England North Dakota! I watch all your videos
About 30 years ago I babysat an adorable toddler and when he got tired but didn't want to take a nap, I'd turn on the TV to The Lawrence Welk Show. I would hold him and slowly dance around the living room while he hummed along with the music and he would fall asleep in no time. Worked 100% of the time!
i grew up in a small town that was the county seat. we had 2,000 people in town and it was boring! i can't imagine what a kid would do with 1,500 in the county!
The recurring theme is they are earning "above average" incomes? How do they earn a living? Where do they work? I doubt everyone there works at the dollar general store, the grocery store. or the post office to do this. Doesn't seem like many good paying job opportunities unless you drive 100 miles to the next big town. What am I missing here?
