It’s an early morning in early May, with the promise of a warm day just beginning to waft in the breeze, as I start walking the trail to M Hill in Hanson-Larsen Memorial Park behind Founders Park in Rapid City. Up the hill I go, and in only a few minutes the promise of a warm day is a reality. It’s going to be a workout, but I’m quite taken by the phenomenon of being in the piney woods while a busy city goes about its work-a-day routine below.

The park encompasses 300 acres of wilderness right in the center of town. Top biking magazines have compared the 12 miles of trails to some of the “best mountain bike meccas of the west.” But just like me, lots of local folks and visitors enjoy walking, hiking and running in the park.

It’s a pretty rugged landscape, and I’m beginning to understand why mountain bikers who come to the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival, held every year in Rapid City around Memorial Day, might not mind the often misty and cloudy conditions that greet them. Biking in a cool fog would be just the ticket, I decide, as I round another corner and clamber up a rocky incline. Not that I would do very well biking up this mountain, but I could probably hold my own on the paved bike path down below that winds along Rapid Creek.

That’s one of the great things about biking in the Black Hills. There’s a path or trail for every inclination. Flatlanders like me can meander the more than 40 miles of the Swanny Pathway that begins on the western edge of Rapid City and runs all the way through town to the eastern edge. Just about every Hills town also has a pleasurable bike path, and much of the top-rated Mickelson Trail is appropriate for folks who are in no more than moderate physical condition.

But for those eager to test themselves, the Black Hills offers some of the most challenging tracks around – as anyone attending this year’s Fat Tire Festival, set for May 25-27, will discover.

Race events include a 25-mile loop in the Black Hills with at least 3,000 feet of climbing. Or you can careen downhill on the Edna’s Super D or the Flight At The Phoenix Downhill. You don’t have to race to challenge yourself. There’s single-track tours, with guides provided, for every skill set.

Now in its sixth year, the Fat Tire Festival is a popular event with more than 1,000 expected to attend. Along with races and rides, participants can enjoy films, concerts, a geocaching adventure, a triathlon and lots of social networking. For families with kids, there are events such as the Shimano Youth Series. And the nearby Rapid City Dirt Jump Park always has lots of youngsters doing daredevil tricks.

The popularity of the festival is likely one of the reasons some fantastic new facilities will be coming on line in June. More parking, restroom facilities and a bridge across Rapid Creek will provide more amenities along with easy access to the trails for future festival-goers along with every other recreational user.

Recreational, but sorta pooped out, is how I feel as I descend from M Hill along an old rocky roadbed. The view from the top was worth the climb, as was reading the plaques around the big M, put in place by graduating classes of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. The M was constructed in 1912 for the school’s first “M-Day” homecoming celebration. Every year, in a long-standing school ritual, the new freshman class makes the climb and whitewashes the M to keep it visible below.

No doubt about it, having forested hills right in the middle of town means the best of both worlds. It takes me only a few minutes and I am mulling over which downtown eatery suits my fancy as I stroll past the city’s new Main Street Square. A few more minutes, and I’m having clams on the half-shell, flown in fresh daily and cooked most delectably by one of Rapid City’s fine chefs. The server doesn’t seem to mind that my somewhat frazzled and overly warm appearance doesn’t match the room’s sophisticated ambiance. And I don’t mind either. It’s been a great hike and these clams, along with a craft brew, are a perfect conclusion to my in-town adventure.

One of the best vacation luxuries is taking a long, hot guilt-free shower or bath whenever you want to. Whether staying in a hotel, motel, B&B, top-of-the-line resort, a rustic log cabin – or even at many campgrounds – you don’t have to hurry up, you aren’t using up all the hot water, you aren’t going to be late for work and it’s not your responsibility to do anything more than minimal clean-up.

Now, vacationers in the Black Hills & Badlands of South Dakota can feel good about taking a shower or bath in a brand new way! A long list of area accommodations are joining a new public service initiative called “Black Hills Bubbles for Humanity” that allows vacationers to be part of an innovative effort to provide soap to vulnerable communities.

The Bubbles program is part of The Global Soap Project, founded in 2009 by Derreck Kayongo. Kayongo’s simple idea was to take some of the 3 million bars of soap thrown away each day by hotels and motels, make new soap and distribute it to impoverished communities around the world.

The impact of Kayongo’s brainstorm was recognized when he was named one of CNN’s Top 10 CNN Heroes in Fall 2011. Viewers of the global news network nominate and then vote for “everyday heroes that make a difference in the world.”

The Hills-wide Bubbles program, organized by the region’s most prominent tourism marketing agency, Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association, has the potential to help save thousands of lives. Businesses joining the effort will gather used soap in boxes, and BHB&L will collect the boxes and ship them to Atlanta, where the Global Soap Project has a facility that processes and packs the recycled soap for delivery. The soap is sent to places where a lack of basic sanitation can cause unnecessary outbreaks of disease and even death. Providing soap is a simple, effective way to protect families and save lives.

In fact, Kayongo’s Global Soap Project fulfills two worthy goals: diverting waste from landfills and providing soap to fight disease. In 2011, Rapid City accommodations rented 635,000 rooms ­– producing a significant amount of used soap that went to its landfill.

So far, more than 30 Black Hills accommodations have signed up for the Bubbles program and word is spreading about this simple, direct way the visitor industry can make a difference.

To learn more about Black Hills Bubbles for Humanity, contact Nort Johnson at 605-355-3600 or nort@blackhillsbadlands.com. For more information about the worldwide program, go to www.globalsoap.org.

During the first week of May, the Black Hills Film Festival will show 60 films from across the U.S. and beyond. Six South Dakota-based films were nominated for “Best” in several of the festival’s categories. All show why film festivals are springing up across the nation and drawing ever-larger audiences. Click the links and take a look!

THE PACT: A film by the Toronto Brothers, The Pact is subtitled  “A Bromatic Comedy, Two Brothers, One Year, No Women,” and tells the tale of two brothers who make a pact to live a year without any woman in their lives. As the year progresses, each brother struggles to uphold the bargain in the face of a variety temptations and frustrations.  Of course, an especially tempting woman enters the mix, and trouble ensues. … “As their relationship is put to the test, they find that the pact has little to do with women at all. The pact, an emblem of brotherly love and devotion, is really about loyalty … to each other.” http://www.watchthepact.com/#!videos

  PRAIRIE SONATA: This short film, set in the 1930s, was shot in Beresford, with residents providing authentic props and costumes. It tells the story of a spinster who is in love with her best friend’s husband.  Tragedy strikes, the friendship dissolves, leaving the women bereft and the small community in disarray. The film is described as a “lushly visual, quiet and poetic homage to the intrepid women who helped forge the American heartland.” This summer, crews plan to return to Beresford to extend the short into a feature length film. http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?videofile=071910movie

UP NOT DOWN: A documentary project by Josh Bart, the film, in Bart’s words, is “about people, past and present, who have made climbing in the Black Hills possible. From the earliest Black Hills climbing pioneers Herb and Jan Conn, to the Black Hills young guns. When I started this film, I had no script, agenda, or budget. Eventually all three of those things took form as I discovered how art, history, and passion can combine to tell a story.” http://upnotdown.com/index.html

TAKE A SEAT: Adventure filmmaker Dominic Gill documents his 4500-mile, 104-day adventure across America, including an episode that takes him through the Badlands – as he rides a specially adapted tandem bike that he shares with 10 companion adventurers with varying disabilities. One of his companions is Kelly Lane of Rapid City, who rode with Gill for 600 miles from Rapid City to Minneapolis. Lane has Parkinson’s Disease, and in the film he gives an “intimate view into the life of an otherwise active optimistic person whose existence is made infinitely more difficult by a degenerative disease.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byIC5A70zTc

A THICK DARK FOG: A documentary by Randy Vasquez tells the story of Walter Littlemoon, “who was forced to attend a Federal Government Boarding School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1950s, where his culture, language and spirituality were brutally suppressed.”  At age 60, Littlemoon embarks on a quest to heal himself and reclaim his heritage. http://www.thickdarkfog.com/?page_id=11

LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD: A documentary filmed by Jac Reyno and Matt Litwiller is a series of vignettes, allowing individual members of the Oglala Sioux tribe at Pine Ridge to relate stories that tell of their struggles and hopes. According to the film makers: We hope that through this film, we can begin to get an idea of who people of Pine Ridge really are, and what stories they have to share. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=290586167691038&set=vb.109200499162940&type=2&theater

By the way, noted filmmaker and Edgemont native Sean Covel’s latest project, “Matt Epic,” will be filmed this summer in the Black Hills. The producer of the 2004 cult hit, “Napoleon Dynamite,” along with top Hollywood casting directors, will host a casting call on Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, at the film festival. Folks can stop by Chute Roosters to sign in and receive a short scene to review before reading. Call back auditions will be held in Hill City May 7-8. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/MattEpicMovie.

For a full schedule and description of all of the films and activities, go to www.BlackHillsFilmFestival.org. Festival passes can be purchased online or by calling 574-9454.

I’m watching the performance of “To Her” by “Wylie and the Wild West” on UTube. It’s a beautiful and evocative melody that shows an organic appreciation of the song’s lyrics – taken pretty much word-for-word from the cowboy poem of the same name written and published in 1917 by Badger Clark in “Grass Grown Trails.”

It’s not enough to listen just once to Wylie – gotta hear it again! Heartfelt and honest – not hard to see why cowboy poetry is so wildly popular across the nation – and why National Cowboy Poetry Week, set for April 15-21 – is causing a particular stir at the High Plains Western Heritage Museum in Spearfish.

Of course, cowboy poetry is often spoken, not sung. But whether listening to the soft drawl of Waddie Mitchell, the Southern twang of Baxter Black – or if you attend Rhythm & Rhyme at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at the Heritage Center – the South Dakota prairie accents of award-winning cowgirl poet Yvonne Hollenbeck, it’s easy to understand why these eloquent voices touch the souls and validate the life experiences of so many Americans.

The word that comes to mind when describing both the lives and legacies of cowboy poets both past and present is “unassuming.” Or maybe “unpretentious” is more on the mark. And, as the millions of cowboy poetry fans from every walk of life prove, you don’t have to have a cowboy background to appreciate that outlook on life.

Take Badger Clark, South Dakota’s first poet laureate, who for more than 20 years lived a simple bachelor existence at his home in Custer State Park until his death in 1957. His insistence on living his life as he saw fit – even though it was outside the norm and kept him mostly in poverty – meant poems that are as authentic and real for people today as they were a century ago. His best-known work, “A Cowboy’s Prayer,” is pretty much an American anthem for fans of the Old West. It is both ironic and telling that for years, this poem was attributed to an “anonymous” writer – illustrating its mythic impact on America’s folk culture.

That folk culture – South Dakota style – will be on full display at the April 19 cowboy celebration at High Plains Western Heritage Center. Along with some outstanding displays and performances, the event is a gratifying example of the strength, vitality and continuity of our region’s High Plains ranch culture.

The event begins at 6 p.m., with “Cowboy Song Tradition,” an exhibit that includes historical accounts of the lives of some of the West’s most storied poet/musicians, including Badger Clark. The recently restored video-documentary, “Ride Around Cowboy,” will also be on view.

Showtime begins at 7 p.m., with a young talent from Reva, Emily Jerde, performing vintage Western Music. Jacob Linn and Carter Elshere, seventh-graders from Elm Springs Elementary Country School, will recite some of Badger’s best-loved poems, followed by Yvonne Hollenbeck, who is the 2012 recipient of “The Badger: Excellence in Poetry Award,” presented each year by the museum’s Heritage of the American West Performance Series.

Don’t be surprised if the performance is sold out – these Series events often are. All the more reason to set your sights on another of the museum’s monthly Old West showcases – “Homeward Bound with Barry Ward and “Ridin’ for the Brand” with R.J. Vandygriff are just a few on the summer 2012 schedule.

I’m looking up at a somewhat moth-eaten buffalo, with a saddle to match perched behind his hump, and wishing Halley’s Store was open today.  Even saddled up, the buffalo looks somewhat alarming – despite being stuffed, dead and inexplicably positioned on the sagging front porch of Keystone’s oldest continuous business.

And there are quite a number of moth-eaten saddles along the front of this general mercantile store built in 1895, causing me to wonder if some might be as historic as Halley’s is.

I’m quite engrossed, because I am in the middle of my curiously fascinating Keystone “Old Town” Walking Tour.  As I stop at the various “old town” sites, each with a descriptive sign explaining its significance, I am particularly struck by the authenticity of the history on display. For the most part, these buildings haven’t been renovated, refurbished, upgraded or turned into “historically accurate” renditions of their former selves. They are themselves.

Sure, some old structures sport a new coat of paint, but that is just another layer of their ongoing history. Maybe it’s the interplay between junk, good junk, antiques and heirlooms that one sees in the yards and through the windows of this community’s assortment of businesses and homes.

The sign at the blacksmith shop tells an amusing story about “Peg Leg” Haase, one of those eccentric souls often found in small towns. The last horse shoer in downtown Keystone, his four-legged customers always needed four shoes, and that is what they got. With only one leg himself, Peg Leg could never understand why the town’s salesmen wouldn’t sell him only one shoe, but insisted he buy a pair.

T.J. Hoy & Co. is another stop. In the early 1900s, this business offered a unique combination – a pharmacy and pool hall. It was also the site of the only telephone in town.

And there’s the landmark Keystone Schoolhouse, now home to the town museum, where visitors will find displays of early-day mining tools, historic photo collections, rock and mineral collections and memorabilia from Carrie Ingalls, the sister of Laura Ingalls Wilders of “Little House” fame, who lived in Keystone for 36 years.

Even when, according to the sign, a historic building burned down in one of Keystone’s many fires, history still lives in rebuilt buildings, many now aging themselves. In fact, it’s somewhat remarkable that Keystone’s long fire history has been unable to destroy the sense of continuity I’m picking up as I stroll along ­– an ongoing timeline of interlocking generations of pioneers and prospectors that first established and now sustain this tiny town at the foot of Mount Rushmore.

It’s that sense of living history that makes this walk so appealing, I decide as I walk past some old houses, some fixed up and some on a slant, that are still family homes, some with iron plaques identifying the original homebuilders. And the businesses now housed in these unique old buildings have their own allure, with many offering items –antiques, collectibles, local jewelry and crafts – that the owners are passionate about.

It’s the kind of neighborhood where people can indulge their enthusiasm for rarities, both as shopkeepers and customers. One-of-a-kind characters still live here. There is no telling what you might luck on to.

I’m already feeling lucky as I circle back to Big Thunder Gold Mine where I began my excursion. I take a few pictures of the popular attraction, originally registered as Reed’s Placer Claim in 1893. A few families are making their way up the wooden bridge into towards Big Thunder’s “company store,” probably planning an underground tour of the old tunnels. It sounds like fun, but I hope they have time on their schedule to enjoy Keystone’s Old Town Walking Tour, too.

Courtesy Deadwood History Inc – Johnny Sundby for Adams Museum, Deadwood, SD

Google the word “museum” and the first definition that comes up is “a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.”

And Deadwood’s Adams Museum certainly has many exhibits and artifacts that fit that definition. However, most museums I have visited, including the Adams, have another category of objects: oddities.

I don’t know if museum curators are interested in focusing any attention on this aspect of their collections, and the category in any case is somewhat fluid. What one visitor regards as an oddity is of serious interest to other visitors.

That’s one of the things that is so great about visiting museums. You never know what you will find and what your reaction will be. In fact, I believe museums should put more emphasis on this unique ability to entertain. Here’s a thought: How about changing the word “museum” to “amuseaum” – because every one I’ve ever visited has a variety of objects that cause me to smile – whether in disbelief, amazement, fascination or just plain silliness.

I visited the Adams Museum several weeks ago, and of course, there are many objects of priceless historical significance and cultural importance. But here’s a few displays that brought a smile to my face:

The nudist colony of Robert Poe: This exhibit of nude woodcarvings by a local folk artist named Robert Poe caused a smile of recognition. Not because Robert Poe was a friend of mine, but because amateur depictions of nudes was the bane of my childhood. My dad was an amateur painter, and Eden-like landscapes with nude ladies and gentlemen was a favorite subject. Won’t go into the awestruck reactions of my playmates, but my bet is that I could totally relate to bemused family members of Robert Poe. Today, no doubt, Robert Poe’s descendants are proud and pleased that his nudist colony is on public display.

The Pahasapasaurus: I always smile at words that sound funny, and after saying this one to myself several times, it made the cut. This fossil, discovered near Fruitdale in 1934, is the only one of its kind. A short description of the Pahasapasaurus as “an early polycotylid plesiosaur from the Cenomanian of South Dakota” didn’t really clarify things for me. But, for visitors more interested in paleontology than in goofy word lists, this is an intriguing exhibit.

Tootsie the Coyote: When you see an exhibit showing a coyote smiling, you have to smile back. Tootsie must have played a major role in South Dakota’s decision to designate the coyote as the official state animal in 1949. Deadwood area native Freddie Borsch, an interesting man of many talents, adopted and trained the abandoned pup and the two became regional celebrities. With an album, “South Dakota Tootsie” and a 10-state tour, Tootsie made appearances around the area as the state’s mascot. It’s a funny legislative practice in my mind, but joining Tootsie in the state’s designated flora and fauna roster are the Ring-necked pheasant (state bird), American Pasque (state flower), Black Hills spruce (state tree), walleye (state fish), Western honey bee (state insect.), Western Wheat Grass (state grass) and Triceratops (state fossil).

The Adams is just one of our many fine area museums with meaningful and important stories to tell. But the best part for me, and maybe for you? The oddities – the quirky, the peculiar and the bizarre – that speak to individual idiosyncrasies and tell you something amusing – something you maybe didn’t even know – about yourself.

In 1918, architect C.C. Gideon took the train from Minnesota to Rapid City to meet S.D. Sen. Peter Norbeck, thereby establishing a lifelong collaborative friendship that resulted in some of the Black Hills most prized landmarks.

First on the project list the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park, constructed from 1919-1922 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby sawmill provided the huge logs that were specially cut and prepared before placement. Elaborate rockwork using native stones completed the elegant exterior. During the construction period, Gideon and his family wintered in a tent on the grounds.

It was a beautiful masterpiece, and it was gone in 72 days. A suspicious fire completely destroyed the lodge shortly after it opened in 1921. Gideon showed his pioneer perseverance by reconstructing the lodge in just 72 days.

Gideon’s talent and tenacity must have impressed, because he and his wife were invited to stay on and manage the game lodge. For the next 27 years, the couple were hosts to many notable vacationers, the most prominent being President Calvin Coolidge during the summer of 1927 and President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953.

Coolidge’s wife was a strong admirer of the Game Lodge, saying, “I wish to spend my eternity nowhere but this majestic place.”

The Game Lodge was first conceived as a retreat for staff members of the Game, Fish & Parks Department, but it soon took on its present role as a vacation lodge for park visitors.

And the burgeoning tourist trade was the impetus behind the other marvelous park structures Gideon built. He mapped Iron Mountain Road with Sen. Norbeck and designed and built the scenic byway’s iconic pigtail bridges. He also designed The Needles Highway and built Coolidge Inn (in only 12 days so that Coolidge’s entourage would have a place to stay). He also built Valhalla in 1927, Norbeck’s summer home in the park.

The State Game Lodge received a facelift in 2008, with a complete kitchen redesign and upgrade, an expanded dining room and lounge. The renovation, completed in the spring of 2009, removed non-historic additions to the lodge, remodeled parts of the original building and added about 8,500 square feet of kitchen, dining area, gift shop and an artist-in-residence studio.

A new outdoor pavilion located behind the lodge was constructed at the same time, as well as the modern Creekside Lodge along Grace Coolidge Creek and the Reunion Cabin, a facility that can privately house as many as 28 guests.

With the recent warm weather, my thoughts have been turning to summer in the Black Hills. And among my favorite summer things here are the free street festivals. A warm evening, cold beer, live music, lively food and lots of people. You can’t go wrong.

Summer Nights in Rapid City is one of the biggest. This weekly Thursday night street festival began in 2008 on Seventh Street. Last year it expanded into a sprawling event that stretched down Main Street and Seventh Street. The first Summer Nights festival is scheduled for June 7, with Groove Daddy performing. It ends Aug. 30 with Pumpin’ Ethyl.

I haven’t heard what the new layout will be, but the new Main Street Square at Sixth and Main will likely play a bigger role in the 2012 lineup.

Downtown Friday Nights in Spearfish has really taken off. Initially, it was a once-a-month event. This summer there will be an outdoor concert every Friday night, beginning with Groove Daddy on June 8 and ending with Pumpin’ Ethyl on Aug. 31.

Organizer Scott Temple has been busy coordinating the acts so that 10 of the 13 bands will play Rapid City on Thursday night and Spearfish on Friday night. And some bands will add a third night to the tour, playing at the Deadwood Mountain Grand on Saturday night. That kind of coordination allows the Black Hills to attract bigger acts from farther away.

Also, the Black Hills host a number of one-time special events. Perhaps the biggest is Wild Bill Days in Deadwood. The Deadwood Chamber of Commerce just announced that Rick Springfield and the Marshall Tucker Band are booked for this year’s Wild Bill Days, set for June 15 and 16. Concert goers show up hours early to set up their folding chairs on Main Street and by show time the street is packed.

It’s sunny and warm in beautiful downtown Sturgis. But I’m not walking downtown; I’m walking behind downtown on the bike path along Woodland Park.

A few minutes earlier on this mid-March morning, my drive along Junction Avenue into Sturgis still whispered “motorcycle rally.” On one side is the refurbished Best Western, with its new restaurant, Caddy’s Grill & Bar; on the other side is a giant cross next to a building emblazoned with Hellfighters Christian Ministries, and, of course, at the crossroads is world-renowned Main Street itself. Rally dreams are already freshening on this fine spring day.

But there isn’t even a shred of a rally whisper along the bike path that winds through the barely budding shade trees along winter-dry Bear Butte Creek to the west; and over wood bridges and thickly branched shrubbery on the way to Fort Meade Recreation Area to the east.

Today isn’t about biker heaven, I think as I stroll past a woman and her dog sunning themselves on a park bench. It’s about a bona fide community with its own history and customs. And with the sun burnishing the treetops and rocky outcroppings as they come into view, it’s about genuine pleasures that don’t roar.

Indeed, for visitors who seek small-town adventures and experiences that offer a reprieve from their hectic daily lives, the Sturgis bike path is a wonderful way to slow down and refresh your mental outlook.

It certainly is refreshing my mental picture of Sturgis, I realize as I study a map of the path that shows the town’s various landmarks. One of the markers shows the house of the bad-girl gambler, bootlegger and madam Poker Alice, (a popular mug on Deadwood billboards) which I’ve yet to actually see even though I’ve lived only 20 minutes away for more than three decades. And I don’t believe I’ve ever gone up the alluring little road near the Lions Park, nor traveled up the steep drive that I can see from the park to the north.

But first – to walk. I head west along Woodle Field, past a colorful and well-supplied children’s playground and on into Woodland Park. As always, in just a few minutes the serene outdoors causes my mood to brighten. Why is it so easy to neglect simple activities that offer such outsized physical and mental rewards?

Reinvigorated and relaxed, I return to my car determined to end my 30-plus years of ignorance and find the notorious hangout of Poker Alice. But first I drive up the Lions Park road to discover a huge covered picnic shelter, with a family in the midst of unpacking their lunch cooler. It’s family fun;, quick, easy and inexpensive.

A few minutes later, I travel the steep road to a turnout spot that overlooks the whole of Sturgis. My five-minute jaunt results in a birds-eye view of the town’s layout that I will be able to reference in the future.

After getting directions from a local man who looks like an old biker (that rally thing), I again drive along Junction Avenue until I spot the “old green-trimmed house that looks out of place” next to the Star Lite Motel. Originally located along Bear Butte Creek, the Poker Alice house was moved in 1990 because it was in the city’s flood plain.

I pull into the parking lot and step out to take pictures. There’s a beat-up old saddle hanging on the wooden rail in front, and the presence of a mailbox leaves me wondering if someone lives in this 1895 house with a past.

It’s a small accomplishment, but an accomplishment none the less, to have acquainted myself with this piece of Black Hills history. As I leave town, I make one last stop at what turns out to be another piece of history of which I was sadly ignorant.

Again off Junction Avenue, on the grounds of the Sturgis Hospital, is a monument to Charles Nolin, a 24-year-old Pony Express rider who was killed by Indians in 1876. The plaque tells an intriguing tale and, as I leave town, I decide that I will try to learn more about the incident.

In fact, after my easy-going morning of walking and wandering around Sturgis, I can say the same thing for this historic little Hills town as a whole: It would be fun, and certainly worthwhile, to learn more.

How often is it possible for people with passionate opinions on some subject to get together and enjoy their differences? If the subject is music, pretty often!

That is certainly the impetus behind “New Harmonies,” the latest Museum on Main Street traveling exhibit that recently opened at the Sturgis Public Library. The show is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institute and the South Dakota Humanities Council. The Sturgis exhibit (March 18-April 21) is the first stop on a tour that will take this exploration “celebrating American roots music” to six venues across South Dakota.

Many of the freestanding displays on view at the Sturgis library were organized by the Smithsonian curators, but it’s South Dakota talent that will provide the exhibit’s musical “soul” over the next several weeks. Concerts, along with speakers and discussion groups, are part of the musical mix.

In fact, the celebration of South Dakota musical roots began in late January, with a concert by Chuck Suchy. According to local arts coordinator Linda Nelson, a member of the Sturgis Area Arts Council, “He exhibits the theme of ‘New Harmonies’ as well as anyone.” Suchy is a local rancher who writes music rooted in his Dakota ranch background for acoustic guitar.

Denver’s popular Irish band, Colcannon, performed in early March, and the official grand opening concert featured the South Dakota Symphony with the Lakota Project Drummers.

Country, Irish, symphonic and Lakota – four different musical genres already! Upcoming events include the History of the Blues, with James Van Nuys and Bob Fahey; bluegrass music by Cambria, a local acoustic musicians jam session, the Easter Cantata at Grace Lutheran Church, a jazz band dance/concert event, and a “Deadwood Songbook” performance by Hank Harris and Jami Lynn. In all, another six musical styles.

Speaking of six – view the Sturgis exhibit and attend any six scheduled performances and you could win a prize.  You can pick up an event card at the library that explains how the drawing works.

June and July will find the New Harmonies exhibits on display in Aberdeen and Brookings, before they return for West River stops at the Adams Museum in Deadwood (Aug. 6-Sept. 17) and the Rapid City Public Library (Sept. 25-Nov. 7). Lots of indigenous musical entertainment for locals and visitors alike!

What is a positive for the public is also a big plus for libraries like Sturgis, according to Linda. “It encourages a whole new group of people to come and visit the library.” Every New Harmonies display has some sound associated with it – spoken, sung or played – so the old library rule of “Quiet!” will be muted. That helps libraries connect to their communities, so it isn’t a “closed off sanctuary.”

Yet the original purpose of libraries is retained, as programming such as “New Harmonies” allows people to deepen their knowledge and understanding of America’s musical heritage. “This brings a whole new dimension to music,” Linda said. “We have concerts all the time, but this really explores the development of our country based on music that we probably don’t discuss or have exposure to in our daily lives.”