DE SMET, S.D. – Hundreds of thousands of tourists every year frequent sites tied to South Dakota's pioneer and Wild West history, and cemeteries are among the historic sites that bring the past to life for those visitors.
Jim Hagen, South Dakota secretary of Tourism, said history lovers are one of the department's main audiences. A popular site is the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, the setting for much of the "Little House on the Prairie" book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
"To take that pioneer history and to be able to share that in a marketing aspect to visitors to say, 'Did you know that you can come and walk in Laura's footsteps and experience this at the Ingalls Homestead? Or go into the city of De Smet and go through Ma and Pa's house, and go through the museum, and see where they lived, and see where they're buried?' I mean, that's huge."
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Editor’s note: This story is part of a series that Jackie Hendry, host and producer of South Dakota Public Broadcasting's "South Dakota Focus," will write to preview the upcoming show on South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they're published. Contact us at .
