SDPB December 2020 Magazine

Anders Haugen at the Canton Ski Hill, ca. 1920. Photo: Chicago Tribune

Join SDPB for a special holidaythemed Dakota Life Greetings from Canton. Organized in 1861, the site for the town of Canton was believed to be located directly opposite Canton, China – hence the name. The seat of Lincoln County, Canton’s motto is “Can live, can see, can do.”

A mural in Canton by Dave Fuller.

The history of Augustana University is rooted in Canton. It fostered noted author Ole Rolvaag and Nobel Prize winning physicist E.O. Lawrence. Canton was also home to the Hiawatha Insane Indian Asylum, a controversial and notorious mental hospital established in 1898.

During the 1910s, a ski jump set up by Augustana students became a training ground for recordsetting athletes bound for winter Olympics competition during the 1920s.

Jacob Richards.

We’ll also visit a Christmas tree farm near Canton and an annual holiday craft fair. Plus, meet 10-year-old Jacob Richards, who for the last three years has been programming and sharing a choreographed Christmas light show with the Sioux Falls community.

And we’ll head west to The Chapel in the Hills in Rapid City, an exact reproduction of the Borgund Stavkirke in Laerdal, Norway, famed for the use of “staves” or pillars, used as supports in this unique architecture.

The latest episode of Dakota Life premieres Tuesday, Dec 8, at 8pm (7 MT) on SDPB1 and SDPB.org

The Augustana Academy, ca. 1910