Siouxland Life - July 2015

Summer fun could come with health woes

Remember rides at Riverside Park?

Loft living offers plenty of options

A GUIDE FOR LIVING IN SIOUXLAND

THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT SIOUXLAND ACTIVITY THRIVES THANKS TO THE MISSOURI RIVER

A LOOK BACK AT RIVER-CADE

JULY 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE IS ON THE WEB! VISIT WWW.SIOUXCITYJOURNAL.COM/SIOUXLANDLIFE SIOUXLAND LIFE JULY 2015

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

CONTENTS July

2015

The Missouri River was a key player in the early life of Siouxland. But what about now? How does it affect the people? This month, we look at the fun – and fears – that come with life on the river. We also look back at the River-Cade celebration, one of the oldest festivals in the nation. Best of all? You don’t need to wear sunscreen to enjoy this month’s issue.

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LOFT LIVING Close to the action, it’s a perfect place to be.

ON THE COVER The Missouri River flows between in Sioux City, Iowa, and South Sioux City, Neb.

24 REMEMBERING RIVER-CADE

Photo by Jim Lee

FEATURES 4 HOME loft living 9 RIVER LIFE Riverside’s past 12 RIVER LIFE just like Lewis, Clark 16 RIVER LIFE eating on the river 20 COLLECTION River-Cade’s best 24 RIVER LIFE remembering River-Cade 26 20 QUESTIONS River-Cade queen 28 RIVER LIFE fishing, of course

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A huge event, River-Cade attracted lots of attention and visitors.

RIVER LIFE Rock Rapids re-emerges RIVER LIFE Cherokee’s yacht club RIVER LIFE the life of the river RIVER LIFE what to do RIVER LIFE those #$%# mosquitoes HEALTH outdoor hazards HEALTH medical answers PARTING SHOT

PUBLISHER Steve Griffith EDITOR Bruce Miller EDITORIAL Dolly A. Butz, Tim Gallagher, Earl Horlyk, Ally Karsyn, Michelle Kuester PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Hynds, Jim Lee, Justin Wan DESIGN April Burford ADVERTISING SALES Nancy Gevik ADVERTISING DESIGN Kayla Fleming ©2015 The Sioux City Journal. Siouxland Life is published monthly by The Sioux City Journal.

For advertising information, please call (712) 224-6275. For editorial information, please call (712) 293-4218.

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BACK IN ACTION The Cherokee Yacht Club battles back.

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JULY 2015

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HOME loft

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living

JULY 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SIOUXLAND

HOUSE TOUR 10 THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT LOFT LIVING

s 1 2 3

Text by Ally Karsyn | Photographs by Jim Lee

SIOUX CITY | A lifelong renter wasn’t in the market for a new home when she looked at a downtown loft in the United Center. Gayle Gregg didn’t know what she was missing.

She became the second person to purchase a unit in the converted warehouse at 302 Jones St. The mixed-use, redevelopment project was the first of its kind in Sioux City, offering commercial space and luxury living in a central location. It was completed in 2010.

After moving in, Gregg, 59, discovered a healthy, active lifestyle that lifted her spirits and carried her through a battle with breast cancer. Today, she enjoys the comforts of her two-bed, two-bath condo just fine, but living in a place like this, she’s more excited by what’s outside.

Some of Sioux City’s best restaurants and coffee shops are within walking distance. “Jitters is just next door,” she said. The six-story building is close to boutiques, parks, recreational trails along the river, entertainment venues and museums.

“My dad comes down and wants to grab a hamburger. We go to Soho. Everything is within walking distance. We like to go to the movies, too,” she said. “My life has really gotten better in the past five years. Even though there was cancer in there, it still has improved tremendously. I’ve got great kids. They make me travel, and I’ve got great friends. There’s a lot of blessings since I moved here.”

1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION “I was renting a tiny, little duplex on Jackson. This is quite a step up from where I was living,” she said. “My life was totally different. Now, I’m in all this hustle and bustle. Friends stop by and grab me to go to a movie or let’s go get a pizza or whatever. And that didn’t happen when I was living in the duplex. The location is so great.”

2. ENTICING ENTERTAINMENT Moving into an energized environment buzzing with enticing entertainment pulled Gregg out of rut. Before, she’d go home from work and that was it. “I really didn’t go anywhere,” she said.

“Here, you can’t get away from the activities. I can usually find something to do every single night.”

3. FRIENDLY GATHERINGS Gregg’s friends, fellow baby boomers adjusting to life after children, start their night out at her condo. It’s the perfect meeting place. From there, they can go to different festivals, Fridays on the Promenade, restaurants and bars or the Orpheum Theatre. The free trolley takes them down to Pearl Street. They hop off at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, saying goodbye to the driver, “Cowboy Bob,” who plays country music on the downtown shuttle. “We make a fun night of it,” she said.

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4 4. SKYLINE VIEWS From the fifth floor, Gregg can catch a glimpse of Historic Fourth Street down below and a full view of the Sioux City Convention Center. A short elevator ride takes her down to the ground floor and she’s out the door. “One thing that really surprises me – on a nice, beautiful evening, there’s tons of people down here, walking around. I love that atmosphere.

Everybody’s headed somewhere. It’s really cool,” she said. “There’s a lot of entertainment down here that I didn’t realize was happening.”

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5. ‘RELATIVE’ DESIGN “I like to tell people that my style of decorating is relative, meaning I display a lot of family photos and my children’s art even though my children’s art is like 30 years old,” she said. Gregg also has family heirlooms like an oil painting, needlepoint art and her dad’s teddy bear. “Everything has meaning to me in here. It’s a small enough space that I can say that.”

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SIOUXLAND LIFE

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7 6. INDUSTRIAL SENSE The downtown loft practically decorates itself with beautiful old brick walls and wooden beams running across the ceiling. “I love how it’s been reused,” Gregg said about the building. Taken together, the mix of finishes and furnishings create a distinct look, she fondly refers to as “urban hodgepodge.”

7. ROOM FOR GUESTS It was time for a change after her two children went off to college. “I was looking for something more social,” she said. “I had been raising kids my whole life. It felt really good to be doing something fun for me. Now that my kids are old enough, they enjoy it too when they come back. It was just such a perfect fit in my life, really, surprisingly, perfect.”

When her son visits from Dallas or her daughter from New York, they have a place to stay.

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8. PERSONAL TOUCH The guest room doubles as a home office. Above the desk, trinkets decorate a slotted shelf. There’s a jar of dirt from the family farm in Hawarden, Iowa; her 33-year-old daughter’s baby shoes; and knick knacks from Portugal, where her daughter lived for a couple years.

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9. OUTDOOR ESCAPE Climbing a couple flights of stairs, residents of the United Center have “There’s access to a rooftop terrace with seata lot of ing and expansive views of the city. blessings From there, Gregg can hear the since I soothing sounds of live bands and moved other festivities on here.”

Fourth Street lifting on the breeze.

10. INDOOR CONVENIENCE There is no lawn to mow or snow to shovel, and a secure underground parking garage adds to the ease of loft living. Other amenities in the building include a fitness center on the fourth floor and Illuminate Salon on the third, where Gregg can go and get a massage.

Maybe now you can see why she loves it here.

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SIOUXLAND LIFE

RIVER LIFE Riverside’s

past

Clockwise from top left: In its heyday, Riverside Park was a destination for thousands of Sioux Cityans and their friends from out of town. Sunday afternoon wasn’t complete without a boat ride on the river; Riverview Park, a 35-acre amusement center that opened in 1927, had a roller coaster, fun house, merry-go-round, ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, ghost ride, chairplane, whips, electric cars, Leaping Lena, kiddie rides and a miniature train; When World War II ended and television burst on scene, business faded at Riverview Park and it finally folded in 1953, after running for 26 years; Attractions included baseball games, concert bands, roller skating and picnic lunches by the river; The Interstate Fair boasted to have some of the greatest agricultural exhibitions in the Midwest, drawing in thousands each fall from 1903 to 1926. Photos courtesy of the Sioux City Public Museum

REMEMBER WHEN

RIVERSIDE

t

HAD MIDGET RACES AND AMUSEMENT RIDES?

THERE WAS A TIME when Riverside looked like a Norman Rockwell painting.

It was a reflection of true Americana, a microcosm of mom-and-pop shops with smiling children and soda fountains, barbershops, baseball and row boats.

The neighborhood’s history is wrapped in the romanticism of pioneering fur traders, amusement parks and picnics weighed against the realities of flooding and economic booms and busts.

Nestled in a bend of the Big Sioux River at the northern base of the Loess Hills, only four roads lead into the most

Text by Ally Karsyn

western part of Sioux City – W. 19th Street, Military Road, War Eagle Drive and Exit 151 from Interstate 29.

Although frequented by nomadic tribes of Sioux Indians, this area remained uncharted until 1804 when the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled up the Missouri River to explore the Louisiana Purchase, according to archives at the Sioux City Public Museum.

Theophile Bruguier, who is considered the first white settler of Sioux City, established a farm and trading post near the mouth of the Big Sioux, what’s now

After the Interstate Fair ended in 1926, a new form of entertainment came to the neighborhood: midget auto racing.

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There was plenty of wholesome family fun in Riverside, including a swimming pool, built in the 1920s. It was demolished 68 years later to make way for the new aquatic center.

known as Riverside. One log cabin has been preserved in the park.

As more families moved here, neighborhood promoters focused on bringing in businesses and welcomed Sioux City Vinegar & Pickling Works, the Sioux City Stoneware Company and the Liberty Cartridge Company. Shops sprang up along Military Road and Riverside Boulevard including a bakery, filling station, shoemaker, dairy, restaurant, hotel, drugstore and florist.

Perhaps the most profitable and enduring venture in Riverside was manufacturing brick. Three companies formed by 1902 and later consolidated into one operation.

Despite development, the neighborhood remained isolated from the rest of Sioux City for some time. Roads were unpaved – dry and dusty in the summer, turning muddy and treacherous in the fall and spring.

Eventually, the city extended streetcar lines from downtown to Riverside Park.

The area grew as a mecca of recreation. It had the first publicly owned golf course in the city, which operated until 1908 when the Sioux City Country Club moved to 40th and Jackson. And the Interstate Fair boasted to have some of the greatest agricultural exhibitions in the Midwest, drawing in thousands each fall from 1903 to 1926.

The abandoned fair grounds were quickly transformed into Riverview Park with a nearby track for midget auto racing.

At the height of its prosperity during 10

JULY 2015

Elle Delaney, 6, of Dakota Dunes swims with 10-week-old golden retriever Cedric during the Pooch Paddle for small dogs at Riverside Park Family Aquatic Center in Sioux City last summer.

World War II, the 35-acre amusement center had a roller coaster, fun house, merry-go-round, ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, ghost ride, chairplane, whips, electric cars, Leaping Lena, kiddie rides and a miniature train.

When the war ended and television burst on scene, business faded and finally folded in 1953.

There was plenty of wholesome family fun, including a swimming pool, built in the 1920s. It was demolished 68 years later to make way for the new aquatic center, which was the first of its

SIOUXLAND LIFE

kind in Sioux City to have slides and a wading pool. It was built in 1994, completed along with the $3.4 million sports complex featuring soccer fields, ball diamonds and tennis courts south of the park, which in recent years, has been the site of festivities like Riverssance, ArtSplash and Asian Fest.

In its heyday, Riverside Park was a destination for thousands of Sioux Cityans and their friends from out of town.

Sunday afternoon wasn’t complete without a boat ride on the river.

A handful of flourishing boat clubs provided canoes for members and rowboats were in high demand at the public docks. The Sioux City Community Theater’s venue on Riverside Boulevard originally served as the Commercial Men’s Boat Club and later as the Shore Acres Ballroom.

Voyagers who had no desire to paddle a canoe or row a boat traveled the river in one of the gasoline launches. A trip across the way was especially popular when Iowa law forbade selling beer on Sunday. Once suds-seekers got on South Dakota soil, they were greeted with a beer garden, which was running wide open.

Other attractions included baseball games, concert bands, roller skating and picnic lunches on the banks of the river.

However, life along the Big Sioux could quickly take a turn from picturesque to problematic.

Record-level flooding in 1969 put North Sioux City under water and would have done the same in Riverside if it were not for a valiant sandbagging operation undertaken by a vast majority of young people.

The rambunctious river presented a spring terror almost annually to residents living nearby.

In an effort to tame the “Angry Sioux,” an $8.3 million flood-proofing project, completed in 1980, widened the river and attempted to contain it with a straitjacket of levees, riprap and grass-sloped banks.

It took until 1968 to authorize the project even though the river had flooded its lower reaches 79 times between 1870 and 1974, causing millions of dollars in damage.

Last year, the river was expected to crest inches above the 108.3-foot record set in 1969. It peaked at 105.6 and began dropping.

Maybe the good ol’ days are gone.

Then again, looking back at records of mucky streets and jalopies that rattled out to Riverside, maybe they never truly existed. But even today, in the lazy hazy days of summer, there are still boats and ball games and moments to hold dear.

People gather at dusk to watch as Big Sioux River water levels rise at Riverside Park.

Make visiting Yankton, SD your next family tradition!

Events happening in Yankton

Riverboat Days & Summer Arts Festival August 21-23

Fall in the Park

at Lewis & Clark Recreation area

September 19

Harvest Halloween in downtown Yankton

October 30-31

For a complete list of events, go to visityanktonsd.com

Yankton Convention & Visitor’s Bureau 803 E 4th Street, Yankton, SD 57078 605-665-3636 or visityanktonsd.com

SIOUXLAND LIFE

JULY 2015

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RIVER LIFE the

days of Lewis and Clark

Randy Rumelhart, a reenactor with the Sergeant Floyd Honor Guard, portrays Capt.

William Clark at the Lewis and Clark Festival.

ONAWA, SIOUX CITY BRING BACK THE DAYS OF

LEWIS AND CLARK

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Text and Photographs by Ally Karsyn

HISTORICAL REENACTORS PITCH TENTS along the shores of Blue Lake, an oxbow of the Missouri River. They feast on Canada goose and wild turkey, cooked over the fire with onions, green peppers and celery sautéed in bacon drippings.

A model keelboat gently bobs by the dock, paying tribute to the explorers of the new frontier.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sailed, towed and poled their 55-foot barge upstream to arrive on these grounds near Onawa, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 1804. One weekend each year, the state park named in their honor teems with activities of the early 1800s.

Since 1985, the Lewis and Clark Festival has been a buckskinner’s rendezvous with muzzle loaders, archery competitions, tomahawk throws, trap-setting

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Ronald Hansen has been taking hides of buffalo, deer, bear and rabbits to the Lewis and Clark Festival in Onawa, Iowa, for five years.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

and fire-starting seminars, bow making and hide tanning. Also there are buffalo burgers, pancakes and pies.

Old-time merchants come selling their wares.

Ronald Hansen, a true-to-life mountain man, brings pelts of deer, buffalo, bear and rabbits. Over the course of the three-day festival, he sleeps with his furs in the back of the tent. Hansen marvels at how the explorers and early settlers survived severe weather, food shortages and other common dangers.

“I got in this about five years ago. I learned more about history since I got to 70,” he said. “All we try to do is learn a bit more. You can never know everything.”

Hansen, a retired construction worker, started a hobby business Sleeping Buffalo with his companion Lee Bowland.

Marjorie Hoppe, 94, of Correctionville, Iowa, spins yarn on a wheel at the Lewis and Clark Festival. It takes six hours to make a skein. Hoppe has been a part of the festival from the beginning. There used to be up to five spinners doing demonstrations.

“We’re always looking for people interested in the history here. We furnish everything – the clothing and the guns. It’s too expensive for young people to get into and try unless you give them a bit of encouragement.”

A replica of Lewis and Clark’s keelboat floats in Blue Lake, an oxbow of the Missouri River, in Onawa, Iowa. Local historian Butch Bouvier built this barge and other model boats for an indoor display in the visitors’ center of Lewis and Clark State Park.

RANDY RUMELHART Co-leader of the expedition corps with the Sergeant Floyd Honor Guard She joins him in the park, dressed in period garb.

The first time at the festival, they brought a few furs. Hansen began setting up his display with plastic – a big no-no for buckskinning. The pre-1840 historical reenactment calls for a canvas tent. It turned out to be an easy fix. He traded a buffalo hide for a tent.

After leaving the workforce, Hansen thought he’d spend the rest of his days hunting and riding horses up in the Rocky Mountains. Then, he discovered how to tan a hide.

“I’ve been lucky that the man upstairs gave me something,” he said with a toothless grin. “It comes naturally.”

Now, who’s that approaching? Why, it’s none other than Captain Clark.

Randy Rumelhart portrays the coleader of the expedition corps with the Sergeant Floyd Honor Guard. He has been a reenactor for 26 years.

He appears at several encampments throughout the summer. The biggest one he goes to is the Sergeant Floyd Memorial Encampment in Sioux City. It’s always held before Aug. 20, which was

Ronald Hansen and Lee Bowland, who run a hobby business called Sleeping Buffalo, bring an assortment of pelts to the Lewis and Clark Festival. Visitors could sit on the smaller buffalo hide, right, and take pictures.

the day Sgt. Charles Floyd died in 1804.

He was the only man to die during the expedition that covered 7,689 miles and spanned 863 days, exploring uncharted territory.

This year, the encampment will be held Aug. 15 and 16 at the Sergeant Floyd River Museum and Welcome Center, 1000 Larsen Park Road. Visitors can reach out and touch replicas of guns, backpacks and clothes.

The living history camp at Onawa’s

Lewis and Clark Festival is the honor guard’s first big outing of the year and lends a way to get new recruits.

If they can reach boys and girls at the right age, they might stand half a chance to spark an interest in history over sports. Members teach the youngsters about making musket balls and demonstrate what the explorers carried in their backpacks.

“We’re always looking for people interested in the history here,” Rumelhart

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

The best magazine in Siouxland is the best magazine in the nation!

Maysie Derochie, of Salix, Iowa, looks at necklaces during the Lewis and Clark Festival.

said. “We furnish everything – the clothing and the guns. It’s too expensive for young people to get into and try unless you give them a bit of encouragement.”

The grownups who are newcomers to the group learn how to put on a uniform and march. They’re strategically placed in the center of the troop – so they’re not noticed – until they catch on to the military movements.

“Most of them, if they’re interested enough, get to portray a person on the expedition and actually start researching on their own besides the information that we can provide them to where they can play first character to that particular person.”

He has been playing Clark with the local honor guard for about 15 years. He’s also involved with other Lewis and Clark organizations along the river from Kansas City to Yankton, S.D., and beyond.

While the buckskinners and reenactors only appear once a year at Lewis and Clark State Park, the visitors’ center provides an extended look into history. Local historian Butch Bouvier built replicas of pirogues and the keelboat for an indoor display. Other exhibitions feature prairie animals, knots, tools, uniforms, the captain’s cabin and the making of a bullboat.

Make like Lewis and Clark and explore.

The National Newspaper Association selected Siouxland Life as the best lifestyle publication in the nation for 2014!

Each monthly issue focuses on the news and personalities of the moment. Bruce Miller, the award-winning editor finds the stories you want to read.

We print over 30,000 copies that are delivered directly to homes in the area and placed on racks in local businesses around Siouxland.

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JULY 2015

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RIVER LIFE dining

on the river

WATERFRONT

DINING

EATING ALONG THE MIGHTY MISSOURI RIVER

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Text by Earl Horlyk | Photographs by Jim Lee

YOU DON’T HAVE TO be a pirate to hoist some grog at Jolly Roger’s nor do you have to be wearing much more than a swimsuit.

“Oh yeah, we’re pretty casual around here,” manager Nick Long explained. “We try to have an energetic, fun and relaxed atmosphere.”

From its male and female mannequins holding court at the guardhouse to a bar menu that has fruity drinks served in fish bowls, Jolly Roger’s is a rollicking place for sea-worthy patrons as well as those who prefer being dry-docked.

“We have quite a few boaters as regulars,” Long said. “But we have plenty of people who just enjoyed being by the Missouri River and not in it.”

Located a few hundred yards from Bev’s on the River, Jolly Roger’s (1100

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Larsen Park Road) is one of the dockside eateries that dot the Mighty Mo. More than 40 miles south is Pop-NDocs, a popular eatery located at the marina in Decatur, Neb. “The appeal of Pop-N-Docs is it’s a great place to people-watch from our docks,” co-owner Mark Kwikkel said, inside the restaurant located 123 N. First St. “There’s always a lot of things going on in the river and our deck is a fun way to view it.”

Also, part of the fun is Pop-N-Docs’ resident doorman or “door dog.”

“As soon as Coco see customers get out of their cars, he’ll show them the rest of the way,” Kwikkel said, referring to his Terrier/Labrador mix. “Coco especially loves kids.”

In addition, Kwikkel’s customers love

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Located a few hundred yards from Bev’s on the River, Jolly Roger’s has a much more casual vibe than its more upscale neighbor, according to Jesse Miller, who’s family owns both establishments. Top: Served with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and cheese, the Anchor Burger is one of Jolly Roger’s most popular menu items, said manager Nick Long.

Left: Condiments at Pop-N-Docs in Decatur, Neb. Far left: Chris Simmons, left, and Jimmy Reising, both of Sioux City, compete in the bean bag league at Jolly Roger’s. In addition to hosting bean bag leagues, Jolly Roger’s is also the sight of musical events and wedding parties.

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Paper towels and a map at populate Pop-N-Docs.

Pop-N-Docs’ menu of bar food favorites.

“We don’t serve fancy food,” Kwikkel said. “We serve casual food that is made using fresh ingredients.”

Among the most popular dinners is Pop-N-Docs’ Alaskan walleye (handtrimmed filets breaded and fried to a crispy golden brown) that is served with a signature tartar sauce, homemade cole slaw and crispy French fries.

“We have older customers who come out especially for our walleye,” Kwikkel said. “There’s something special about eating seafood outdoors in the summertime.”

This is also a selling point for Jolly Roger’s, according to Jesse Miller.

“People love to be by the river when the weather is so gorgeous,” he said. “Even when the weather isn’t great, it’s still fun to be here.”

In addition to Jolly Roger’s, Miller’s family also owns Bev’s on the River and the Hilton Garden Inn. “While Bev’s has a more upscale decor, Jolly Roger’s is just a high-energy and festive place to be,” he said.

That is reflected in Jolly Roger’s food menu, which includes such staples as the Anchor Burger (all-beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and cheese) and Philly sandwiches (served with green peppers, onions, cheese and a choice of chicken or steak).

“Personally, I love our Chicken Philly sandwiches,” manager Long noted. “They’re incredible.”

Equally incredible are many of the signature drinks, which includes the Jolly Roger’s, made with coconut rum, peach Schnapps, lemon liqueur, along with cranberry and orange juice.

“That’s our signature drink,” Long said. “You can’t come to Jolly Roger’s without sampling the drink named after the place.”

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Outdoor seating in a picturesque location is a great perk for diners at Pop-N-Docs, overlooking the Missouri River.

Alex Jank mans the grill at Pop-N-Docs.

DETAILS Jolly Roger’s 1100 Larsen Park Road, Sioux City Open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday - Friday; 11 to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sundays Phone: 712-224-2626 Pop-N-Docs 123 N. First Ave., Decatur, Neb. Open 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday; 5 to 10 p.m.

Thursday; 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 11 to 1 a.m. Saturday and Sunday Phone: 402-349-5357 Likewise, you can’t go to Pop-NDocs without trying its famous “Painkiller.”

“It contains lemonade, vodka and a few secret ingredients,” Kwikkel said, mysteriously. “There’s a bit of a mystique around it.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

A Chicken Philly sandwich, accompanied by fried pickles, is an example of the creative bar food served at Jolly Roger’s. The waterfront restaurant also has a full menu of bar drinks.

However, there is very little mystery surrounding the enduring appeal of riverfront restaurants.

“We’re just a fun place,” Kwikkel said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s relaxing to have a drink or eat a good meal by the river. It’s very relaxing.”

“Relaxing,” though, isn’t the adjective that Long uses for Jolly Roger’s.

With live music or DJs booked every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night, he said customers can expect excitement all week long.

“We just want to be a place where people can kick back and enjoy themselves,” Long said. “There is no better place to be than by the Missouri River in the summertime.”

Siouxland Life

July 2015

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COLLECTION saved

memories

Archive clerk Tom Munson holds a ski that had been used in a past River-Cade ski competition. The piece is part of the museum’s collection of River-Cade festival history.

A 1993 River-Cade button is part of the museum’s collection of River-Cade festival history.

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SIOUXLAND LIFE

MUSEUM’S

RIVER-CADE COLLECTION

s

SHOWS HOW FESTIVAL HAS EVOLVED OVER 50 YEARS Text by Dolly A. Butz | Photographs by Tim Hynds

SIOUX CITY | THE first River-Cade was held on the Missouri River front in 1964 as a celebration of Sioux City’s river heritage.

Sioux City Public Museum archivist Tom Munson said the city had recently been named the northern most port on the Missouri River for barge traffic.

Members of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce – Waterways Committee, founded the summer festival to celebrate this designation and to showcase the area’s potential for continued economic development and its current outstanding quality of life.

“In the 1960s River-Cade was a huge celebration,” Munson said as he stood at a long wooden table in the museum’s research center that was covered with memorabilia from River-Cades past, including commemorative buttons, patches and pins. “In fact, in one of the early years there was artwork commissioned by the Northern Natural Gas Company and there were ads in Time magazine for what we were doing in Sioux City.”

That first celebration held Oct. 16-18 took on a nautical theme to represent Sioux City becoming a “waterway of the world.” It was based on Minneapolis’ Aquatennial celebration.

Attended by the likes of Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey and Lawrence Welk, River-Cade lost some of its luster when barge traffic never match that experienced in other port cities.

“The river gets harder to navigate. We could only get four or five barges up here at a time,” Munson said. “Where as when you see places on the Mississippi

or the Ohio, sometimes you have a single tugboat pushing 16 barges.”

Locally, L.G. Everist and Big Soo Terminal used the river for transporting heavy freight, but Munson said the railroad was a much more cost-effective way of moving it. He said relocating events away from the riverfront also contributed to a decline in participation.

“The carnival we had and all of the boat races used to be right on the river where the Anderson Dance Pavilion is,” he said. “Now it’s in the Tyson Events Center parking lot. It’s close to the river but you still have the isolation caused by Interstate 29.”

COMMODORE’S UNIFORM & WHEEL The late Tom Gerkin, former president of Gerkin Windows & Doors, served as River-Cade commodore in 1975. His wife, Laura Gerkin, donated the nautical uniform he wore in the festival’s early years. The navy blue blazer is decorated with shiny gold buttons, white and gold shoulder patches and gold cords. The jacket’s left breast is embroidered with a gold boat wheel and the River-Cade name. A white, black and gold captain’s hat completes the uniform. Munson said the commodore was in charge of the festival’s volunteers. The museum also has a wooden boat wheel presented to Gerkin to commemorate the 1975 RiverCade celebration BUTTONS The River-Cade boat wheel is featured on the inaugural 1964 and 1965 buttons. The background in the 64’ button is white and the wheel is blue. The two colors were flipped for the 1965 button

Above: Archive clerk Tom Munson looks under a River-Cade Room sign Tuesday at the Sioux City Public Museum’s research center.Top: A River-Cade button from 1965.

which is a bit smaller in circumference.

The 1992 button is yellow and features the slogan, “Get hooked on River-Cade.”

Sponsors including IAMS, Gateway, Pepsi-Cola and Centel Cellular are prominent on some of the buttons.

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JULY 2015

21

“The buttons you use today to get into things like the concerts,” Munson explained. “I think we have one from just about every celebration.”

BELT BUCKLES, PINS, KEY CHAINS Brass belt buckles bearing the RiverCade logo were produced in 1983 and 1984. Munson doesn’t know if belt buckles were available at prior or latter festivals. Both buckles are individually numbered on the back. The museum’s collection also features a square purple and blue lapel pin painted with the words, “DISCOVER RIVERCADE” from 2003 and a gold key chain from 2010.

WOODEN SKI River-Cade used to feature power boat races, water skiing, a turtle derby and a raft regatta. Hundreds of people gathered along the Missouri River banks to watch these events.

The museum has acquired a single wooden O’Brien Mach 1 water ski used during River-Cade competitions. Munson said it would be dangerous to ski with it while being tugged behind a boat on the river today. A used yellow lead pencil stored in a box with buttons and balloons, pays homage to The Big Sioux Rubber Duck Race that Munson said was done away with more than a decade ago.

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Siouxland Life

RIVER LIFE River-Cade

still rolls

Bev Hinds holds a binder with historical documents of the River-Cade festival.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT NEEDED TO MAKE RIVER-CADE’S FUTURE AS RICH AS ITS HISTORY

i

Text by Michelle Kuester, Photograph by Tim Hynds

IT WAS APRIL 19, 1964, when Sioux City was finally declared the Port of Sioux City after barge traffic arrived on the Missouri River. New opportunities and economic growth were on the horizon.

Members of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce’s Waterways Committee felt this was something to celebrate, thus, River-Cade started that fall. Those members were Tom Geelan, Harold Jacobsen, Anthony Kelly and Strode Hinds.

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Today, Hinds’ wife Bev is still involved with River-Cade, having volunteered and served in various leadership roles over the years. And even though Sioux City is no longer an inland port, the celebration still symbolically takes place every summer.

“Originally, they hoped it would last five years,” she said. “We keep going because it’s always been a fun thing. We’ve always had events and all kinds of things you want to bring your kids in to see.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Those events include a parade, carnival and royalty contest, just to name a few.

It turned out to be such a huge festival because it was the first of its kind in Siouxland.

“When River-Cade started, there weren’t a lot of summer activities in the area,” Hinds said. “It brought together all the small towns in the area for this big festival.”

Now, she added, most small towns

Best dressed winners from the Huck Finn Fishing Contest pose during a past River-Cade festival.

Sioux City Journal file photo

A billiards tournament during the 1971 River-Cade in Sioux City shown.

Sioux City Journal file photo

have their own summer festivals so the attendance has waned in recent years.

Top-notch musical entertainment has also been a staple over the years contributing to the success of River-Cade, featuring artists like Alan Jackson, Marie Osmond, Alice Cooper and the Oak Ridge Boys.

“There’s always been something for everyone,” Hinds said.

Adapting to change has been an unfortunate side effect of holding River-Cade near the riverfront, an area known for flooding and construction.

“We’ve had to adapt over the years because we kind of get kicked around,” Hinds noted.

Spirits among organizers have remained high, however, and a strong effort has continued throughout the years to make the event the best it can be.

“We just keep going with things that people want to see,” Hinds said.

Hinds hopes to see greater community support in the future.

“In the past, businesses would actually loan their employees to help work on River-Cade,” she said. “Now, we are getting fewer sponsors than other outdoor events.”

In order for River-Cade to continue at a high caliber, Hinds said the ball is in the court of younger Siouxlanders.

“We need to get younger people back into volunteering with it,” she said.

Regardless, she added, she always expects River-Cade to have some presence in the community.

“Everything changes,” she said, “but we still want people to have fun.”

Skydivers are shown over the river during a past River-Cade festival. Sioux City Journal file photo

DETAILS River-Cade will take place July 11-19 at various locations.

Highlights July 11 2 p.m. Smile Contest, Southern Hills Mall Center Court July 15 7 p.m. River-Cade Pepsi Kazoo Fantasia Parade, downtown Sioux City July 16-19 Merriams Carnival, South Sioux City, Neb., riverfront July 18 River-Cade Royalty Coronation

Sioux Cityan Kathy Thiltgen Moser was the first Queen of the River-Cade in 1964.

Submitted photo

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25

PROFILE Q&A

Abby Oliver, River-Cade’s Queen of the River for 2013 and 2014, is the 48th winner of the coveted crown. She answered 20 questions about what the road to the crown is like and how it feels to be queen.

1. How come you were chosen as queen two years in a row?

River-Cade isn’t as profitable as it used to be. They didn’t want to have the contest if they couldn’t guarantee a scholarship.

2. How much is the scholarship worth?

The queen receives a $4,000 scholarship while each of the two princesses receives $2,000.

3. What is the biggest misconception about the River-Cade royalty contest?

A lot of people think this is a beauty pageant, but it’s not. It’s about poise and education.

4. What are you doing now?

Right now I’m studying to get a paralegal certification along with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies through Bellevue University. I’m also getting married in August. As soon as I give up my crown, I have to give up my last name.

20 QUESTIONS with a River-Cade queen

Abby Oliver Photographs by Jim Lee | Text by Michelle Kuester

5. What is the best part of being queen?

The crown is obviously a great thing, I love that. The scholarship was really the best thing though. The $4,000 really helped me at Iowa State. That took care of a whole semester for me.

6. What made you change from Iowa State University to Bellevue University?

Well, since I’m engaged, I adjusted my plans for him. This is still working out great though.

7. Do you get to keep the crown?

Newly crowned Queen Abby Oliver smiles for the audience during the River-Cade Queen of the River coronation at the Sioux City Convention Center Saturday.

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Yes, that is one thing I get to keep. It’s like a keepsake.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

8. Do you have any history with the royalty contest?

Well, my mom was a princess when she was 18 and now my parents are Senior Vice Commodores for River-Cade and they run the royalty contest. That means they would chaperone the candidates and take them around to various places.

9. What did your mom think about you becoming queen since she was a princess?

She was really, really excited. I’m sure both of my parents were very proud of me.

10. How did growing up around the River-Cade royalty impact how you felt about winning the crown?

That’s why it’s such an honor for me to be queen for two years because I grew up with those women as my role models every summer.

11. What does the queen do after she is chosen?

The royalty represents the contest at different events like Riverssance, different parades, the Tulip Festival.

12. Are the other contenders for the crown nice or is there animosity between the queen hopefuls?

It’s very fun. Everyone is very nice.

13. Did you win on your first try or did it take a few years?

I tried out my first year and didn’t win and that was really difficult. But then I won it my second time and held it for two years so it will be very emotional come July.

14. Who were the princesses in your court?

Jaci Dehner and Calla Bathurst.

15. What are your thoughts on this year’s royalty coronation?

I don’t want to jinx it, but my sister is trying out this year. It would be amazing to pass the crown on to her.

Newly crowned Queen Abby Oliver (front, center) is flanked by Princesses Jaclyn Dehner, left, and Calla Bathurst.

Standing, from left are outgoing royalty, Princess Spencer Peterson, Queen Grace McElroy and Princess Allison Kjar.

“Right now I’m studying to get a paralegal certification along with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies through Bellevue University. ” 16. Where did you go to high school?

Abby Oliver makes an appearance at Riverssance.

I graduated from Sergeant Bluff High in 2011.

17. How will it feel to no longer be queen after two years holding the title?

It’s been so fun and a great experience for me. I’ve loved being able to promote the festival at different events.

19. How has being queen helped you personally?

It will be bittersweet passing it on. I wanted it my whole life and it’ll be hard to let it go.

I think it helped me with confidence.

20. How so?

18. What has been one of your favorite duties as queen?

I don’t really like being center of attention but if you’re at an event with a crown on your head it’s hard not to be.

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27

RIVER LIFE fishing,

fishing, fishing

Tim Hornbeck, left, and Jared Nobbe, life-long friends and walleye tournament fishermen, are shown in their boat in South Sioux City, Neb. The two usually fish the Missouri River in South Dakota.

HOOKED ON

FISHING: LIFELONG FRIENDS CASTING A LINE IN COMPETITIVE WALLEYE TOURNAMENT

f

Text by Earl Horlyk | Photographs by Tim Hynds

FRIENDS SINCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Tim Hornbeck and Jared Nobbe used to be competitive as teammates on the South Sioux City High School basketball and football teams.

Now both 33, they are just as competitive as championship fishermen on the South Dakota Walleye tournament trail.

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“It was always a pipe dream of ours to enter the tournament,” said Hornbeck, a central sales manager for Sabre Towers & Poles. “And, last year, we finally got the opportunity to do it.”

“Tim and I finished third in 2014’s standings and garnered 248 points after finishing three tournaments and the

SIOUXLAND LIFE

championship,” said Nobbe, a probation officer in Sioux City. “That was pretty good for our rookie year, since we were going up against fishermen who had been on the tournament for a long time.”

This isn’t to say that the duo hadn’t been practicing for the tournament their entire lives.

“Like lot of people, I grew up fishing,” Hornbeck said, recalling summers spent fishing with his grandfather in Spirit Lake, Iowa. “It was just the thing we always did in the summertime.”

Nobbe remembered such occasions as being relaxing. Tournament fishing, on the other hand, is actually anything but a casual day on the river.

“Nope, it’s intense fishing competitively,” he said. “You’re spending up to eight hours on a boat and you’re being judged on the quality of your catch, not the quantity.”

Which means anglers do plenty of research prior to the tournament.

“We go fishing in the body of water before the tournament in order to see which spots will be more advantageous,” Hornbeck explained. “That gives us a competitive edge.”

The two men will probably need it, since many of their fellow anglers make their living by fishing.

“Many of the tournament fishermen (also) work as travel guides and are around water continuously,” Hornbeck said. “Jared and I can’t do that, even though we’d like to.”

Nobbe said he’s simply happy to learn a few tricks of the trade from his fellow fishermen.

“Tim and I are the newcomers,” he said. “We’re taking this opportunity to learn from some of the best fishermen in the country.”

Hornbeck nodded his head in agreement but added he still likes winning.

Tournament fishing is just as competitive as any other sport,” he said. “Jared and I may not be on football or basketball teams anymore but fishing allows us to be in competition again.”

Plus fishing is a sport that has no age limitation.

“I can see us fishing until we’re old guys,” Nobbe said with a smile.

“Yeah, if we’re still breathing,” Harbeck said, “we’ll probably still be fishing.”

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RIVER LIFE coming

back

ISLAND PARK

r

Text and Photographs by Tim Gallagher

ROCK RAPIDS, IOWA | The Rock River crests beyond 24 feet on June 16, 2014.

Around 4 p.m. that afternoon, 8 inches of rain starts to fall. Flash flooding begins two hours later when Moon Creek, which pours into the Rock River on the north side of town, can no longer access the Rock, which is about to overflow its banks.

At just about that time, areas north of Rock Rapids, near Luverne, Minn., also receive 8 inches of rain. That water pours south, filling the Rock River along the way, prompting it to re-crest at 26.98 feet on June 17, far beyond its 19-foot major flood stage.

Island Park floods and closes. A neighborhood near the park evacuates. More than 80 homes sustain major damage.

Ultimately, 60 may be torn down.

Walking and driving through Island Park this June, one is struck by the saying, “What a difference a year makes.”

Island Park is green and growing again, teeming with campers and anglers hitting the rapids at the park’s spillway.

The Rock Rapids Swimming Pool is active

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JULY 2015

on a sun-drenched Friday afternoon. Inside one of the park’s facilities, organizers prepare for 300 runners participating in the 13th annual Heritage Days Run. “We moved last year’s run to the high school,” organizer Emilly Austin says.

“We’ve been here every year except for the flood last year. We’re glad to be back.”

City staffers and volunteers helped get Island Park, a visible and busy part of this city, up and going this spring. Heidi Freese, a camper from Sioux Falls, S.D., was delighted to pull in for a June weekend and witness members of a church youth group adding coats of paint to the playground equipment that rises on the Rock’s east bank.

“We’ve camped at Island Park the past five years, but we couldn’t last year because of the flood,” says Freese, who enjoys a game of Rummikub with her husband outside their camper. “We missed being by the water last year. We couldn’t canoe or float in the water. We missed the shade here, the pool here, everything.”

Freese, a native of Rock Rapids, called

SIOUXLAND LIFE

“Our plan is to make the park more flood resilient. We plan to redevelop the zoo in the exist- CHASE ing open shelter.

But, before we can do that, we have to build another shelter, one with new shower facilities and more for our campers.”

MAYOR JASON CHASE the record flood devastating.

So does Rock Rapids Mayor Jason Chase, who notes that in addition to 10 homes already razed in the flood plain, the city is in the process of buying out another 54 homes that stand in the flood plain. The plan is to return that area to

K

RE-EMERGES IN WAKE OF 2014 FLOOD green space, thereby mitigating damage and personal danger in the event of another flood.

It’s what you sometimes must do while living near a river.

Kaden Sprock knows all too well. He worked with eight others in building a wall of sandbags some 2-3 feet high between the river and his home last June.

Two to three sump pumps worked at his home around the clock that weekend.

“Our basement didn’t get water,” says Sprock, 13.

After helping build his family’s dike, Sprock joined buddy Bryce VandeWeerd, 14, in filling sandbags for others. They were among hundreds of Rock Valley’s youth doing the same.

“We loaded sandbags for eight hours,” VandeWeerd says. “We kept working as the river got higher.”

The Rock River’s surge deposited branches and a deer at the bottom of a bridge spanning the waterway some 20 feet above the shore at Island Park, a piece of land surrounded as the Rock River divides and sends Moon Creek to

the west on the north side of town.

“The deer floated to the bridge and got hung up under the bridge,” says Mason Bus, 12, an everyday summer angler on the Rock. “I think the deer drowned and they ended up taking it down with a ladder.”

Kade Griesse, a freshman at Central Lyon High School, remembers walking across Moon Creek in Island Park in the fall of 2013.

“You could walk across and not get your shorts wet,” he says. “We turned rocks over on the shore there and caught crawdads underneath the rocks.”

You can’t see the rocks now as the creek rushes past, breaking up the shrieks of joy from children on the giant water slide inside the municipal pool.

You also can’t see the old petting zoo at Island Park. That’s because officials took the old petting zoo out as the water level rose in 2014. Chase promises a return for the attraction.

“Our plan is to make the park more flood resilient,” says Chase, mayor here the past eight years. “We plan to

Top photos, left to right: Kaden Sprock and Bryce VandeWeerd fish at the Island Park spillway on the Rock River in Rock Rapids, Iowa, in June; Island Park provides easy access for campers who wish to swim at the Rock Rapids Municipal Pool in Rock Rapids, Iowa.

The pool is just north of the grain elevator; Heidi and Tom Freese returned to their normal camping spot in Island Park in Rock Rapids, Iowa, this June. The Sioux Falls couple camped west of town one year ago, forced that way when the Rock River flood closed Island Park.

redevelop the zoo in the existing open shelter. But, before we can do that, we have to build another shelter, one with new shower facilities and more for our campers.”

The city is attempting to tackle those Island Park improvements as it works with nearly 60 homeowners. It isn’t easy.

Unlike a flood, it doesn’t happen overnight.

Still, Heidi Freese likes what she sees.

“The park now is in way better shape than we ever thought it would be at this point,” she says. “It’s green, it’s healthy, it’s great.”

Better yet? It’s being used. By hundreds of people.

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JULY 2015

31

RIVER LIFE yacht

club

Spring Lake Yacht Club

c

enjoys rebirth and wide use along Little Sioux

PHOTO and TEXT BY Tim Gallagher

CHEROKEE, Iowa | The original Spring Lake Yacht Club at Cherokee withstood numerous Little Sioux River floods since it was built in the late 1930s.

It was actually a home in its original state, the residence for the parks director serving Cherokee and sprawling Spring Lake Park on on the shores of the Little Sioux River and Spring Lake on Cherokee’s south side.

When the park director moved into a home at some point, the city modified the building and began offering it to residents for their use.

In 2011, however, it could stand no more. When flood waters subsided four years ago, city officials determined the old structure would need to be replaced.

Sheree Hauseman and a group of volunteers formed that December and began fundraising efforts while planning the location and construction of a new Spring Lake Yacht Club at Koser Spring Lake Park. The facility, it was decided, would be relocated to a higher elevation within the park.

Private donations poured in over the next year, resulting in a $405,622 balance with more coming through in-kind donations for the patio and landscaping.

A groundbreaking was held in October 2012. The grand opening was held on July 4, 2013, a party complete with yard games in the park, a bike parade, local music and the cutting of a red ribbon.

The Spring Lake Yacht Club, which has a full kitchen (save for stove) has enjoyed a busy summer season already.

Connie Ladwig, of the Cherokee Parks and Rec Office, noted that the facility, which can accommodate 100 guests, has been rented for wedding receptions, class reunions, family reunions and company picnics.

Its use isn’t limited to warm-weather periods.

“It’s booked every weekend this summer, usually with separate rentals for Fridays and Saturdays with events like wedding rehearsals and smaller wedding receptions, family reunions and class reunions,” she says.

During May, several graduation

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July 2015

The Spring Lake Yacht Club was built in 2012-2013, funded primarily through more than $405,000 in local donations. The facility, which is booked solidly throughout the summer, can accommodate 100 guests with more on an overflow patio. The structure, which replaced an old flood-damaged site, is located less than one block from the Little Sioux River and Spring Lake on the south side of Cherokee. Provided

The box covering the device used to measure flood stage at the Little Sioux River in Cherokee, Iowa, says, “United States Weather Bureau Wire - Weight Gage Type A. May 1932.” The box is locked, and only a few keys exist to gain entry. The Little Sioux River, which cuts through Cherokee, seems to flood about every other year.

receptions put the Yacht Club to use as grads and their guests gathered inside and poured out onto the attached patio, which can hold 48 guests who can enjoy the nearby Little Sioux River and the small Spring Lake, both of which are less than one block from the structure.

The Yacht Club name, according to Ladwig, is a tongue-in-cheek poke at

Siouxland Life

the size of Spring Lake, which isn’t Lake Michigan or West Lake Okoboji.

“I think the name comes from locals having a little fun with the size of our lake,” Ladwig says.

The Spring Lake Yacht Club is heated and air-conditioned. It has a fireplace and is decorated with a tree at Christmas, allowing for four to five rentals per month during the off-season.

“People have Christmas parties there and celebrate Thanksgiving, too,” she says. “It’s a beautiful facility.”

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds toured the Spring Lake Yacht Club in April. During their visit, they recognized Cherokee’s efforts at the site and announced that Cherokee had become a Skilled Iowa Community through the Iowa Workforce Development.

Julie Hering Kent, executive director of the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce, says the announcement came with more good news, for that day Cherokee also received $920,000 in Community Development Block Grants, funds that would be used for a sewer project and a downtown facade effort spread across 20 businesses.

RIVER LIFE the

river’s life

Asian carp, pallid sturgeon, piping plover mark life on

‘The Big Muddy’

y

YANKTON, S.D. | As a boy, Sam Stukel would travel with his family 15 miles from their home in Gregory, S.D., to the Lake Francis Case Reservoir behind Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River.

“I remember sitting at the campfire on the shore in the evening, the sound of frogs and nighthawks swooping overhead,” he says. “I even remember occasionally catching a fish.”

Stukel passed daytime Stukel hours at that time skipping rocks, exploring shorelines and searching for fossils, a bit of a Huck Finn existence.

Talking about it still stirs Stukel, who has spent the past 10 years largely on the river, documenting life from his position as a fisheries biologist with the South Dakota Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks.

“Lewis and Clark (the explorers who traveled and mapped this river in the early 1800s) today would not recognize 90 percent of the Missouri River in Iowa and South Dakota,” Stukel says. “The Missouri used to be a long, spiral staircase to the Rockies with so many bends, twists and turns, a notorious river in the steamboat community.”

The river, for the most part, was channelized in the 20th century, making it navigable for barge traffic and modern boats, better to manage for flood control, and allowing for the expansion of farm acres.

Channelization didn’t reach a 59-mile stretch from Ponca, Neb., to Yankton, however, thanks to the 1978 Wild & Scenic Rivers Act passed by Congress. The Missouri River in that stretch holds on to its integrity.

“That stretch is hard to navigate with a boat,” Stukel says. “The area changes from week to week as the old Missouri would have. It’s like a living museum and definitely my favorite part of the river.”

On a recent day between Ponca and Yankton, Stukel spots 14 bald eagles in a

Text by Tim Gallagher

The North Alabama Bend, located on the Missouri River one mile southwest of Vermillion, S.D., is named for a steamboat that sank about five miles from this location. Photos provided

For information For information or to get your questions answered about life on the Missouri River, call the South Dakota Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks at (605) 668-5464.

The sun sets over Yankton, S.D., and the Missouri River beneath the bridge that’s part of Highway 81.

cottonwood forest.

“You find sandbar habitat and shallow water there,” Stukel says. “The endangered piping plover and the threatened lease tern, both of those nest on those sandbars. You can see them on a daily basis (between Ponca and Yankton).”

The old Missouri River enjoyed a flood plain several miles wide. The river would slowly migrate left and right within that plain, leaving behind oxbow lakes, wetlands, swift areas and low-water areas, backwaters of different stages and forests, like the cottonwoods. All those regions gave rise to diverse plant populations and wildlife.

Stukel remembers catching a rare pallid sturgeon one decade ago near Vermillion, not long into his career at Yankton.

He’d never seen a pallid sturgeon in person.

“It was 40 inches long, natural born and raised in the Missouri,” he says. “It

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July 2015

33

A cow’s skull is shown partially above the waters of the Missouri River near Yankton, S.D.

was a very exciting thing for me and our crew.”

The fisheries biologist delivered the fish to the Fish Hatchery at Yankton, where it was spawned and created future generations.

“I’ve seen 500 pallid sturgeons now,” Stukel adds. “The numbers have gone up since that stocking program.”

Sadly, the numbers have also gone up on Asian carp, an invasive species brought to the United States in the 1970s to help manage the aquaculture in water-treatment ponds.

“Like many other species, the risks were small and the rewards high,” he says.

The trouble? The plan didn’t take into account flooding and this species ability to move. Asian carp escaped in times of high water and eventually made their way up the Mississippi River and the

A bluff on the Bow Creek property near St. Helena, Neb., shows a bend in the Missouri River.

Missouri River.

The fish is known for its ability to jump, often harming anglers or funseekers on the river. The fish don’t mean to hurt people; rather, it is simply relying on a defense mechanism.

“The Asian carp’s jumping is a response to it being frightened by a boat,” Stukel says. “That’s how they’ve evolved to escape predators in their home environment.”

Stukel has been hit a dozen or so times in his time on the river. Thankfully, he’s not been hit by a jumping Asian carp when traveling at a high speed.

“I’ve heard of people suffering concussions or broken noses,” he says.

The status of the Asian carp on the Missouri River is the question Stukel gets most when he’s out presenting his findings about life on what once was a lazy waterway, dubbed “The Big Muddy.”

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

Siouxland Life

July 2015

35

RIVER LIFE fun

for all

RECREATION OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND ON THE MISSOURI RIVER, BUT BE CAUTIOUS

s

Text by Dolly A. Butz Photograph by Tim Hynds

SIOUX CITY | In the early days of RiverCade, the Missouri River served as the site of speed boating and water skiing competitions.

Milk jug boat and rubber duck races were also held on the water.

Those traditions have since gone by the wayside. Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Steve Griebel said that’s not because the river is any more dangerous than it used to be.

“Since the flood in 2011 there’s been a lot less boat traffic, but not because of the river,” he said. “The river’s still 100 percent navigable, you just have to be careful.”

Griebel said more boaters are opting to go to the Iowa Great Lakes where the atmosphere is a little more relaxing.

They don’t have to deal with the Missouri River’s currents, which he said are

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relatively strong compared to those of other bodies of water.

“It moves at a pretty good clip through here. Some people just like to sit still rather than floating downstream,” he said. “There’s people out there almost every day of the year. There are only a couple months where the river’s not used.”

Missouri River boaters, Griebel said, need to be cognizant of floating debris in the river, which has been channelized from Sioux City downstream. Sediment

“If you’re familiar with the area it can be safe. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you want to make sure you’ve determined how deep the water is so you don’t walk off the drop-off.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

STEVE GRIEBEL

Natural Resources conservation officer

won’t hurt a boat, but a tree limb will.

He warns boaters to be cautious of sand bars and a large rock pile erected as a fish habitat around Sloan.

“It’s sticking several feet out of the water, you can see it,” Griebel said of the habitat. “The big thing is just the natural debris coming down the river whether it’s trees that have fallen into the bank as part of their life cycle. Sometimes you see firewood and just some sort of garbage.”

On a hot summer day it’s not uncommon to see people wading in the river along a patch of sandy shore in South Sioux City. Griebel said they need to be “very careful.” He said there are places in the river that suddenly drop off from 2 feet to 10 feet.

“With the currents, sand is constantly moving with the water,” he said.

“If you’re familiar with the area it can be safe. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you want to make sure you’ve determined how deep the water is so you don’t walk

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Participants in the 2012 South Dakota Kayak Challenge wade into the Missouri River. The 72-mile race runs from Yankton, S.D., to Sioux City.

off the drop-off.”

Griebel recommends that boaters and swimmers wear life jackets whether boating on or wading in the water.

Although flooding in recent years has reduced the number of boaters on the Missouri River, Griebel said it has made the river a better place to drop a line. Various species of fish that reside in the river, he said, are thriving.

“They’re sizable,” he said of smallmouth bass, walleye and catfish. “We just opened up a paddlefish season that’s been closed for several decades this March. There’s a lot of fishing opportunity.”

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JULY 2015

37

ask a professional Q: I’m three months along in my pregnancy, and I’ve got low back pain, why is that?

A: About half of all expectant mothers will develop lower back pain some time during their pregnancy. With the average weight Dr. Joel gain of 25 to 30lbs, you will find your center of Pistello, DC gravity shifting and causing additional stress on your lower back. Muscles are tightening up and being stressed by the added weight, which can cause pain and discomfort.

Q: What can I do to help with the pain?

A: Do safe stretches to keep those muscles loose. Stretch to the pain, but no further. If your muscles are already stressed, incorporating the phrase “no pain, no gain” can lead to damage. If you can, do safe exercises like walking, swimming, or stationary cycling. Keeping those muscles and joints moving can help alleviate pain. Additionally, for the rest of your pregnancy, throw away those flip-flops and wear flat shoes with good arch support.

Your feet are already stressed carrying extra weight, when you wear shoes that don’t support you natural arch, it causes those muscles to work overtime, and actually can cause you to lose your balance easier! Finally, when you get off of those feet at the end of the day and crawl into bed, use a pregnancy pillow or full body pillow. Both will support your legs and keep your low back and pelvis from twisting during the night, making those muscles stay tight that need time to relax.

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

Siouxland Life

July 2015

39

RIVER LIFE oh

those mosquitoes This photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host.

BUZZ

ON THE RIVER: THE SECRET LIFE OF MOSQUITOES

t

Text by Earl Horlyk

TIM SESTERHENN REMEMBERED A photo his parents took when he was 3 years old.

It showed the future Morningside College assistant biology instructor smiling in one of his favorite settings: outdoors, nestled in the grass.

“I’ve always loved SESTERHENN parks and I’ve always been curious about the nature you’d find out-of-doors,” said Sesterhenn, who teaches invertebrate ecology and the principles of biology. “Guess that’s always been the case.”

Growing up in Ohio, he became fascinated by summertime insects and their ecological role.

Specifically, Sesterhenn became

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“(Mosquitoes) play a role in our ecosystem, so I’m not against them.”

TIM SESTERHENN Teacher of invertebrate ecology and the principles of biology intrigued by mosquitoes, a blood-sucking insect that has bedeviled travelers since the days of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery Expedition.

In journal entries from August 1804, Clark called the mosquitoes along the Missouri River “the Expedition’s greatest pest,” Sesterhenn noted.

“The Corps of Discovery members

SIOUXLAND LIFE

were attacked so ferociously that it was impossible for them to shoot their rifles with any accuracy because of all of the bugs in their faces,” he added.

And what could the Lewis and Clark Expedition do to protect themselves from such summertime critters? Use mosquito netting and a stinky repellant made of tallow and lard. “(Clark’s) battle with mosquitoes could be viewed as comical if malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses weren’t a real life-or-death problem,” Sesterhenn said.

Indeed, mosquitoes can act as vectors for such disease-causing viruses as yellow fever, dengue fever and the West Nile virus, among other things.

Still, the little bugs are helpful in the pollination of plant life and serves as

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MOSQUITOES? bodies; and by chemical signals.

• Mosquitoes are known from as far back as • Mosquitoes fly an estimated 1 - 1.5 miles the Triassic Period – about 400 million years per hour. ago. The first known North American date • Salt marsh mosquitoes can migrate up to back 100 million years ago.

40 miles for a meal.

• There are about 2,700 species of mosquito • Bigger people are often more attractive and about 176 species in the United States. to mosquitoes because they represent a • The average mosquito takes in about fivelarger target and produce more carbon millionth of a liter of blood during feeding. dioxide and lactic acid, known mosquito • Mosquitoes find hosts by sight; by detectattractants. ing infra-red radiation emitted by warm food for other animals.

That makes the mosquito important, right? Well, not according to Sesterhenn.

“If the world’s mosquito population was eradicated tomorrow, we’d still have other insects who would take their place,” he said. “We’d be OK with the absence of mosquitoes.”

Despite that, Sesterhenn said medicinal mosquitoes may someday be used to increase blood flow for cardiac patients.

“Believe it or not, some doctors still use leeches in rare cases,” he said, adding that leeches can inject an anti-coagulant known as hirudin into wounds. “Why not mosquitoes?”

Though they can be annoying, Sesterhenn doesn’t mind the buzz surrounding mosquitoes.

• Likewise, active or fidgety people produce more carbon dioxide and lactic acid.

• Dark clothing has been shown to attract some species of mosquitoes as opposed to lighter colored clothing.

• Movement increases mosquito biting up to 50 percent in some research tests.

• A full moon increased mosquito activity 500 percent, according to one study.

Source: American Mosquito Control Association

“(Mosquitoes) play a role in our ecosystem,” he reasoned, “so I’m not against them.”

Which is good news for Sesterhenn, who grew up reading Ranger Rick magazine and watching Marty Stouffer’s longrunning “Wild America” series on PBS. “There’s something about being outdoors in the summertime that really appeals to me,” Sesterhenn said, adding that he plans on studying damsel flies and dragonflies over the next few months. “And a large part of being outdoors is being exposed to insects, like mosquitoes.”

Landscaping Tips: choose The RighT TRee The trees you choose to landscape your home not only add beauty, they can help cut energy costs by providing shade in the summer and buffering cold winds in the winter. Trees clean the air, reduce noise, create privacy and can increase a property’s value by improving the appearance.

It is important to consider a number of factors when choosing the right trees for your particular environment and the best locations to plant trees in your yard.

• Temperature.

Low temperatures, especially if they occur suddenly, can freeze and kill the living cells in certain types of trees. Factors that influence temperature such as elevation and which side of a hill the tree will be planted on also need to be considered.

• Moisture.

Do you live in a dry or wet climate? Does your yard periodically flood, or is it continually exposed to the drying effect of wind? Watering can be modified on a dry site, but it is still important to know the optimal soil moisture requirements for your species.

• Shade.

Some species, like white birch and most pines, require full sunlight. Other species, like most maples, hemlocks and yews, grow well in shade.

• Insects and disease.

Every locality has its problems with particular insects or diseases. Although it is possible to buy varieties

that have been bred for resistance to a disease, it is asking for trouble planting a species which is prone to local pests because it places the tree under stress.

• Soil. Soil depth, structure and pH, in addition to moisture, can make the difference between success or failure. For example, deep-rooted species will need adequate soil depth for their structural roots, whereas shallow-rooted species may be fine on sites with just a thin layer of soil over bedrock or hard clay.

• Pollution.

The accumulative effects of pollution can impact your trees. For example, some species are more sensitive to pollutants such as salt spray from the ocean or street de-icing.

After choosing a species that will grow well in your environment, your next consideration is where the tree should be planted in your yard, depending on whether your goal is shade, protection, or purely for cosmetic purposes.

types can provide noise reduction as well as filter dust from adjacent street traffic year-round.

To improve your property’s appearance, one good principle is to never locate a tree where it will split your lot or a view into equal halves. To give the lot an appearance of greater depth, plant on a diagonal line outward from the front corners of the house. Trees planted behind the house and to the side will provide background. Trees with color or some other showy feature can be used as accent points. Small, narrowcrowned species will define boundaries without invading your neighbor’s space.

If you are unsure of what trees to choose to suit your goals, you can ask a certified arborist, nursery professional, urban forester, or extension agent. For more information on choosing the right tree, visit the Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org or www.siouxlandhba.com to find a nursery professional in the Siouxland area.

Trees planted to provide shade provide a greater cooling effect than man-made structures because they not only block the rays of the sun, they add water to the air through transpiration. Position the tree where you want the shadow during the hottest time of the day and year.

When planting trees as windbreaks and screens, lowbranching conifers that hold their foliage are most effective for screening unsightly areas and providing privacy. Noise is best reduced by tall, densely planted trees with fleshy, broad leaves. Combining these two

Rich Callahan President Heritage Homes of Siouxland

SIOUXLAND LIFE

712-255-3852

www.siouxlandhba.com JULY 2015

41

HEALTH outdoor

hazards In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, only 32 percent of adults reported usually applying sunscreen. According to the American Cancer Society, every hour someone will die from melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Dermatologist Indy Chabra looks through a dermatology textbook at Midlands Clinic in Dakota Dunes. Dawn J. Sagert, Sioux City Journal

THREATS TO YOUR SKIN ABOUND ON, IN AND AROUND BODIES OF WATER

d

Text by Dolly A. Butz

DAKOTA DUNES, S.D. | Whether you’re planning to cruise the Iowa Great Lakes this summer in a powerboat, cast your line in the Missouri River or surf the ocean waters on a beach vacation, there are some health hazards you need to be aware of to protect your skin.

Dermatologist Indy Chabra, of Midlands Clinic in Dakota Dunes, discussed some of these hidden dangers that range from flesh-eating insect bites to lake-dwelling microscopic parasites. HavCHABRA ing a prompt and accurate diagnosis from a dermatologist, Chabra said, can ease worries and prevent a potentially serious condition from escalating.

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SUNBURN Boaters are at high risk for sunburn due to the sun’s reflection off of the water.

Chabra said sunscreen alone isn’t enough. He encourages boaters to don clothing and hats and plan time on the water around peak sunlight hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Protecting your body from the sun is more important than sunscreen,” he said. “Sunscreen doesn’t work that well because people don’t put it on enough.”

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that people use a sunscreen that has an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) or at least 30. Look for sunscreen that contains zinc, titanium, avobenzone, ecamsole and mexoryl.

Chabra said you don’t have to rub

SIOUXLAND LIFE

sunscreen into the skin unless it’s water resistant. Apply sunscreen every 40 minutes.

Children under 6 months of age, Chabra said, shouldn’t be exposed to direct sunlight.

Mild sunburns can be relieved with cooling gels containing aloe and anti-inflammatory drugs such as Tylenol.

If you have blistering, Chabra said you should see a dermatologist who can prescribe a prescription steroid.

“You need to treat it [a spider bite] promptly.

If you don’t treat it, you may have to debride it because once the tissue dies you have to cut that tissue out.”

INDY CHABRA Dermatologist

along the rocks. Once the wound starts turning a dusky color, he said that means the tissue isn’t getting enough blood supply.

“You need to treat it promptly,” he said of the bites that can cause necrosis, or the death, of tissue. “If you don’t treat it, you may have to debride it because once the tissue dies you have to cut that tissue out.”

Dapsone, an antibiotic, Chabra said is prescribed to treat these bites, which he said are “very painful.”

SWIMMER’S ITCH Itchy red bumps spread out on the skin could be swimmer’s itch.

The rash is caused by larval forms, or cercariae, of parasitic flat worms that are released from infected snails into lakes, ponds and lagoons. Swimmer’s itch occurs when a film of cercariae-infested water dries on exposed skin.

“These larval forms are released from snails. Normally the host is a duck, but the humans are accidental

hosts,” Chabra said.

A couple of years ago, Chabra said swimmers at Lake Okoboji developed the rash at a time when a high number of water fowl were gathering at the lake.

“Skin under swimwear is often protected,” Chabra said.

Topical steroids are prescribed to treat swimmer’s itch. Chabra said patients are usually rash-free in a couple of days.

NECROTIC WOUNDS Chabra has treated a few patients who were bitten by the brown recluse spider, also called the fiddleback spider for the violin-like pattern on its back.

This venomous spider is found in dark places. Chabra said area fishermen have been bitten while fishing

VIBRIO VULNIFICUS Vibro vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, has claimed two lives in Florida already this year.

The bacteria, which lives in warm water sources, is most often found along the Gulf Coast. Vacationers, Chabra said, will want to be cautious whether swimming or fishing in saltwater, especially if they have an open wound. Eating undercooked shellfish also can lead to blood infections.

“It’s extremely aggressive,” Chabra said of the bacteria that causes blistering skin lesions that can lead to amputation and ultimately death.

SEA BATHERS ERUPTION Sea bathers eruption occurs underneath the swimsuit in patients who have been exposed to saltwater and are hypersensitive to the larval form of the thimble jellyfish.

Swimmers develop itchy, red bumps that Chabra said can be painful. He said the rash can be managed with topical steroids, but he said it often heals without medication.

“I think the thing that we add value for is diagnosing it – basically making sure that’s what it is. It’s not something else,” Chabra said of dermatologists. “We have limited treatments, but we can help you figure out what it is.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

JULY 2015

43

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

ADVICE Medical

Answers

‘DOC, I’VE GOT A QUESTION …’ answers to your medical questions

Do lumps on your head mean anything? Can they be removed?

What causes them?

Lumps and bumps on your head can occur quite frequently; however, if a new lump or bump develops, you should check with your doctor to determine the underlying reason. Some bumps can be caused by infected hair follicles, or folliculitis. If this is the case, you should see your doctor to determine if you need an antibiotic. If a lump develops under the skin, it could be due to several conditions. Benign (not cancerous) fatty tumors called lipomas can develop all over the body. These are not as common on the scalp, but may appear on your neck. Epidermal cysts are another benign cause of strange lumps, and can generally be removed in your primary care physician’s office, or by a surgeon if they are very large. As you can tell, many causes of growths on the scalp are benign, but if you are concerned you should talk with your primary care physician to determine exactly what is causing the growth.

Can you put sunscreen on a baby?

According to the FDA, sunscreen should not be used on infants under 6 months of age. The best approach is to keep children under 6 months out of the sun, especially between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the sun’s rays are most intense. There are multiple reasons for this precaution. Infants have a higher surface area to body weight ratio, meaning they have a lot of skin! By slathering on sunscreen, you increase your infants exposure to the chemicals in sunscreen.

Younger infants also do not sweat like older children and adults. By using sunscreen, we often develop a false sense of

security in the sun, and you may keep your infant in the sun longer than they ought to be.

The last concern I’ll discuss is dehydration. Infants should not be given water for hydration. Breastmilk and formula provide an infant with sufficient hydration, and free water given to an infant can lead to electrolyte imbalances and possible water intoxication. Watch for a normal amount of wet diapers, and if you child is out in the sun be sure to offer plenty of breastmilk or formula.

How do you know if you have an ulcer? How is it different from a stomachache?

Peptic ulcers are open sores in the upper part of the digestive tract that can cause stomach pain, but can be dangerous because they may lead to internal bleeding. Peptic ulcers can occur in two locations: the lining of the stomach (gastric) or the upper part of the small intestine (duodenal). Symptoms of peptic ulcers include discomfort in the upper abdomen, heartburn, feeling full quickly when eating, nausea, vomiting, and blood in stools, which may be dark or tar-like. Some people have several of these symptoms, while others have no symptoms at all.

If you are concerned about ulcers, your doctor may order a test called an EGD where a flexible tube with a camera is inserted through the mouth down to the stomach. Small tissue samples can be taken at the same time to check for any abnormal cells. Anyone with confirmed ulcers is also tested for a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, which can cause

WHAT KIDS OF HEALTH QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE? Submit your questions and they may be used in this monthly feature.

Write to Siouxland Life at 515 Pavonia St., Sioux City, Iowa 51102.

MEET THE DOC Dr. Mara Groom grew up in a military family, living in several states and countries before finding her way to Wartburg College.

While in Waverly, she fell in love with Iowa and decided to hang around indefinitely. She went to medical school at Des Moines University and is now a first-year resident in family medicine. When she’s not at the hospital, Dr. Groom enjoys traveling, biking and shopping.

ulcers. Treatment is directed at the underlying cause, so if H. pylori is the cause of your ulcer, you’ll be treated with antibiotics and acid suppressing medication. If you do not have H. pylori, you’ll be treated with acid suppressing medication alone.

If you have been diagnosed with an ulcer, there are several steps you’ll be encouraged to take. NSAIDs such as ibuprofen can increase your risk of bleeding, so you should use alternatives like acetaminophen as much as possible. Alcohol and smoking can also worsen ulcers and should be eliminated.

Check with your family doctor if you have concerns about symptoms like these. They will be able to give you further guidance and evaluation.

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July 2015

Siouxland Life

PARTING SHOT By

Bruce Miller

A FIVE-HOUR

WINDOW

a

A FIVE-HOUR WINDOW. That’s what I was told I’d have to give the phone company in order to restore my landline service.

“If it’s determined that it’s not a problem with our equipment, you will be charged $85 for the service call.”

I sat, stunned.

If I hadn’t had a cellphone, I never would have known this. But when my landline went dead one night I was, naturally, curious. I called the phone company, asked about the problem and was told experts would run a “test.”

“No, everything’s fine on our end,” the customer service representative replied (after, of course, I pressed “1” for English, “2” for residential, “1” for service and waited while very loud music played between “wait time” announcements). “If you want to schedule a service call, I’ll see what we can do.”

The first open appointment? Two days later with a five-hour window.

If I lived in a little house on the prairie, that might have been devastating. No phone service?

What if pa suddenly took ill and I had to call the Olesons to send the doctor out?

Would I just have to chalk it up to life on the prairie? Or would I have to hitch up the

buggy, drive him into town and hope for the best?

Luckily, pa doesn’t live with me and I have that cellphone. But, still, five hours?

Pizza can be delivered in 30 minutes or less. Are there that many people with landline problems that we can’t push this along a little faster?

Undeterred, I asked if there was a way that I could get the first appointment of the day so I wouldn’t have to take off work just to wait around. “No, the earliest I have is in the afternoon. But there’s still the five-hour window.”

I thought for a minute.

“Could you call me before you come, so I can still go to work?”

A long pause.

“What number would we call?”

I desperately wanted to give her my home number but that wouldn’t solve any problem because, of course, it doesn’t work. So I gave her the cellphone number.

“Considering the number of people who are dropping their landlines, wouldn’t it be wise to work on this repair time problem?” I asked.

A longer pause.

“We will call your cellphone before we arrive.

Please be aware if this is a problem with your equipment you will be assessed the $85 service charge.”

Quickly, I tried to figure out how to regain strength.

“What about the days I’m without service?” I

asked. “What do I do about them?”

“If it’s determined that it’s our problem, you will be credited for the missed service. Thank you. We’ll send someone out on Friday.”

I hung up, miffed. (And if there’s ever a reason to use a word like “miffed,” this was it.)

Like a kid waiting for Santa Claus, I checked the phone repeatedly. I asked neighbors if they were without service.

I checked reports of outages.

Nothing. Undeterred, I took two of my phones to others’ homes and checked to see if they worked. They did. It had to be the line, I thought. But I wouldn’t know until Friday.

Meanwhile, what if I desperately needed that landline?

Thursday evening, I lifted the receiver for the 13th time and got a dial tone.

It worked!

Friday morning, I furiously called customer service and told them that I wouldn’t need the technician that afternoon because I had a dialtone.

“Yes, we know,” the woman replied.

“Your service was restored yesterday and we cancelled the technician. The trouble was with our lines.”

“Was anyone going to call and tell me?” I asked.

Without missing a beat, the woman said, “I just did.”

A snappy reply. And I didn’t have to give her a fivehour window.

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JULY 2015

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