The Mount Rushmore State.
The Sunshine State.
The Swinged Cat State.
Of all the nicknames for South Dakota, perhaps
none is more unusual than ”The Swinged Cat State.”
This nickname originated from remarks made by
South Dakota’s first governor, Arthur C. Mellette, according to an article from
the South Dakota State Historical Society – State Archives.
In 1890, South Dakota was in the midst of a
drought. Mellette was doing everything in his power to help settlers and keep
them from leaving the state. On a trip to Chicago for aid, Mellette was met by
Moses P. Handy, a friend and newspaperman. Handy asked Mellette, “Well,
governor, how is South Dakota?”
Mellette replied, “Oh, South Dakota is a swinged
cat, better than she looks.”
By swinged, Mellette meant “burnt” or “singed,”
according to the article.
The next day, the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper
had a story about Mellette, governor of the “swinged cat State.”
“Coyote State” might have been its first
nickname, and while most people probably assume the nickname was inspired by
the state animal, it may actually have been inspired by a horse.
According to Volume IX of South Dakota
Historical Collections Compiled by the State Department of History, a race took
place in October 1863 at Fort Randall between horses owned by two soldiers from
Company A Dakota Cavalry and a major from the 6th Iowa
Cavalry.
The major’s horse was badly beaten.
A soldier from the Iowa infantry remarked “that
the Dakota horse ran like a coyote.” The owners immediately gave their horse
that name, which became applied to the entire Dakota Company and to all
residents of the state.
With a nod to the number of artesian wells in
the state, another South Dakota nickname is “The Artesian State.”
With plains, hills, mountains, cities, towns,
farmland, pasture, lakes, rivers, hot weather and freezing cold, South Dakota
has also been called “The Land of Infinite Variety” and “The Land of Plenty.”
Weather is a factor in two of South Dakota’s
nicknames. As “The Blizzard State,” it shares a nickname with Texas because of
both states being subject to frequent storms.
And while “The Sunshine State” is Florida’s
official nickname, it was also South Dakota’s slogan for decades.
In 1992, the sun set on “The Sunshine State” as
South Dakota’s official nickname. State Rep. Chuck Mateer, a Republican from
Belle Fourche, introduced legislation that year to change the state’s nickname to “The Mount Rushmore State.”
“Everybody’s got a lot of sunshine, but we’re
the only ones who’ve got Mount Rushmore,” he was quoted as saying in an article
in the Jan. 26, 1992, Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
Getting the bill passed wasn’t all sunshine for
supporters. Opponents argued that dropping the nickname “The Sunshine State”
would cause people to think the state was in a “frozen tundra,” according to
Republican Rep. Mary Edelen of Vermillion in the Feb. 1, 1992, Argus Leader.
Others in favor of keeping the sun shining on South Dakota said that the state’s
American Indian population did not want South Dakota to be known as “The Mount
Rushmore State.”
The legislation did pass and was signed into law
by Gov. George S. Mickelson, who favored the new nickname.
Who knows what the future will hold for South
Dakota’s nicknames? While “The Mount Rushmore State” might seem set in stone,
clearly nicknames come and go.
~~~~~~~~~~~
(This moment in South
Dakota history is provided by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation,
the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society
at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Find us on the web at http://www.sdhsf.org/www.sdhsf.org.
Contact us at mailto:info@sdhsf.orginfo@sdhsf.org to submit a story idea.)
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