From award-winning bread shop to destination trail park, 4 ‘Great Finds’ are short drive away

Submitted

October 5, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by the South Dakota Department of Tourism.

You don’t have to drive hours away from Sioux Falls to take a memorable vacation.

“Great Finds” are scattered across eastern South Dakota, making the perfect day trips less than a couple of hours from the city.

The South Dakota Department of Tourism even features several hidden gems scattered throughout the state in its “Great Finds” passport. If you visit 10 or more of the featured locations, you can earn a range of prizes, including the chance at a free South Dakota vacation.

Whether you’re looking to explore eastern South Dakota landscapes and wildlife or get a taste of southeastern South Dakota culture and food, here are a handful of stops you should add to your state bucket list:

Oprah loved this bread. You’ll rave about it, too

Hidden inside a hardware store in the college town of Vermillion is an award-winning bread shop and cafe.

Dubbed Mister Smith’s Bakery & Cafe, the bread shop used to be a deli in what had been a grocery store in the late ’90s and 2010s. While owners Gregg and Nikki Peters closed the grocery store years ago, the sandwich shop has remained a staple in the city.

Mister Smith is named after Larry Smith, a baker originally from New England who moved to Vermillion with his wife, a professor at the University of South Dakota, in 2000. The baker was looking for a job, walked into the grocery store and simply asked if there was a position open, not letting on his expertise and renown in his home region.

“He went back there and knocked our socks off with what he could do with flour, water and yeast,” said Bob Starr, operations manager at Mr. Smith’s. “He created some of these baguettes and peasant loaves and sweet rolls that just resonated with the community.”

One of Smith’s most prominent fans was American talk show host, author and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, who had an article written for her magazine featuring Smith and his work in Vermillion in 2002. The shop has been living off that reputation for two decades now, Starr joked.

Smith was known for his artisanal breads, but it was his demeanor that kept people returning – he was one of the most kindhearted and nicest people Starr ever met. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the early 2010s and died in 2020.

“He did such a great job teaching how to bake bread that we’ve been able to have the same quality as we did while he was baking. It was a no-brainer to keep it as Mr. Smith’s even when Larry could no longer work,” Starr said. “He’d tell people that when you bake a loaf of bread for someone, that’s love. When he baked, that was his gift to people.”

‘Play in the mud’ and explore South Dakota terrain by ATV

Explore more than 75 miles of trails and over 1,200 acres on ATV or trail bike at the Talsma’s Trail Park, which primarily serves as the Talsma cattle ranch near Avon.

A couple of hours from Sioux Falls, Talsma’s is the closest trail park to the city. Most of the state’s ATV parks are centered around the Black Hills, so this is a unique opportunity for easterners, said Tina Talsma, operator and co-owner of the park with her husband, Jim.

The park opened in the spring of 2006 as an alternative to Tina finding a job in town for supplemental income.

“It’s so unique,” Tina said. “You can go out to the Hills, but it’s still different. It’s a diamond in the rough here.”

Trails range from easy to extreme and include climbing hills, creek crossings, scenic river bluffs, deep brush, open prairies and river-bottom terrain. While driving across the terrain, you’ll see plenty of deer, quail, wild turkey and doves in addition to the Talsmas’ cattle in the pasture.

One of the most popular days of the year for the park is Talsma’s annual Halloween Scare Ride in early October. The family will take several groups out on a route littered with scares and surprises. This year’s event will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, for $20. A freewill donation chili feed will be served before the event.

The Talsmas do not rent out ATVs, so you must provide your own. The trail park is open on weekends with weekdays available through reservations only.

Eat traditional fare at an iconic South Dakota institution

Located at the junction of highways 18 and 81, Meridian Corner not only sits on a historic dividing line of the contiguous U.S. but also offers an authentic South Dakotan cultural experience.

The legendary South Dakota restaurant earned its name from Highway 81, which runs from Pembina, North Dakota, to Fort Worth, Texas, and roughly follows the path of the Meridian Highway from the early 20th century. The Meridian Highway earned its name from the Sixth Principal Meridian and runs just about through the center of the contiguous United States.

The building Meridian Corner calls home began as a gas and service station in the 1920s under a similar name. It served the area in that capacity until the early 1980s when it was converted into a restaurant owned by Paul and Marceen Svartoien. Marceen ran the restaurant, serving homemade chili, chislic, tiger meat and other traditional southeastern South Dakota fare until 1989.

Current owners Roland and Jane Svartoien reopened the establishment in 2011 after Roland’s parents died. They’d planned to renovate it and use it for family gatherings before others convinced them it needed to return to a highway eatery.

Nearly everything is homemade — the burgers are hand-pattied, gizzards are breaded in-house, and they make their own fry bread. The lamb and mutton chislic, which is skewered and cubed fried meat, honors the area’s cultural history, and the tiger meat is the same recipe that Marceen whipped up in 1952. Tiger meat is a state delicacy of cured ground beef mixed with onions and spices and served raw with crackers.

“It’s a territorial thing,” Jean said about sticking to classic South Dakota eats over the years.

Whether you’re driving along Interstate 29 or are determined to try authentic South Dakota food, Meridian Corner is the place to stop.

“There’s not a lot of places like this around anymore,” Roland added.

Learn homesteader history at a ‘hidden gem’ state park

As you drive down I-29, consider taking a break at the Adams Homestead and State Nature Preserve near North Sioux City.

The nature preserve is just a mile off the interstate, so you think it would be bustling with traffic. But it’s a hidden gem that not many people know about, said Jody Moats, park manager.

There isn’t an entrance fee to the state park, and the noise of the city seemingly stops at the tree line, so you feel like you’re back in the late 1800s when the nature preserve first became a homestead.

“It’s a gateway to get into South Dakota on the southeastern part, so it’s a nice stop to start your state adventure,” Moats said.

The nature preserve offers 1,500 acres along the Missouri River that were donated to the people of South Dakota by Mary and Maud Adams, granddaughters of original homesteader Stephen Searls Adams, about 25 years ago. It was one of the largest land donations to the state at the time and includes 10 miles of trails, restored historical buildings, an archery range and cross-country ski rentals.

“The sisters wanted to make sure people of South Dakota and surrounding areas could come to this area to learn about the cultural and natural history of the state,” Moats said. “Mary said the land always gave her something, and she wanted to pass that on to everyone else.”

The park is open year-round, and Moats considers it a “hidden gem” because it still gets visitors who never knew the park existed.

“People always try to go farther and farther away to places that aren’t near you, but there’s actually a nice little gift right in the neighborhood,” Moats said. “It’s unique that there’s so much diversity of habitat and recreation out here. It’s a park that fits a lot of peoples’ personalities.”

Get started with the Great Finds passport

The Department of Tourism is planning to offer multiple other passport programs, including passports focused on the arts, tribal nations and the state park system. The “Great Finds” passport vacation winner will be selected by Jan. 14, 2023.

Getting started with the passport program is easy: sign up through TravelSouthDakota.com, receive an email and text message to confirm, launch the program on your phone, and interact with it as you go on a road trip.

Add up enough stops at passport destinations, and you’ll be rewarded with prizes. Ten stops earn you a South Dakota sticker pack, while 100 will send you home with a South Dakota Osprey backpack. In between, there are shirts, caps and a Big Frig tumbler to be earned.

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