When One Part of South Dakota Tried to Secede From the Other

The state of South Dakota has been around for nearly 135 years, and for the most part, has always been on the same wavelength. Sure, there have been times when East River and West River have had their differences, but for the most part, the Mount Rushmore state has nearly always seen eye to eye.

But there was a brief period in the twentieth century when that was most definitely not the case. In fact, it got so severe that one part of the state attempted to secede from the other and form a new state they called Absaroka.

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The Almost State of Absaroka

Credit: The World Unearthed via YouTube

Back in the mid-1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, parts of Western South Dakota, Northern Wyoming, and Southwestern Montana contemplated seceding from their respective state governments and forming a brand new state called Absaroka.

What was the reason behind this you might ask? To boil it down simply, it would be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies, specifically parts of the New Deal.

After the Federal Government failed to provide aid for ranchers in the three states, a grassroots movement began and quickly gained momentum. A.R. Swickard was a local street commissioner and was appointed as the state's proposed Governor. Swickard led the secessionist movement which gained a number of followers in all three states, but eventually died out with the outbreak of World War Two in December of 1941.

Proposed State Flag of Absaroka

Credit: Wikipedia

Although the state of Absaroka never came to pass, the name lives on. Not only is there a mountain range with the same name in the states of Montana and Wyoming, but there is also an Absaroka County in the fictional television series, Longmire.

To learn more about the proposed state of Absaroka and other states that never came to be, check out the YouTube video below.

Story Sources: Absaroka Wikipedia Page, Census Website,

The 10 Most Redneck Towns in South Dakota

Are you a 'Redneck?' I guess to some people, all of us in South Dakota are rednecks.

If we use the Jeff Foxworthy Scale of Redneckeness, I have, in fact, been too drunk to fish. So by definition, I am a redneck. And so are many people I know.

Not that being from the country is a bad thing, and it can be fun to poke fun at ourselves.

With that in mind, we found that the folks at RoadSnacks put together a list that claims 'These Are The 10 Most Redneck Cities In South Dakota.'

What is a Redneck?

The dictionary says that a redneck is someone "...who lives in a small town or in the country, especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive."

Well, a few things. First, South Dakota isn't THAT kind of 'south.' We're to the south of North Dakota, but to the north of 'The South.'

Plus that definition sounds awful mean and serious. I thought we were having fun here.

RoadSnacks leaned into the funny, Jeff Foxworthy-based version of a redneck. Then they rounded up select data on places in SD to determine their rankings. RoadSnacks Redneck Criteria: