Contemporary single family house located in Western Australia, designed by Weststyle Design & Development.
This grouper fillet recipe uses a simple blend of dried parsley, garlic, pepper, and paprika to flavor baked grouper for an easy weeknight supper.
Contemporary single family house located in Western Australia, designed by Weststyle Design & Development.
Contemporary single family house located in Western Australia, designed by Weststyle Design & Development.
Weststyle's Murray is designed and created for a young, modern family with an appreciation for design and a love for texture and materiality. Learn more.
Contemporary single family house located in Western Australia, designed by Weststyle Design & Development.
Chickpeas replace chicken in this incredible chickpea chicken salad! Made with hearty chickpeas, grapes, celery, and walnuts, mixed with a creamy Mayo Dijon dressing. All combined into this protein-packed, vegan chicken salad. Only 15 minutes to make it for the perfect vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free meal everyone will love!
The Civil War hero left the White House under a cloud of scandal, but he also had substantial achievements—like passing the 15th Amendment.
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Before the 1883 cast rode into our hearts on TV, they saddled up at Cowboy Camp. Get a behind-the-scenes look of the pre-production prep.
Contemporary single family house located in Western Australia, designed by Weststyle Design & Development.
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Want to escape city life and get back in the saddle? We've got 12 great dude ranches ranging from rustic to luxurious. It was a good idea back in the 1880s (the earliest unofficial guest-ranching era) and it’s an even better one today. Dude ranches provide a bona fide Western experience to “dudes” of all stripes who have at least one thing in common: a vital, perhaps inexplicable, yearning to briefly escape from citified life into the saddle. On a real ranch. Out West. In a yonderscape of mountains and meadows, mesas and canyons, rolling prairies and boundless space that could resuscitate the most knotted New Yorker. By the 1920s, when the dawn of dude ranching led to meetings between a struggling cattle industry, an expanding railroad, and a nascent Dude Ranchers’ Association [see sidebar, page 112], a winning concept was already afoot. Today, hundreds of dude and guest ranches are spread west of the Mississippi — and east, across the border and overseas. The very definition of a dude ranch retreat has evolved to include everything from experiencing day-to-day family life on a working cattle ranch to luxuriating in the semi-wild with gourmet meals, spa menus, and a lineup of ranch-friendly resort activities that includes the sine qua non: a good horse. What links them all (aside from that horse)? Western hospitality and an invigorating vacation unlike any other. When the dude bug bites, your greatest challenge is narrowing down all the options. But here’s a step in the right direction, partner: eleven states, one Canadian province — and a dozen classic dude ranch experiences, however you wish to define the term. PHOTOGRAPHY: Graddy Photography/Courtesy Tanque Verde Ranch 1/3 ARIZONA Tanque Verde Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1957 Season: Year-round Neighboring natural wonder: Saguaro National Park Arizona’s top guest ranch wasn’t always 60,000 acres of abundant family fun in the sweet Sonoran Desert — routinely garnering awards for everything from its recreational amenities to its Southwestern cuisine. There’s some colorful history at Tanque Verde that’s not all that obvious to generations of guests who’ve been returning to this upscale ranch retreat since its modern era began in the 1950s. As early as 1908, a no-frills dude ranch here had Eastern city slickers fully immersed in everyday working ranch chores. Before that, the property was owned by a wealthy 19th-century Mexican hacendado who was nearly killed by raiding bandits searching for gold. Long before that, Pima Indians occupied the land’s seasonal “green pool” waters that gave Tanque Verde its name. But back to today’s Tanque Verde. The all-inclusive dude ranch (yes, with cattle, but guests won’t be handling them) is well-appointed with 69 tasteful Southwestern-style rooms and suites, innovative regional cuisine, and just about every creature comfort and desert-friendly activity you could want within an easy 20 miles of Tucson International Airport. Most important, there are (at last count) 180 horses here and a riding program for all levels. Trail rides lead guests into the neighboring Rincon Mountains, Saguaro National Park, Coronado National Forest, and timeless Old West landscapes that southern Arizona can still patent. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Cibolo Creek Ranch TEXAS Cibolo Creek Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1994 Season: Year-round Neighboring natural wonder: Big Bend Ranch State Park Rustic luxury meets Lonesome Dove at this impeccably preserved ranch in way West Texas — one of the few spots on earth where a storied 30,000-acre cattle property and cavalry outpost could be dwarfed by its even vaster Lone Star backcountry. Home to three forts and a hacienda dating back to the 1850s with several museums now on-site, Cibolo Creek Ranch is 25 miles from the Rio Grande and Mexico and 33 miles from the nearest town (Marfa). Here’s where Big Bend National Park (a couple hours away) and the even more underappreciated Big Bend Ranch State Park (Texas’ largest state park, up to an hour away) could be called “just down the road” without a hint of irony. Or where one might expect the fictional ghost of Gus McCrae — or someone equally recognizable but real — to pull up at any minute and join the escape artists naturally attracted to this place. Like Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall on one occasion. As the story goes, the former pair put an offer on the place, which the owner politely declined. Activities at Cibolo Creek include ATV riding, Indian rock art exploring, gourmet dining, and blissfully doing nothing. And, of course, horseback riding through the otherworldly West Texas outback. A specialized Humvee tour through the rugged Chinati Mountains is another top draw here. But however you savor Cibolo Creek, you can rest assured you won’t be running into anyone from back home. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy A Bar A Ranch WYOMING A Bar A Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1923 Season: First weekend in June through the third week in September Neighboring natural wonder: North Platte River Generations of guests have been flocking to this large family-owned ranch (nearly 100,000 acres) in southern Wyoming where there are now tennis courts, nine holes of golf, a great wine list, and a private airstrip. But the main attraction at this unpretentious gem remains its timeless setting in the North Platte River Valley — a striated palette of river and mountain, sagebrush and conifer, irrigated meadow and glistening aspen grove ... and about 100 friendly folks per week in the summer soaking it all up. Flowing through the heart of the ranch along with several tributaries, the North Platte River is a big draw for fly-fishing and float trips. This is definitive A Bar A scenery that naturally begs for a sketchpad — or a horse. “Our riding program is unique in that guests can have the opportunity here to self-guide without a wrangler,” notes ranch manager Lissa Howe. With hundreds of miles of trails and thousands of acres of land to explore, advanced riders love the freedom and the scope of the riding here. Beginners get their own horse for the week along with all the confidence-boosting guidance they need. “Yesterday morning, a first-time guest and rider challenged herself to ride to our cookout breakfast on the ridgetop,” says Howe. “She returned glowing after crossing the North Platte and climbing steep trails on her first ride.” Replete with old homesteader sites, the vast property breathes Old West history and offers its Expeditions program into October so small groups of guests can fish, hike, and ride their way from cabin to cabin. But you needn’t hike too far from ranch headquarters to experience yesteryear here. Many of the cabins and barns date back to the 1880s. Three guest houses and 16 cabins offer every creature comfort — and best of all, no phones or TVs to spoil the mood. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort, Keely Tareski CALIFORNIA The Alisal Guest Ranch And Resort Welcoming guests since: 1946 Season: Year-round Neighboring natural wonder: Santa Ynez Valley It’s hard to imagine a ranch with a longer running, more dedicated fan base of guests than this hallowed retreat. Situated like a semi-rustic, but otherwise very refined, mirage in the heart of Santa Barbara County wine country, The Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort isn’t short on claims to fame. Among them: raising Kentucky Derby winner Flying Ebony, hosting Clark Gable’s marriage to Lady Sylvia in its library, and maintaining a certain relationship with tradition. Namely, being steeped in it. “We have an extraordinarily high percentage of returning guests — many for 30 to 40 consecutive years,” says general manager of The Alisal, Dave Lautensack. “These guests want to stay in the same room, ride the same horse, sit at the same table, and even have the same server in the dining room.Change is a dirty word from the perspective of many of our guests.” While there are cattle on the 10,500-acre property, folks aren’t exactly coming here to do any dude ranch work. But, rather, to mount a horse and ride leisurely into bucolic coastal foothills sprinkled with oaks, sycamore groves, and stunning vistas of Central California’s famed Santa Ynez Valley. The week’s top ticket activity is a breakfast ride to a historic adobe on the property featuring a bountiful cowboy breakfast and entertainment. Afternoons are even more leisurely: out on one of two 18-hole golf courses, on the tennis courts, or at the spa. During summer months, the property’s 73 cottages cater primarily to families. What’s the sacred age at The Alisal? “Seven,” notes Lautensack. “That’s the required age to horseback ride out on our trails.” PHOTOGRAPHY: Keely Tareski/Courtesy Bull Hill Guest Ranch WASHINGTON Bull Hill Guest Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1995 Season: Year-round Neighboring natural wonder: Lake Roosevelt “Most people here arrive as strangers and leave feeling like family,” says wrangler, marketing director, and fifth generationer Tucker Guglielmino, who knows something about family history at Bull Hill Guest Ranch, a working cattle ranch perched dramatically in the Rocky Mountain foothills of northeastern Washington near the British Columbia border. The hill the property sits on got its name, they say, when Guglielmino’s great-great-grandfather staked his 160-acre claim at this very spot in 1903 and brought the first Hereford bull into the area. More than a century and five generations later, the family ranch on Bull Hill has grown and evolved considerably. For the last two decades, guests have partaken in this kinship in one of the most picturesque ranch settings in the Pacific Northwest. Guests can fish for rainbow trout on a private 30-acre lake near the main lodge and choose from an assortment of tent/ranch/deluxe cabins. But the real deal here is the cattle drive. “We run just over 500 pair — cows with calves — and are always needing to keep them on good pasture,” says Guglielmino, whose father now runs the ranch. “That’s where guests usually find their most memorable experience.” A close second are an assortment of blue-ribbon trail rides — think stunning mountain meadows and valleys with panoramas that stretch to Idaho and Canada — which include a popular trip along Lake Roosevelt that stops at a local winery on the shores of the Columbia River. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Zapata Ranch COLORADO Zapata Ranch Welcoming guests since: 2009 Season: March 1 – October 25 Neighboring natural wonder: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Situated on the state’s largest Nature Conservancy preserve with the continent’s tallest sand dunes hulking right next door, Zapata Ranch naturally invites superlatives. Owned by The Nature Conservancy, managed by Ranchlands, and set on a timeless San Luis Valley, Colorado, stage where the deer, antelope, and many, many bison still play, the 103,000-acre property rightfully claims to be one of the most unique guest ranches on either side of the Rockies. In centuries past, the Southern Ute tribe called this pastoral valley home. Hopi, Navajo, and Apache groups were here, too. Followed by generations of Mexican rancheros, legendary local cattlemen, and 1980s resort speculators — who built a golf course here, which dissolved back into natural grassland when The Nature Conservancy took over with a mandate to protect the ranch’s natural integrity. Today, just 15 comfortable guest rooms grace this massive landscape, rife with meadows, creeks, and open range. Flanking the ranch are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, which guests are also free to explore. Custom itineraries are the specialty here. Guests can ride through a free-roaming herd of 2,500 bison, take part in cattle drives, opt for a painting or photography workshop, hike with a naturalist, or join a professional birder during the migration season (spring and fall) of 25,000 sandhill cranes. Bonus: In the process, you can gain a broader understanding of holistic ranch management practices. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Siwash Lake Ranch BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA Siwash Lake Ranch Welcoming guests since: 2001 Season: June 1 – September 30 Neighboring natural wonder: BC’s historic Gold Rush Trail — and waterfalls Wilderness luxury. It’s not necessarily an oxymoron. But it does take some vision to pull it off with as much aplomb as this western Canadian ranch hideaway. Arriving in a remote patch of BC’s untrammeled Cariboo region, guests here check into lavish safari-style “glamping” tents, reno’d barn lofts, or deluxe ranch suites. A rugged backdrop of forested hills, ranges, canyons, and rolling rivers blends seamlessly with pasture-to-plate cuisine, spa service, outdoor yoga, and quiet kayaking across a glassy lake. Siwash Lake Ranch is that kind of place. High-end excursions include a new heli-wine tasting program, whisking guests into the grasslands of the Fraser River Valley for a hike and then onward to a remote winery at the head of BC’s historic Gold Rush Trail. Or adventurers can opt for a wilderness survival class supervised by resident wolves, bear, and moose. The top activity: indulging in the Siwash signature equine experience, which gets you in the saddle and deep into one of the most luxuriantly wild cowboy countries on either side of the border. Not to be missed: a canyon ride to the region’s own Crater Lake, a mystical pool adorned with breathtaking vistas and myriad waterfalls. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch NEW MEXICO Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch Welcoming guests since: 2002 Season: Early March to mid-November Neighboring natural wonder: Gila Wilderness Off the grid is a relative term for New Mexico’s smattering of small family-run guest ranches, which tend to lurk in the shadow of more attention-grabbing neighbors way next door in Arizona. And at the Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch, you can take that term literally. “We generate all our own power with solar panels and a big diesel generator,” notes ranch owner Meris Esterly Stout. “We are not a luxury ranch, but offer comfortable accommodations for small numbers of guests who are truly looking for a chance to really get away from it all. We are veryremote.” Smack in the middle of 3.3 million-acre Gila National Forest, home of the world’s first designated wilderness according to the U.S. Forest Service and the state’s “most remote spot” according to theAlbuquerque Journal, the four-cabin (maximum 16 guest) ranch hides in its own private southwestern universe — perched at 6,500 feet and contentedly adrift in an undulating ocean of ponderosa pine. Guests who make it here won’t be pushing cattle, but they will be hitting the trail. Your first job: meeting your horse and vanishing into one of the most pristine, out-there corners of the Southwest. This landscape of alpine meadows, spectacular deep canyons, and spring-fed streams hasn’t seen too many visitors since the Mimbres people (A.D. 750 – 1150) and the Chiricahua Apache (including Geronimo himself) called this vast outback home. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Sorrel River Ranch Resort & Spa UTAH Sorrel River Ranch Resort & Spa Welcoming guests since: 1999 Season: Year-round (however, horses are not on the property during low season, from mid-November to mid-March) Neighboring natural wonder: Arches National Park Mention Moab, Utah, and the immediate connotation is two wheels, a good set of bike shocks, and the Slickrock Bike Trail. And, yes, at Sorrel River Ranch Resort & Spa — about 20 miles upriver from the town and its world-famous mountain bike trail head — a rack of high-end mountain bikes is at the ready. They’re parked right outside the main lodge in a Monument Valley-type setting flanked by 1,200-foot cliffs and the Colorado River, where guests can consult an adventure concierge about every one-of-a-kind day trip that’s made Moab and neighboring Arches National Park a high-octane adventure capital. But that’s not what folks go to Sorrel River Ranch for. “First and foremost, our guests come here to relax, heal, unwind, and disconnect,” says the desert retreat’s marketing manager, Franklin Seal. “And our livestock are only here for one thing: to serve our guests. No one comes here to work.” Which brings us to the second reason folks go to Sorrel River: to ride. And not necessarily atop a bike seat or a river raft. On a horse. In a setting made for director John Ford, who did his share of filming in these whereabouts. Or a Lone Ranger remake, which also happened here (want to guess where the film’s celebrities and brass stayed while on location?). Signature trail rides at Sorrel River Ranch wind through lonely washes and gulches, up into southern Utah’s high desert with spectacular ridge-side panoramas of sprawling mesas, otherworldly geology, and the Rocky-esque La Sal Mountains on the horizon. Back at the ranch, the spa’s signature body treatment package is called The Bourbon Cowboy. What else is there to say? PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Rowse's 1+1 Ranch NEBRASKA Rowse's 1+1 Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1999 Season: Mid-May to end of October Neighboring natural wonder: Sandhills of Nebraska Never mind nouveau terms like Midwest. Any family that’s been ranching the Nebraska Sandhills — a vast swath of mixed-grass prairie and dunes covering more than a quarter of the state — since the 1880s with ties to the Homestead Act gets honorary True West status as far as we’re concerned. Those honors apply to the Rowse family, who began their hard-won ranching legacy in the area in 1884. Cut to 130 years later: Small groups of lucky guests (10 at a time, max) are invited into their world for a week of cattle driving and real-life cowboying. “Guests join us in our everyday life,” says Tammy Rowse, who runs the 7,000-acre working cattle and quarter horse ranch with her husband, Jerry, a sixth-generation rancher. The ranch has been in Tammy’s family for more than 80 years. “We don’t expect them to do the manual labor but want every guest to experience and enjoy the riding and cattle work we do.” Expect at least six hours in the saddle a day. Driving, sorting, roping if you’re willing. In short, coming as close to a Central Nebraska cowboy as you’ll get (with cozy cabin digs and hearty homemade meals with the Rowse family) during an exhilarating week in the original Old West. Nothing mid about it. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Triple J Wilderness Ranch MONTANA Triple J Wilderness Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1976 Season: June – September, with a fall hunting season Neighboring natural wonder: Bob Marshall Wilderness “The perfect guest for the Triple J would be one who wants a truly Western adventure on a small, personal ranch,” says co-owner and manager Kim Barker. “And someone eager to experience horseback riding through spectacular scenery,” she’s quick to add. Kim, who runs Triple J Wilderness Ranch with her husband, Ernie, can trace the property’s history from its homestead days in the 1920s to its tenure as a no-frills mid-century hunting lodge to the year (1958) when Ernie’s folks (Iowa farmers) fell in love with Montana and eventually (18 years later) purchased the place. “After lots of hard work and hilarious stories,” Kim says, they turned Triple J into one of the most beloved family-run dude ranches in the West. Tucked in the mountainous corridor between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks (and sufficiently far away from the crowds drawn by both), the ranch can claim the rugged 1.5 million-acre Bob Marshall Wilderness as its backyard. Craggy peaks. Aspen-studded meadows. Gaping canyons. Big Sky prairie. It’s all here for small groups of guests (“capacity is 24, but we average around 20 per week,” says Kim) checking into the property’s private log cabins furnished with Western décor, covered porches, hummingbird feeders, and no TVs or phones to interrupt any of it. Riding groups are small (six or less) with high wrangler-to-guest ratios, and all levels of horsemen are welcome. Favorite rides lope guests through flowering meadows and into the high country around Mortimer Peak or through the Lewis and Clark National Forest — followed up perhaps by some fly-fishing and a traditional cowboy cookout by the main lodge. Adventure-seekers can opt for a multi-day pack trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, which begins and ends in the warmth of Triple J hospitality. PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Clear Creek Guest Ranch NORTH CAROLINA Clear Creek Guest Ranch Welcoming guests since: 1996 Season: Late March through Thanksgiving weekend Neighboring natural wonder: Great Smoky Mountains Has there been some mistake including the Tarheel State in a dude ranch article? No, but it’s not a preconception that a day in the saddle at Clear Creek Guest Ranch can’t fix at an easy gallop. “I think many people are looking for the true western dude ranch experience but would prefer not to always have to travel all the way out west for it,” says ranch manager Rusty Oleszewski. Nestled in a lofty valley along the Black Mountain range lined with forested mountain trails and trout-filled rivers to help guests forget exactly which side of the Mississippi they’re on, the ranch got its start when its original Alabama-based founder visited his wrangler sons out in Colorado and felt inspired to create a true-enough slice of the West somewhere in the Southeast. Nearly two decades later, Clear Creek has its stock of return guests. They angle on the South Toe River. Raft, zip-line, gem mine, gaze at blinding stars around the campfire. Above all, they ride horses through the mountain trails of Pisgah National Forest — kids included. A Junior Wrangler Ride gets the ranch’s youngest guests trotting off into the mountains with wranglers sans parents. The hills don’t get any freer than that. Explore:Travel
In 2019, the Shoshone of Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation welcomed five bulls to their herd, and we were there to witness the homecoming. Gather at the third gate. The truck arrives at 6 p.m.” This text message, from Jason Baldes, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s buffalo representative and the National Wildlife Federation tribal buffalo coordinator, announced the arrival of the Shoshone tribe’s new bison bulls. That evening, I drove across Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, through the community of Ethete and over the Little Wind River. At Pilot Butte Reservoir, I began to tally the gates in the fence that ran alongside the county highway to ensure I would wait at the correct gate. I didn’t need to count, though, as parked vehicles already lined the road’s shoulders. I had arrived at the Shoshone’s bison pasture. 1/3 I joined the crowd, greeting folks I knew and introducing myself to those I didn’t. As 6:00 passed, we speculated among ourselves why the bison transport might be late. A few weeks earlier, a semitruck that was supposed to pick up the bulls from Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana and deliver them to Wyoming had been hampered by deep snow and then mud; with access to the bison corral impossible, the transfer had to be rescheduled. Maybe weather had hijacked plans again? As we waited, the sun sank and hovered above Crowheart Butte, a legendary battleground between the Shoshone and Bannock tribes and the Crow Tribe. A minivan-driving tourist — marked by out-of-state license plates — slowed, then braked. Poking her head out the window, the driver asked, “What do you guys look at?” Hank Herrera, a member of the drum circle that was waiting to welcome the new bison, replied, “Bison.” “I saw those in Yellowstone,” the driver replied somewhat dismissively. “Those were fake,” Herrera deadpanned in return. With a wave, she sped off in her minivan to our chuckles. Had she parked and joined us, she would have witnessed a dream-become-reality: the return of the bison. Hunters extirpated bison from the reservation of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in 1885. In 2016, after a 131-year absence, bison stepped onto the reservation, which the Northern Arapaho Tribe now shares with the Shoshone, who purchased the five bulls arriving today to bring more genetics into the herd that they started in 2016. 1/2 “We want to manage buffalo as wildlife on the reservation to benefit all Indian people,” Baldes had told me from his home in Fort Washakie, Wyoming. “We depend on our wildlife population for food. It’s the elk, deer, and antelope that we harvest now, but bison is even healthier meat. Once we reach a sustainable population, tribal members will be able to harvest bison, too.” Harvested animals will restore rites omitted for decades from Shoshone ceremonies because of the lack of bison. “Buffalo are essential to the sun dances of both the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes,” Baldes explained. “We were legally banned from practicing sun dances and sweat ceremonies until the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. The return of the bison completes the circle to help us heal. It restores things taken from us.” We want to manage buffalo as wildlife on the reservation to benefit all Indian people. -Jason Baldes To honor the bison and the hopeful future they represent, we stood by the highway for hours. At dusk, the transport truck arrived with its precious cargo: five bison bulls that would increase the Shoshone’s herd to 33. Herrera and the drum circle set out a drum and chairs and pulled out their drumsticks. They sang their welcome, their voices and drumbeat swelling as stars appeared in the darkened sky. We solemnly gathered around as tribal member Stanford Devinney ceremonially burned sage at the trailer’s stock door. Finally, in the aromatic cleansing smoke of the healing sage, the bison stepped out onto their ancestral land. Photography: (All images) courtesy Melissa Hemken From our May/June 2021 issue Explore:Art & CultureHistoryLiving West
Contemporary two-storey residence designed by Weststyle, located in Perth, Australia.
Dale Claude Lamphere’s tribute to Native peoples also celebrates the beauty of the Great Plains. She stands with her back to the wind and her face to the morning sun, and the diamonds in the star quilt she has wrapped around her shine like pieces of the night sky. She is Dignity of Earth and Sky, sculptor Dale Claude Lamphere’s celebration of Dakota and Lakota women and the Plains world they inhabit. The 50-foot-tall sculpture of fabricated stainless steel stands just off Interstate 90 on the east bluff of the Missouri River near Chamberlain, South Dakota — the very heart of one of the two states named for the Dakota and Lakota people. “A gentleman came to me and wanted to do something to acknowledge the Native nations we have here in South Dakota,” says Lamphere, who has a studio at the edge of the Black Hills near Sturgis, South Dakota. “He wanted it to be Native and a woman. Beyond that, there were no instructions.” Dignity wears a garment patterned after a two-hide dress of the 1850s and holds an outstretched quilt with 128 stainless steel blue diamond shapes designed to flutter in the wind. Lamphere, who is white, was hesitant. Appointed South Dakota Artist Laureate in 2015 (a post formerly held by the late great Dakota artist Oscar Howe), he has been criticized when he has occasionally done pieces that feature Native people. Lakota artist Dwayne Wilcox, who is also a South Dakotan, says Lamphere is a talented artist, bar none. But, he says, creating monumental pieces on behalf of Native Americans seems to satisfy South Dakota’s need to acknowledge Native Americans while letting the mainstream culture handle the memory. “This is a hot topic in the South Dakota Native art world for the simple fact we don’t have that kind of skill or finance to sculpt such a large-scale project,” Wilcox says. “I don’t see a project of this magnitude ever being offered to us because of the financial burden it would bring to the artist.” Lamphere acknowledges there’s a dilemma. “There’s a movement today, and rightly so, that Native artwork ought to be done by Native people,” he says. But then he thought about what could be done if he accepted the commission. “As I began exploring the subject, I realized the design possibilities of a star quilt were really exciting. A star quilt is a very important symbolic element in their culture. When a child is born, they wrap them in a star quilt, with the understanding that they have come down from the stars, and so the star quilt makes them feel more at home. And as they go on in life, whenever there’s a significant accomplishment, they give them a star quilt to honor that occasion.” So he began to draw using the star quilt. “Then I contacted a Lakota friend of mine and wrapped her in a star quilt and went out on a windy day and began to design the sculpture.” After five or six drawings, Lamphere moved on to a small clay maquette, and then eventually to a larger clay maquette. “It was 5 feet tall, and the ultimate work is 50 feet tall, so it made an easy translation.” The finished sculpture weighs 12 tons. It’s made of hundreds of pieces of stainless steel, including 128 diamonds for the quilt. He ended up using three Native women for models: one in her 50s, one at the threshold of her 30s, and one a teenager. “I didn’t want to represent any one Native person but rather distill the essential characteristics and elements of their countenance and movement,” Lamphere says. He also contemplated the location and placement. “I always consider the environment when working on these large-scale works,” he says. “In our Great Plains region, the prevailing wind is from the northwest, so I placed the back of the piece to that direction. I like to show as much interaction and integration with the environment as possible, so the dress is windswept, and the wind and sun can move through the piece. The diamonds are offset and there’s a slight bit of movement to them so it’s really part of the environment. As I came to consider what colors to use in the star quilt, I picked up the colors of the water and the sky that are immediately adjacent to the piece.” Honoring the Lakota and Dakota people, the 50-foot stainless steel statue Dignity stands on a bluff along I-90 near Chamberlain. Lamphere suggests the name of the piece has a lot to do with the sweeping expanse of land and sky and the great river of the Plains that provide the context here on the east bluff of the Missouri. “Initially, the working title was Of Earth and Sky. It was something rooted to the earth and yet of the waters, of the sky. But then the Dignity name was mentioned by the donor, and it stuck. It seems to me to speak more fully of the real wholeness and beauty of the Great Plains area. There is a dignity to the earth and the sky in this area that’s hard to miss.” Lamphere, now 76, grew up in the ranch country of western South Dakota and has always paid attention to the land in his art. “The common element that runs through my work is the lyric line that I see in the mountain and prairie environment and the intersection of prairie to mountain, and the grasses, the flora of our Great Plains area. The wind is always blowing to some degree, so I study the movement of the grasses and the structure of them. These inform my work. Every piece is moving in some way, has a gesture to it, a sweep to it. Those are largely just echoing the environment in which I live.” Work on Dignity of Earth and Sky began in 2014, and the piece was dedicated in September 2016. After a 53-year career making more than 60 large-scale pieces, life-size or bigger, Lamphere says Dignity has generated the greatest response by far. “I’ve received more positive feedback on this sculpture than on any other work,” he says — and that includes an audience he’s particularly eager to please. “I’ve been fortunate that it’s been very well-received by Native communities. I’ve heard it referred to as ‘the Statue of Liberty for Native people.’” Even visitors from other countries are taking note. Peter Zsolt Fekete, a native of Hungary who worked for a time as a researcher at South Dakota State University some years ago, saw the Dignity sculpture when he revisited the state in 2018. “When we stopped, it was near to evening time,” Fekete says. “It was a late sunset, and the colors were amazing on this robe that she was wearing.” Noting South Dakota’s history of conflict with Native Americans — it was the site of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre of December 1890, for instance — Fekete says seeing Dignity was a positive surprise. During the day, Dignity's star quilt — symbolizing respect, honor, and admiration in Native American culture — glitters in the sun. At night, LED lights cause the diamond shapes to glow. For Lamphere’s part, a non-Native artist can only try to grapple with the West’s history of conflict. “The kind of oppression that the Native communities have felt over the decades, it’s been a very difficult thing,” he says. “I don’t think we as white people really understand the generational trauma they’ve gone through. I tried to be empathetic to that.” Katlyn Svendsen of Travel South Dakota says tourists and state residents alike have been struck by the elegance of the piece since it first took its place beside Interstate 90. “Certainly, since the installation, it has grown in popularity, and has become a notable icon for South Dakota,” Svendsen says. As of July 2017, South Dakotans can even opt for a license plate design that features Dignity instead of the usual Mount Rushmore. Though there are parts of the piece he might have liked to work on longer, Lamphere believes Dignity succeeded in ways that are not solely to do with the artist. “In a sense I try to get out of the way. I try to be a human mechanism to make the sculpture manifest itself. If it’s a human form, I try to enter into the spirit of what I’m trying to create.” For Lamphere, the best creative activity is when the artist just becomes a conduit for something that needs to be said, something that wants to come out. “My intent,” Lamphere says, “is for the sculpture to stand as an enduring symbol of our shared belief that all here are sacred and in a sacred place.” This article appears in our February/March 2024 issue. Visit Dale Lamphere online at lampherestudio.com. See Dignity of Earth and Sky at the Chamberlain Interstate Welcome Center at mile post 264 (accessible by travel in both directions on I-90). See his Arc of Dreams spanning the Big Sioux River in downtown Sioux Falls. Explore:Art & CultureLiving WestPhotographyTravel
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