HOLABIRD, S.D. (KELO) — From afar, they looked no different than any other group of pheasant hunters, clad in bright safety-orange vests and caps, working through their way through tree belts and sloughs out in some farmer’s fields of central South Dakota.
But a closer listen made clear this was more.
This mix of conservatives and liberals and middle of the roaders walked together in pursuit of not only South Dakota’s official state bird. They were also trying to better understand each other’s differing political views.
That’s been the central goal for this rite of South Dakota autumn, known simply as the Blogmore hunt, since its beginning in around 2007.
One of the men who started the hunt is a long-time news reporter and columnist Kevin Woster. He said the hunt was an offshoot of a political blog at the Rapid City Journal newspaper, where he worked at the time. It was called Mount Blogmore, a take-off on the name of the nearby world-famous national monument to four of the greatest U.S. presidents.
Woster was one of Mount Blogmore’s moderators. One of its frequent commenters was Nick Nemec, a former legislator and Democratic National Committee member, who farms and ranches in the Holabird area of Hyde County.
Nemec recalled what led to the first hunt.
“Sometimes things would get pretty heated on this blog on issues,” he said. “And sometimes insults would get tossed around. I told someone, I’m not afraid of you, I’m a former Marine, I’ll tell you where I live, if you want to talk about this face to face, you can show up and we’ll have a discussion, rather than this tit for tat on the comment section of a blog.
“And of course, Kevin Woster is an avid pheasant hunter, and he saw an opening to set up this pheasant hunt to give people on opposite sides of the political spectrum an opportunity to get together and prove we can be friends, and not enemies, and it kind of went from there,” he continued.
The Blogmore hunt has since become a regular feature, with one to two dozen participants who receive invitations from Woster.
Through the years quite a few Republican and Democratic legislators have attended, as have some Democratic and Republican statewide candidates and office holders. There have been a few current or past members of Congress, too, such as Republican Larry Pressler, Democrat Tim Johnson and Republican Dusty Johnson.
This year’s group included state Senator Lee Schoenbeck, a Republican from Watertown. Other regulars who were back included Republican former legislator Mike DeMersseman of Rapid City, who had served as a lawmaker during some of the same years as Nemec had, and Democrat Bill Walsh.
“We just go from year to year. A lot of politicians are busy, especially this time of year,” Woster said, referring to the fall election campaigns. “But we manage to get a few.”
Other past invitees have included bloggers of various political stripes, such as Steve Sibson, Pat Powers and Cory Heidelberger, as well as some news reporters, including one year another of Mount Blogmore’s co-founders, the late Denise Ross.
A participant year after year is John Cooper, the now-retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent and former South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks secretary.
Cooper arrives early with morning donuts most years and, after the hunters have all gathered standing around the Nemec family’s kitchen table, delivers the annual pre-hunt safety speech. During the hunt, Cooper freely shares his broad knowledge of the outdoors, as well as keen personal observations, many of them humorous.
Nemec doesn’t charge anything to host the hunt. The birds on his place are wild, and so is some of the natural terrain, which he proudly preserves.
But the hunt also functions as a free-will fundraiser for programs such as Special Olympics or coats for kids, or some years for a local person in need, as chosen by Nemec and his wife, Mary Jo, with the hunters each slipping cash into a hat or cup that’s been set out on the kitchen table.
Nemec and Woster recalled how Senator Johnson helped one year, even though he had suffered a nearly fatal brain hemorrhage during a conference call with reporters in December 2006, and after his mostly successful recovery still needed an electric scooter to get around. With Johnson’s assistance, the hunt raised about $15,000 for a local family to pay for materials, so they could make their house more accommodating for a child with special needs.
The results from those charitable donations last long beyond the hunt. As for Mount Blogmore, however, it’s become no more, after the Rapid City Journal chose to discontinue it.
Woster, who with brothers Terry and Jim comprise South Dakota’s best-known family of writers, has held a variety of journalism jobs since leaving the Journal. He worked for a time as the Rapid City-based reporter for KELOLAND News. Now in semi-retirement, he’s worked as a part-time columnist for South Dakota Public Broadcasting and most recently is a part-time columnist for one of the state’s newer news organizations, South Dakota Searchlight.
But one thing hasn’t changed: The goal of getting political opponents to better understand one another.
“I think people should find areas that they agree on in this sharply divided time, and for us, this is one thing we agree on,” Woster said, gesturing to the vast beauty of the fall landscape around him. “You know, I don’t remember ever having a harsh word spoken on this hunt. And that’s what it’s all about.”
