SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Every September for the past roughly 13 years, wagon masters and cowboys have gathered in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, for a ride to honor and remember cowboy and singer Kyle Evans.
Now, a group of Evans’ friends, supporters and admirers of the cowboy and western life are nearing completion of a permanent non-mobile remembrance of Evans.
The Kyle Evans Western Heritage Center building stands across the street from the renovated 1904 Opera House in Wessington Springs, a town of about 1,000 people in Jerauld County.
“(The) center is to highlight Kyle and his accomplishments and to highlight the western heritage of Wessington Springs,” said Heritage Center committee member Phil Wipf.
Evans died in a motorcycle crash in 2001. He may not have made the top country music charts but he performed at hundreds of professional rodeos across the U.S. Evans also performed at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas where he twice sang the national anthem, according to his biography with the South Dakota Hall of Fame website. He was awarded the National Western Heritage Award for music in 1989.
The new center will feature a stagecoach that was restored by Evans as well as items from Evans’ life.
Evans is just one of the cowboys of the Wessington Springs area, Wipf said.
“It’s ranch country. It’s cowboy country,” Wipf said of the region. The center will also highlight cowboys from the area, including those who have won national rodeo titles, he said.
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The front of the new western heritage center in Wessington Springs. Photo courtesy of Kyle Evans Memorial Wagon Train and Heritage Center Planning Committee. -
A scene from one of the annual wagon trains to honor Kyle Evans who died in 2001. Photo courtesy of Kyle Evans Memorial Wagon Train and Heritage Center Planning Committee. -
This covered wagon from the South Dakota Centennial and a restored stage coach will be housed in the new western center. Photo courtesy o f Kyle Evans Memorial Wagon Train and Heritage Center Planning Committee.
Visitors will also be able to see a covered wagon like those used by settlers and used these days in the annual wagon train to honor Evans.
Dr. Roscoe Dean is also part of the Wessington Springs western heritage.
“He was a big cowboy,” Wipf said of the doctor who was born in the area and returned to practice in the town for many years. “He loved horses, his family had a ranch.”
Dean died in 2009. He is a member of the South Dakota Hall of Fame for his achievements in rural medical service including working with key partners to establish training of physicians assistants at the medical school at the University of South Dakota, according to his hall of fame biography. He also championed the construction and improvement of rural hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.
Wipf said Dean was also a historian.
The name Kyle Evans will draw the attention of cowboy and rodeo fans around the country, Wipf said.
But the center will also appeal to those who are fans of rodeo or are interested in cowboys or ranching, Wipf said.
The committee has raised $130,000 for the center. As the committee raises more money, items such as interactive displays can be added to the museum.
The annual wagon train to honor Evans already draws visitors who may not know of Evans but are interested in the wagon train, Wipf said.
Wessington Springs already has the Jerauld County museum and the center will fit nicely with that, Wipf said.
The town also has the Shakespeare Garden with the Ann Hathaway Cottage as well as a Carnegie Library and several other historic buildings.
One of the fund-raising events that included a brisket feed and live music on the street near the center and the Opera House has prompted talk of doing similar events in the future, Wipf said.
