Here's the real story---
Dan Holsworth has created a special exhibit at the HAHA garden in honor of Doug Hesnard, including Doug's beloved pink flamingos.

Doug Hesnard, who grew up on a family ranch west of Hermosa, was one of the founding members of HAHA. After he died in 2012, HAHA members established the Doug Hesnard Memorial Garden in front of the museum, to honor Doug's lifelong career with and love of flowers and gardening.

The garden includes iris and roses transplanted from Doug's garden-- and yes, they survived our long, cold winter and are enjoying the extra moisture from our bonus snowstorm. These photos were taken on Monday, April 29th, the day before the storm.

The native sand cherry in front of the HAHA Museum is leafing out and will bloom soon, attracting native pollinators.

The red cowboy boot footstool was made by Hermosa resident Kay Johnston over 20 years ago. She was ready to discard it, but it has a new place in front of the Museum, at least for now.

Two large wooden planters stand in the garden in front of the HAHA Museum. A few tulips will bloom in the next couple days. HAHA volunteers will fill the planters with flowers through the summer and into the fall.

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HAHA's Hermosa Saturday Night was held Saturday, April 27th at the Hermosa School. This year our annual program honored Custer State Park on its centennial year.

We served sloppy joes and desserts to an appreciative crowd, who made generous donations to our Lucky Number Raffle and bid on many silent auction items—much of it Hermosa Centennial memorabilia from 1986. Thank you to Pop’s Grocery in Hermosa for the help with this meal. And a big thank you to all of our HAHA volunteers who put in so much time, effort and dessert-baking to make this event such a success.

Sally Svenson debuted 3 original songs from her forthcoming cd and photo book entitled “This Place: Custer State Park Celebrating 100 Years.” She is the wife of and co-musician with String Bean Svenson, and she worked in Custer State Park for many years. (Contact her at 255-4235 or fiddle@mt-rushmore.net)

Our speakers were Craig Pugsley, who worked for the state Game, Fish & Parks Department at Custer State Park for 40 years (he retired in 2017), first as park planner, then as long-time interpretive director; and Dick Miller, former Superintendent of the Park (2004 to 2011).
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At the beginning of the talks we asked for a show of hands of anyone who ever worked or volunteered in Custer State Park, to show how connected our community is to the park—more than 10% of the people there raised their hands.

View a slide show of the evening on our 2019 Events page of this website.

Thank you to all who attended HAHA's Hermosa Saturday Night and  chipped in for the meal, donated for a Lucky Number Raffle ticket, or bid on the silent auction.

The funds raised will go to help HAHA's mission of preserving our local history and bringing arts and historical education to our eastern Custer County community.

THANK YOU for your generosity!

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This 1965 advertisement for Suzuki  motorcycles was found online at a storefront website. Text below the photo says "cutting out yearlings from one of the world's largest bison herds." The photo was taken at Custer State Park by Lawrence Schiller.

Lea DeVries Bale says the brave Suzuki rider is her brother, Harry Jay DeVries, who was a Custer State Park employee for years.

Lea DeVries Bale writes--- 
"Yes, he & Harvey Lancaster had the only 2 Suzuki's in the park. Both are now deceased. Harvey passed away a few years ago & my brother passed away last year. Harvey was 94 years old & my brother was 80. Both guys were over 6' tall & the very best of friends even after they left the park. Yes, this is one of the ways they did work the bison. The superintendent at that time was Les Price."

Thanks for the update, Lea.

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Linda Hasselstrom is continuing to work on clippings files for the HAHA Museum that someone else started, of news items particular to Hermosa and Custer County, which includes Custer, Buffalo Gap, Pringle, Fairburn, Red Shirt, and Dewey as well as Hermosa.

She clips and files from the Custer County Chronicle and Rapid City Journal newspapers, any article on the following:
-- Obituaries
-- Funeral Notices
-- Weddings
-- Births
-- Other community news stories

Obituaries, for instance, usually list extended family members and spouses, parents, children, grandchildren, and a bit about the family history. Exactly the sort of information that helps us remember who is related to whom and where they lived.

Don't throw out Granny's scrap book! If you or a relative have news clippings-- especially those from years ago-- the HAHA Museum would love to have them (or copies) for our files.

Please write on any clipping the title of the publication, the year, month and day of publication, and if possible the page number. But please send any clippings, whether these items are included or not.

"These are the kinds of records that are invaluable to historians," says Hasselstrom. "They can provide the basis for history of all kinds for our future."

You can mail clippings to HAHA
Hermosa Arts and History Association
PO Box 175
Hermosa SD 57744

Or bring clippings to any of our HAHA events or monthly member meetings.

Or send us a message from the HAHA Facebook page. 

Or send us an email at haha.hermosa@yahoo.com

Thank you!
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