Exploring Siouxland not for the Faint of Heart, Smithland

When I find places I like to use for my Lifelong Learning Photo Safari class I teach at Western Iowa Tech I like to explore the places in Siouxland prior to bringing students there. And exploring places to photograph to me is have the fun. I generally try to find places that as a class we can walk around and explore for a couple hours. On a last outing recently in Vermillion, SD, one of my students mentioned that we had walked quite a bit this particular day. I did say that the class description does mention having comfortable shoes to wear in signing up for the class. He laughed.

When photographing and getting to know a place I find it difficult to see things if I am just driving about. Now I do that when cruising back roads in the country, but in a lot of small communities I find a place to walk and then explore. I don’t exercise as much as I used to when my knees were a little better, but walking out, unless it’s a tornado or blizzard, is doable in any type of weather. And again, what’s a better way to spend a day.

Jerry Mennenga

Sioux City, Iowa

Spring Photo Safari class members on the hunt for images in Smithland, Iowa Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

A marble memorial built by a local doctor in the late 1800’s in the Little Sioux Cemetery outside Smithland, Iowa Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

This grave marker is for a person who died in February of 1877 at the Little Sioux Cemetery outside of Smithland, Iowa Saturday, April 29, 2017. It’s hard to imagine what the surrounding hillsides looked like then. If the area was still prairie or woodland and how many residents lived in Smithland at the time of its founding by O.B. Smith in the early 1850’s. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Spring Photo Safari class members climbing steps at the Folwer Preserve near Smithland, Iowa Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Walking around looking for photographs on a Photo Safari outing in Vermillion, SD Saturday, May 13, 2017. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

Walking around the campus of the University of South Dakota on a recent Photo Safari outing in Vermillion, SD Saturday, May 13, 2017. (Photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)