If you were “painted blue” in the 1970s, you were set for life. IBM dominated the computer market in the era before the PC, and people who worked for “Big Blue” usually stayed until they retired. Graduating from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T)with a degree in computer science in 1984, Don [...]

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At 25, Sharlet Brown loved Chicago. She was young and “still incredibly immortal.” Getting mugged once and hit by a cab didn’t dampen her enthusiasm for Lake Michigan, skyscrapers, elevated trains and crowds of people downtown. And why not? As a girl growing up on an isolated ranch in northwestern South Dakota, Sharlet heard her [...]

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Annette Slaba faced a tough choice. She loved teaching. The pay supplemented the income from the ranch that she and her husband operate with the help of their kids in the remote northwestern corner of South Dakota. But in 2003 her new school assignment meant driving 40 miles one way on gravel roads in all [...]

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From her home in Deadwood, South Dakota Kate McGraw plans parties all over the country. She’s part of a new breed of professional meeting and event planners. She organizes conventions in Miami, conferences in Hawaii, celebrations in Las Vegas. She books charter flights, reserves blocks of hotel rooms, and plans meals for thousands of people. [...]

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Michael Cales wanted to be a rock star. He had grown up in Southern California. His dad was a hard-working entrepreneur who laid carpet for a living. When Michael was in high school, the family moved to a small town in Utah to get away from the tensions of urban life and get closer to [...]

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When Tom Unterseher and Heather Bohr moved from Pasadena to Mobridge in 1994, they imagined a short stay. It was a cost saving relocation to reduce their overhead while they worked to make their publishing business successful. When the World Wide Web suddenly became popular over the next several years, their business was transformed. They gave up publishing in [...]

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Throughout history writers and artists have retreated to the countryside to think and work. Maybe they have always been New Pioneers. The age of the Internet makes it easier. Yesterday I drove to Howes Corner at the intersection of highways 34 and 73 in western South Dakota to interview writer and teacher Joan Wink. Joan [...]

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In the final weeks of 1981, lawyers for the federal government and for AT&T, the largest corporation in the world, negotiated the break up of the historic Bell System. One major premise guided the lawyers for the government. The telecommunications industry was ready for competition, especially in the markets for equipment, long distance, and information [...]

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Most New Pioneers have a divided identity. Tonight, after landing at San Francisco International Airport, I rented a car and drove north. Coming round the northbound turn on 101, the skyline of the illuminated city bloomed out of the night. Memories of childhood and the years we spent on the oceanside of the [...]

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RAPID CITY, SD – Adam B. grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. Today, he’s a senior at Black Hills State University in Spearfish forty miles away. After visiting with friends or hitting the books, when it’s time to go to work to pay the bills, Adam doesn’t go far. He sits down at the [...]

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