1. Clark, South Dakota is home to the world famous Mashed Potato Wrestling Contest.
2. South Dakota’s State motto is “Under God the People Rule.”
3. No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.
4. “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker is a famous native of South Dakota.
5. It is illegal to fall asleep in a cheese factory.
6. In the 1890s, Sioux Falls was crowned the “Divorce Capital of the Plains.”
7. Mitchell is the home of the world’s only Corn Palace, which is made of 3500 bushels of corn.
8. Carrie Ingalls of “Little House on the Prairie” lived most of her adult life in Keystone.
9. NBC anchor Tom Brokaw graduated from Yankton High School and attended the University of South Dakota.
10. In Huron it is against the law to cause static. No balloon heads?
11. Belle Fourche is the geographical center of the United States of America.
12. Pierre, South Dakota is the only combination of state and capital in the U.S. that doesn’t share any letters.
13. South Dakota has more miles of shoreline than the state of Florida.
14. In the Mount Rushmore state the only big game dogs can be used to hunt for are mountain lions. And only if your dog is Cujo, apparently. Good luck with that.
15. Mount Rushmore took 14 years and only $1 million dollars to build.
16. Mt. Rushmore was called Mountain of Rock before the faces of our presidents were carved into the side of it.
17. Hunters cannot use spotlights, except to hunt raccoons.
18. Custer State Park in East Custer is home to a herd of 1,500 free-roaming bison.
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19. Wild Bill Hickok was killed in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1876 and is buried in a cemetery there.
20. The Flaming Fountain on South Dakota State Capitol Lake is fed by an artesian well with natural gas content so high that it causes it to glow.
21. The Anne Hathaway Cottage at Wessington Springs is the only structure in the Midwest U.S. that still features a thatched roof.
22. One of largest and most complete skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on Earth was excavated near Faith, SD.
23. Badlands National Park is home to a unique bed of fossil evidence dating back 35 million years, including a three-toed horse, a saber-toothed cat and a dog-sized camel.
24. The Homestake Mine in Lead was the largest underground gold mine in North America until it closed in 2002.
25. The Prairie Rattlesnake is the only venomous snake that is actually native to South Dakota.
26. In Deadwood a permit is required to mix one alcoholic beverage with another. But you can mix all the beer you want.
27. It is also illegal there for casinos to hang a sign saying “Casino.”
28. The U.S.S. South Dakota was the most decorated battleship during World War II.
29. Shooting animals from an airplane is a crime. Sorry, Mrs. Palin.
30. South Dakota forbids films that show police officers being struck or treated in an offensive manner.
31. The tradition of spreading sawdust on the floors of bars began in Deadwood as an effort to hide gold dust that would gather there.
32. Another unique one from Deadwood – apparently no sign shall move, flash, blink, flicker, rotate, pulse or scintillate in city limits.
33. In South Dakota a person is required to have a license in order to hunt with a raptor. Important question: The dinosaur or the bird?
34. South Dakota has one of the largest American Indian populations, with nine tribes and an estimated 60,000 people currently living there.
35. In Sisseton using a throwing star is a crime.
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36. The Sturgis Rally and Races is internationally known and brings motorcyclists from all over the globe to compete in the hill climb and other racing events.
37. The Badlands are often referred to as “the playground” of the dinosaur due to the large amounts of fossils found there.
38. Justin Davis, 24, was the youngest person to ever be elected to the South Dakota Legislature in 2002.
39. It’s a crime to molest a mink den in South Dakota.
40. South Dakota named the honeybee the state insect in 1978.
41. Hamburger can contain no more than 30 percent fat and 25 percent beef cheeks.
42. In Deadwood it is illegal to engage in seership, palmistry, magnetism and oriental mysteries.
43. Sage Creek Wilderness is the home of the black-footed ferret, the most endangered land mammal in North America.
44. In South Dakota, prison inmates are required to pay for their incarceration costs, barring any other financial obligations.
45. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs contains the largest concentration of Columbian mammoth and Woolly mammoth bones discovered intact in the world, and has been left untouched to this day.
46. The Crystal Springs Ranch Rodeo Arena in Clear Lake was built on a drained duck pond.
47. South Dakota is home to a prairie dog settlement measuring 100 by 250 miles, and contains an estimated 400 million prairie dogs.
48. The popular Black Hills Gold jewelry was invented when goldsmith Heri LeBeau of France got lost in the Black Hills of South Dakota and said he had a vision of running water, with grape leaves flowing through it, that led him to safety at a nearby vineyard.
49. Geologists claim that the Sioux quartzite spires in Palisades State Park are 1.2 billion years old, and that it is one of only a handful of areas in the U.S. where red pipestone can be found.
50. In South Dakota the sale of eggs with black, white, green or mixed rot is prohibited. But red and purple rot are totally okay, guys.
51. The Crazy Horse mountain carving is the world’s largest sculpture at 563 feet high, and 641 feet long.
52. Jewel Cave is the third-longest cave in the world with more than 120 miles of passages having been surveyed.
53. If there are more than five Native Americans on your property you may shoot them. That’s a tad bit hostile, don’t ya think?
54. Pierre is the second least populous state capital in the U.S.
55. Raven Industries in Sioux Falls created the first modern hot air balloon in the late 1950s.
56. Lemmon is the world’s largest petrified wood park, with fossilized remains of life from 50 million years old.
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What’s your favorite South Dakota fun fact? Tell us in the comments below!
