Badger Clark

Charles Badger Clark was born in Iowa in 1883. He accompanied his parents to South Dakota were his father served as superintendent of the Black Hills Methodist Mission in Deadwood. In 1902, Clark graduated from Deadwood High School and enrolled the following year at Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. After one year at Wesleyan, Clark sought adventure outside of South Dakota. He traveled south and spent time in Arizona and Cuba before returning to the Black Hills. Clark took up residence in Custer State Park, living in a small cabin until his death on September 26, 1957.

Clark published his first book of poetry in 1915 and became known as "the cowboy poet." In 1938, South Dakota governor Leslie Jensen appointed Clark South Dakota Poet Laureate, also known as the "Poet Lariat" of the West. Selected works by Badger Clark include: Badger Clark Ballads: Selected Works of a Cowboy Poet; God of the Open; Sky lines and Wood Smoke; Sun and Saddle Leather: including Grass Grown Trails and New Poems; and Boot and Bylines.

Harriet Seymour Popowski was also a South Dakotan poet. Her works include; Allegiance; Eighty Times Around the Sun: Collected Poems of Harriet Seymour Popowski; Finishing Touches and Twenty Christmases.