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Dayton Hyde honored by Black Hills Tourism Group

Hyde's Wild Horse Santurary is home to 500 mustangs

RAPID CITY, S.D. (10/30/09) — In past years, Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association has presented a Special Achievement Award annually to a person, organization or project that, in the judgment of the Executive Committee, has done something quite significant for the tourism industry. Past recipients have included “persons, places and things.” The 2009 winner’s achievements go beyond tourism. He is a national leader in the fight to preserve the American mustang, a symbol of our Western heritage.

Dayton Hyde is widely known as an exceptional self-trained naturalist, a successful rancher, an expert horseman and trainer, a photographer, an essayist, an author of 17 well-received books and as founder and president of the Institute of Range and the American Mustang. Most people in the Black Hills know him as the founder of the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, an 11,000-acre ranch near Hot Springs that is home to more than 500 wild mustangs.

Many people in western South Dakota love horses, but not many can claim to be in the same league as Dayton Hyde. It was that love that caused a 13-year-old Dayton to hop a freight train in Michigan and ride the rails to Oregon to work with wild horses on his uncle’s ranch. And after a lifetime as a successful Oregon rancher, it was horses that caused him to turn over his spread to his children and move to South Dakota in 1988.

An early fan of Dayton was South Dakota Gov. George Mickelson, who had read his books and appreciated his philosophy. While flying together over the beautiful rangeland that is today’s sanctuary, Mickelson urged his friend to start a nonprofit organization to gather wild horses where they could run free and at the same time preserve the land, as well as the horses, for future generations.

That’s exactly what Dayton Hyde did, and already future generations – tourists, wildlife enthusiasts, preservationists and conservationists -- are benefiting from this extraordinary man’s vision and compassion.

The inscription on the plaque reads: “Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association presents its 2009 Special Achievement Award to Dayton O. Hyde, conservationist, author, founder of Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, Hot Springs, South Dakota.

“In 1988, you founded the Institute of Range and the American Mustang. IRAM’s finest gift is the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, 11,000 privately-held acres of mountains, canyons, river valleys and prairies on the southern flanks of the Black Hills. It is a place of peace and freedom for more than 500 unadoptable and unwanted wild horses.

“You have also created a respected visitor site in the Black Hills, a showcase where the public can see and thrill to large herds of mustangs running free in a wild setting. It provides high-minded lessons in the conservation of our land and its living things.”

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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Bill Honerkamp at 605-355-3600