Tag Archives: south dakota

Under Prehistoric Skies

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

I was digging through my files the other day, looking for the seeds of a new blog story, when I came across my first magazine assignment.

I had just sold a major feature to Outpost on an expedition I’d done in the Taklamakan Desert. The story was getting good feedback, and when an opening came they asked me to travel on assignment to South Dakota with photographer Jason George. I was given complete freedom to come up with my story angle, and I worked with our contacts on the ground to arrange the trip.

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A Postcard from Armageddon

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

 

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I’m 31 feet below ground at the Delta One (D-01) launch facility, standing in a reinforced concrete tube, behind a foot-thick steel blast door. A loop of Cold War tunes plays in my head: The Final Countdown, followed by 99 Red Balloons (the English version, with that sexy accent). I’m facing a grey metal control panel with several bakelite telephones and a number of switches–but only one of them matters.

I’ve got my hand on the key. And I have to admit, I’m tempted.

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The Courage to Dream Great Dreams

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, not far from the patriotic visage of Mount Rushmore, the curious traveler can find the growing realization of one man’s dream.

In 1939 Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Sioux asked Bostonian Korczak Ziolkowski, already a well-known sculptor, to come west to carve a mountain. Standing Bear wanted him to tell the story of his people, “So that the white man will know that the red man has great heroes also.“

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