Prairie Dog Colony

On the way to the Badlands, and just before Prairie Homestead, we stopped at a little roadside store that had a prairie dog colony on the grounds.  I remembered stopping at this store in 1998, where they sell little bags of peanuts for visitors to feed to the prairie dogs that live all around the store. We each got a few bags, and walked around offering them to these cute little ground squirrels.  Some of them are very tame, and will actually take peanuts out of your hand, but most are skittish and run away as you approach.  We would drop peanuts near the holes, and soon they would scurry out and take them. I guess how tame they were depended entirely how hungry they were!  These guys were well fed, as this place seems to be a popular stop on the way to the National Park. It is easily identified by a large fiberglass statue of a prarie dog out front!

Prairie Homestead has one of the last surviving sod houses from the original settlers in this area in the 1800's.  They also have a rare white prairie dog colony.  They are decended from a single white prairie dog that was saved when other prairie dogs were being exterminated on a ranch nearby.  It was brought here, and through years of breeding, the entire colony has turned white!

They have kept the house and farm pretty much as it was over a hundred years ago.  There are chickens and ducks on the property, and of course, a gift shop. We fed peanuts to the prairie dogs and grain to the fowl, and wandered around the old buildings, which included a rusty old model T Ford in the barn.  Dawn was impressed by the antique sewing machine and old buttons in the house, as well as an old quilt on the bed- (Dawn is a quilter by trade).

 Tyler found the skull of a steer he wanted to keep...nope!  That stays here, sir! No dead cow parts in MY truck, unless it's a steak in the cooler!  There were a few of these skulls about the property...probably to give it that "old Western feel"  

Dawn found a chicken in the barn pecking away at a sealed 50lb bag of feed.. she "liberated" the feed and we all fed the chickens and ducks with it.  The chickens seemed more interested in eating out of our hands, rather than off the ground.  The prairie dogs were quite happy to make off with the rest of our peanuts!  Altogether, an interesting and educational side trip just before the entrance to Badlands National Park.