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Hometown
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It’s rugged country fit more for
beast than man. In the remote South Dakota
badlands, once sacred to American Indians who
stalked buffalo on its plains, coyote howls echo
off the walls of deep canyons—and 500 wild
mustangs run free, thanks to former bronc rider,
bullfighter, cattle rancher and rodeo photographer
Dayton O. Hyde.
In the late 1980 s, Hyde was driving through
California on a trip to buy cattle when he passed a
huge government holding pen where wild horses
were corralled to protect federal land from exces
sive grazing. "It made me so mad to see them sad
eyed and dejected that I decided to do something,”
says Hyde, now 81.
In 1988, Hyde bought an 11,000-acre ranch
near Hot Springs, S.D. (pop. 4,129), to take in and
release captured mustangs. He created the Black
Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary to protect not just
wild horses and the prairies, but also America's
equine heritage.
"These horses represent our Western history," he
says, “and it's important to keep this link with the
past, to keep this old blood alive. Someday we will
want to go back to the mustang to re-infuse their
smarts’ and hardiness into our domestic horses."
To keep the sanctuary's horse population
in check, Hyde sells some of the
foals each year. Proceeds from tile ,
sales anti money collected thnxigh '
volunteer-guided tours supjxirt the
sanctuary, which is one of the tew
spots in the world where people can
see large heals of appulcxsas,
puints, palominos and other
wild Itorses roaming and A
romping on the open
range, watch goklen
eagles soaring above
sandstone cliffs and i
witness an age-old m
American Indian U
tradition. H
“Horses repre
sent our Western
history," says
Dayton Hyde.
Wild
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by KAREN
KARVONEN
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Each summer, some 400 Laknta Sioux set up teepees
along the Cheyenne River and hold an annual Sun
Dance ceremony, a religious ritual honoring commu
nity, courage and endurance. “I can hear the drumming
and chanting clear down in the prairie house where I
live," says Hyde, who extended an invitation in 1998 for
the Sioux to convene on his property.
The sanctuary's scenery is so spectacular that
Ted Turner made the 1995 movie Crazy Hone on
Hyde's property, leaving behind the replica of
Fort Robinson built for the production. Disney
filmmakers shot scenes of the Wounded Knee
massacre for Hidalgo at the sanctuary.
Growing up in Marquette, Mich. (pop.
19,661), far from the Old West, Hyde
always was fascinated with horses
and ranch life. Eager to become a
cowboy, he ran away from home
at age 13 to live on his uncle’s
Oregon cattle ranch in the
late 19.305. Hyde caught
and broke mustangs for
ranch work and took
Hk over his uncle's spread.
Later lie became a
hroiii ruler, rodeo
MlttA l l' 'V- n and n>. ieo ;In
S’ ».. % m -
tographer—and a celebrated one at that. Lying
flat in the arena and shooting straight up, he
captured dramatic, low-angle photos of bucking
broncs with all four of their feet off the ground,
and often put himself in great danger in pursuit
of the perfect image.
“I would get bulls coming over the top of
me,” recalls Hyde, whose photos appeared in Life
magazine and later were included in his autobi
ography, The Pastures oj Beyond, which detailed
his evolution from riding to rodeo, photography
and wild-horse ranching.
' *****
Now, says Hyde, these horses can “race around and be free.”
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