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Hometown Hero.. M 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 •SUM Bn by KAREN KARVONEN A x*cs : * 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.” Page 6 • www.americanprofile.com