Elk Point celebrates Lewis & Clark legacy

Elk Point celebrates Lewis & Clark legacy Elk Point's Lewis and Clark Heritage Days, Aug. 16-17 and 22, commemorates the anniversary of when Lewis and Clark stopped in present-day Elk Point. The explorers held the first election by U.S. citizens west of the Mississippi River at this site.

"Heritage Days is a great way to commemorate the heritage of Lewis and Clark. The goal of the Heritage Festival is to teach people this history," said Barb Wurtz, Heritage Day committee member. "With living history re-enactments, people learn by seeing what happened on Lewis and Clark's journey."

The highlight of the festival is the re-enactment of the election of Patrick Gass on Aug. 17 at 3 p.m. and Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. Eugene Gass Painter, Pvt. Patrick Gass' great-grandson, speaks about the Corps of Discovery's journey.

American Indian dancers display their heritage and culture. Frontier re-enactors portray survival skills in a pre-1840-style rendezvous camp.

Call (605) 356-3336 or visit www.elkpoint.org for more information.

Lewis and Clark Heritage Days have been designated a "Great Event" by the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development. With that designation, the department provides assistance to event coordinators and creates and funds promotions for the event.

The objective of the "Great Events" program is to boost attendance at South Dakota events and to increase economic impact in host communities.

South Dakota reported nine additional human cases of West Nile July 26-Aug. 1, one each in Clay, Douglas, Dewey, Stanley and Brookings counties and two each in Hyde and Bennett counties.

In the past three weeks, 13 cases of West Nile virus disease have been reported in South Dakota. These include five cases of WN fever, four cases of WN meningoencephalitis and four with diagnosis pending. There have also been nine asymptomatic individuals who were detected through routine screening of a blood donation since July 1. The median age of South Dakota's 13 cases is 64 years; 54 percent are male and 38 percent are female.

South Dakota counties with human WNV cases or blood bank screening detections include Bennett two, Brookings one, Charles Mix one, Clay one, Davison one, Dewey one, Douglas one, Faulk one, Hughes one, Hyde two, Lyman one, Minnehaha one, Pennington four, Potter one, Spink one, Stanley one, and Todd one.

New West Nile Virus detections in South Dakota for the week of July 26-Aug. 1 include:

Two crows and one blue jay, Mitchell, Davison County.

Two crows and one blue jay, Rapid City, Pennington County.

One crow, Brookings and one blue jay, Bruce, Brookings County.

One blue jay, one house finch and one sparrow, Forestburg, and one great horned owl, rural Woonsocket, Sanborn County.

One crow and one pelican, Madison, Lake County.

One sparrow, Ft. Meade, Meade County.

One blue jay, Fruitdale, Butte County.

One red tailed hawk, Spearfish, Lawrence County.

One dove, Webster, Day County.

One blue jay, Delmont, Douglas County.

One blue jay, Yankton, Yankton County.

One blue jay, Howard, Miner County.

One blue jay, rural Estelline, Deuel County.

One pelican and one cormorant, Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County.

One blue jay and six mosquito pools, Pierre, Hughes County.

One blue jay, Miller, Hand County.

One blue jay, Vermillion, Clay County.

One blue jay, Lake Norden, Hamlin County.

One pelican, rural Spencer, McCook County.

One mosquito pool from Watertown, Codington County.

One mosquito pool from Huron, Beadle County.

The 62 cumulative bird WNV detections include 25 crows, 23 blue jays, three pelicans, two sparrows, and one each dove, owl, prairie chicken, hawk, robin and woodpecker.

To date, WNV has been detected in 42 counties: Beadle, Bennett, Brookings, Brown, Butte, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Codington, Custer, Davison, Day, Deuel, Dewey, Douglas, Fall River, Faulk, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Hughes, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jackson, Lake, Lincoln, Lyman, McCook, Meade, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Pennington, Potter, Roberts, Sanborn, Spink, Stanley, Todd, Turner, Union and Yankton.

The following suggestions can help reduce the risk of West Nile:

* Avoid mosquito bites.

* Mosquito-proof your home.

* Eliminate mosquito growing places in your yard.

* Support community mosquito control efforts.

* If you have a severe or unusual headache, see a physician as soon as possible.