head of cattle. resident in south dakota. in controlled recklessness, nathan sanderson restores the live who is a key player in developing the south dakota cattle industry. >> we are here in the capital here in south dakota and we got the capital building behind us and adjacent is one of the highlights to south dakota. the state of south dakota really developed in two ways so it started as dakota territory and in 1889 south korda, north dakota both became states. at the time of statehood, eastern south dakota have been settled for a number of years. farmers came over from minnesota, iowa, other places in the midwest.

the western half of south dakota was the great sioux indian reservation. the development of western south dakota really lagged behind the easton every considerable respect. the ranching culture that grew up in western south dakota happen far later than the farming culture of south dakota and was absolutely essential to the way in which south dakota developed as a state. the book i wrote is called controlled recklessness. it's a story of the development of western south dakota. he's kind of a foundational figure in the state of south dakota. he was a cowboy, he was cattleman, he had 865,000-acre ranch in the early 1900s. he was involved in the expansion of the railroad into western south dakota, also at that same time and was one of the figures that was really essential to the growth and development of western south dakota. a lot of people think of south dakota as a corn and bean farming state. certainly it's more than that. about 800,000 people that we've got the state right now, we've also got almost 4 million head of cattle.

ed lemon was involved in the expansion of that cattle ranching industry primary in western south dakota which was essential along with mining and the expansion of the railroad into the growth of our state in the early part of the 20th century. ed lemon came to western south dakota in the glory days of cattle ranching. the open range, no fences, and not much to speak up for law enforcement. they kind of made their own way. he came to south dakota with the shively caddi cattle company and they made their living primarily by ranching with the headquarters adjacent to the indian reservation. they have their ranch headquarters adjacent to the headquarters. they were trespassers. they made their living raising cattle that were driven up from texas and other wares areas on the trail. they were raised in western south dakota. lemon was part and parcel to that.

in 1897, he bossed one of the largest cattle roundups ever. 500 roundup wagons, were talking about a tremendously huge operation. that was really typical of western south dakota in the late 1890s, early 1900s. large cattle operators, hundreds of thousands of cattle had been rounded up at the same time and driven to rail heads for marketing in chicago and other places. one of the things they did was they illegally grazed their cattle on the pineridge indian reservation. cattleman and indians often had very good relationship rather than a contentious relationship. add lemon really personified that. when he grazed his cattle on the reservation, he would invite any indians interested in coming and sharing a meal with them and whatever he would have cattle that were

fit from market, he would provide them t to for free, no cost to the indians and as a result they turned the other way when they were grazing on his reservation. it was a close connection they had and it manifested himself when he had a 65000-acre ranch on the standing rock indian reservation. one of the things the indians called him was yellow apple. why would you call him yellow apple? lemon, like the fruit, there's no name for lemon but they did know what an apple was and they had a word for the name yellow so got changed to yellow apple. he was a known quantity and a

guy who helped them as much as he helped himself. he was really involved in the open range cattle industry and he was involved with the sun setting of that open range industry to more open pastures. he helped establish the way of ranching open pastures with his lease. it all had a single boundary sense around it. it was this massive 210-mile long barbed wire fence around the parameter. no interior fencing. he took the techniques and transferred them. even today in western south dakota where it's been carved up into a lot of different smaller ranches, a 10000-acre ranch is not uncommon at all in western south dakota. every cow that ends up on the dinner plate starts out as a

calf in someplace like western south dakota. while we might think of it growing and evolving from open range cattle that were driven out on these cattle trails to now the beef that shows up in your supermarket, the origins of those calves born on the range are much different than they are today. they're born on the range is under much the same conditions , the same skies, same grass they did a century or more ago. he had written hundreds and hundreds of stories about his own life. he was in his 70s at the time, he wrote an article called developing the west. out of these stories, one can glean a really good insight into him as a person and an individual. controlled recklessness is the story of him but it also

mirrors the growth and development of western south dakota. both shared similar characteristics of the controlled part he was a very cerebra cerebral great guy. he was organized and methodical and intelligent so from bossing around to the way in which he organized his cattle roundup, he was very controlled. at the same time, he had a wild and reckless street. he wasn't one for shirking danger, whether or stampede's or swollen rivers or indian engagement, he wasn't gonna back down. that mirrors the growth of western south dakota. the government had six plans for the way in which one could homestead. you went and filed papers, you gotta hundred and 60 or 320-acre parcel of land, it was all designed to be very methodical, but the reality was much different. you would file land claim

under your name or your brother's name. it was very reckless in the way that it was implemented. controlled recklessness recognizes the two competing halves of both the growth and development and his personality. control on one hand, a little bit less control of the reckless on the other. he's all around you but is just right underneath the surface so you might not be see him when he's there. so his namesake town, there's a beautiful metal sculpture there in his image. the entire railroad that is now the santa fe railroad, it was all designed as the milwaukee railroad because of him. timberlake, buffalo, lemon south dakota were really established as a result of his involvement. he is a figure that could be

some bit player in the development of single state, but he's quite a bit more than that pretty much the same way that charlie good night or all of her loving, these famous cattlemen, that lonesome dove was designed after or based on, lemon is that to the northern great plains. charlie good night in the southern great plains are these guys who helped establish communities and develop more than just their individual cattle ranch. he did that in the northern great plains, helping to guide the railroad men establish settlements. all of these things combined brought people to the region far beyond anyone typical cattle drive or anyone cattleman ever could. he helped to put in place systems that brought people