Northern Route

Here's an article about the "Northern Route" tourism push that I discussed here. Apparently I confused this proposal with one I had heard of before, making a more direct road from Aberdeen to Rapid City.  Here's the gist:

There currently are four regional associations that receive $55,000 each in state assistance for marketing and promotion. They aren't set in state law, however.

The purpose for re-dividing and creating a new fifth region would be to place more emphasis on recruiting vacation travelers from metropolitan markets east of South Dakota to drive through the northern tier of counties on their way to the Black Hills.

Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, is the legislation's prime sponsor. Hundstad, D-Bath, is the lead sponsor in the Senate. They recently met with Tourism and State Development Secretary Richard Benda.

"The idea is to bring more attention to that part of the state. There's a lot of places between Watertown and Aberdeen and Pierre and Rapid City," Novstrup said.