2022 Award-winners and well-known South Dakota historians (from left): Richard Carlson, Jace DeCory, Herb Blakely award winner Karen J. Holzer, and Dr. David Wolff.
KEVIN KUCHENBECKER, 2019 Herb Blakely Award and City of Deadwood, SD, Historic Preservation Officer.
Shebby Lee, long-time Past President and Charles Rambow of the Westerner’s Black Hills Corral #8, as awards are presented in 2018 at the conference held in Rapid City that year.
New logo of the conference in 2019…
First logo created by Bev Pechan, a conference co-founder and its first president, of the Keystone, SD Library
“The Dakota History Conference, as it was known when it was officially transferred by Dakota State University to the Center for Western Studies of Augustana University in 1989, is the model for the West River History Conference. The Dakota History Conference was founded in 1969 by Prof. Ernest Teagarden at DSU and was continued by Prof. Herb Blakely, also of DSU, until 1989. When Blakely retired from DSU and moved west, he and others, notably Shebby Lee, a long-time attendee and presenter at the Dakota Conference, established the West River History Conference. There was a Black Hills History Conference previous to the West River History Conference, sponsored by Black Hills State University and managed by Dr. David Miller, of BHSU, until his death. We are pleased that you are carrying on a great tradition in West River South Dakota. Best wishes with your upcoming conference.”
Dr. Harry Thompson, Executive Director
The Center for Western Studies AUGUSTANA UNIVERSITY
In 2019, West River History Conference moves to Deadwood SD and the Historic Martin and Mason Hotel.
Keystone, SD, near Mount Rushmore National Memorial hosted early conferences.
Photos from the 2023 Lead, South Dakota, conference.