Lewis & Clark will be out and about again in the Pierre/Fort Pierre area– only this time they will be a snowplow and a tow plow rather than explorers discovering new land.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation held its first ever “Name the Snowplow” Contest in January and by the time the contest ended (Jan. 31, 2021), over 800 entries had been submitted. SDDOT staff then voted to select the winners.
The Pierre area is the only part of the state naming two plows– “Lewis” will be a snowplow and “Clark” will be a tow plow. In the Mobridge area, the winning entry was “Winter Warrior.”
Interim Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt says the contest was designed to engage people across the state with the SDDOT in a fun and unique way. He says safe winter driving and snowplow safety awareness is vital to keeping people safe each and every day.
SDDOT Area: Snowplow Name: Submitted by:
Aberdeen Area: Darth Blader Dave Bacon (Aberdeen)
Belle Fourche Area: Art Family and Friends of Art DeKnikker (Faith/Bison)
Custer Area: Mt. Plowmore Landon Harrod (Edgemont)
Huron Area: Snow Mater Jim Bruce (Highmore)
Mitchell Area: Blizzard Wizard Cordell Davis (Plankinton)
Mobridge Area: Winter Warrior Marion Goehring (Herreid)
Pierre Area: Lewis (plow) & Clark (tow plow) Jackie Heier (Pierre)
Rapid City Area: Polar Patroller Tiffany Hoff (Rapid)
Sioux Falls Area: SnowBeGone Kenobi Shawn Hanson (Sioux Falls)
Watertown Area: Thaw Enforcement Robert Innes (Aurora)
Winner Area: Walter the Salter Dairy Queen Staff (Winner)
Yankton Area Frosty the Snowplow Lilly Kroger (Beresford)
The winners will soon officially meet and take photos with their locally named snowplow. Ideas were submitted by individuals, families, elementary classrooms, senior living centers and businesses across the state. Snowplow naming photos and local stories will be shared on the SDDOT website at https://dot.sd.gov/inside-sddot/of-interest/sddot-snowplow-naming-contest.
Rapid City Region Engineer Todd Seaman says the name Art was submitted by several people in the Belle Fourche Area in memory of 43-year SDDOT veteran snowplow operator, Art DeKnikker. He says the opportunity to honor Art’s dedicated public service is a true testament to all our plow operators who work hard to keep citizens safe.
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