Blood Run became a national Historical Site back in 1970. And now, more than 40 years later, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard wants it to become South Dakota's the 13th State Park.
Many feel this is long overdue.
"Blood Run comes along as a significant historical area that also has a beauty that will almost take your breath away and yet it’s so close to Sioux Falls but still kind of hidden," Jeff Scherschligt with the Parks and Wildlife Foundation said.
But Daugaard’s good news hit Scherschligt with an unusual revelation.
"That really hits me as a 50-plus-year-old man that in my life time we have never really created a new state park and yet our forefathers created 12 state parks to set aside valuable and important land,” Scherschligt said. “To hear about our generation with much more wealth and capabilities have not created one state park.”
Scherschlight hopes Blood Run could become east river's Custer State Park.
"Now, we are talking about creating the same concept ten miles from Sioux Falls within four miles of the casino and how can we leverage that into not only good things for our own people but also generating economic development," Scherschligt said.
With all the work it’s taken to get the project this far, everyone involved says the progress is happening faster than ever expected.
"What was a plan over a decade; we could do it over the next two years. And make this thing real for the people and for the economic development purpose," Scherschligt said.
The proposal for Blood Run to become a state park would cost the state $2 million, but the bulk of what's needed to finish this park, nearly $3 million, will be raised privately.
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