Who says $4-a-gallon gas means no vacation this year? Some of the best things in life are free, and some of the most interesting things are close to home.

You might know about them, but have you ever actually been there?

This 10-week series by Chuck Cecil suggests easy, economical driving to interesting attractions that are a little “Off the Beaten Path.”

You can have a great time on these “pocketbook vacations.” Some are unmarked on graveled roads. Most are less than an hour from your home. All are out-of-the ordinary.



The world’s only amateur baseball hall of fame is just a short drive away.

The South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Lake Norden. The interesting museum has had a complete facelift this spring for an even more interesting and meaningful review of the glory days of amateur baseball in South Dakota.

Lake Norden is on Highway 81 north of Lake Poinsett, then five miles west on Highway 28.

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ll enjoy the well-displayed facility on the south side of Lake Norden’s main street.

The Hall of Fame is open all day, seven days a week, beginning May 1 until October.

If you’re in Lake Norden on a weekday, you can also drop by the city offices, also on main street, and view one of the best farm toy museums in the state. The collection was made possible by a gift of cash and antique farm toys from retired Hazel farmer, the late Don Christman.

It’s one of Eastern South Dakota’s best-kept secrets and well worth a stop while on your Lake Norden baseball tour, but its hours are city workers’ hours, so it’s closed on weekends.

The baseball Hall of Fame was built in 1977 with gifts from baseball fans, including a substantial boost from a former Lake Norden resident who wasn’t a baseball fan. Helen Salo, a former resident then living in Florida, contacted the late Ray Antonen, who was the force behind the Hall of Fame idea; her gift resulted in the building being named in her honor.

The Hall of Fame houses hundreds of artifacts recounting the history of amateur baseball, which has and continues to thrive in a state were town teams have been competing against one another since the late 1800s.

There are vintage game programs, hundreds of photographs, baseballs from unusual or memorable games, a unique deck of cards celebrating Eureka’s championship run in 1955, old bats (some of which are broken and held together with three-penny nails rather than tape), trophies, yearbooks, old baseball uniforms and equipment and newspaper clippings galore.

You’ll see the baseball thrown by Robert (Spud) Grosshuesch, who had an important role in the state’s longest baseball game in 1948. That was a 28-inning marathon between Platte and Bonesteel. Bonesteel prevailed, 4-3.

One unique piece of old equipment is a pillow-sized catcher’s mitt made of binder canvas with a crude leather glove sewn onto one side. It was made and used by farmer Ed Powers, who caught for the Renner and Mapletown Township team in Minnehaha County from 1905 to 1910.

Powers’ catcher’s mask, also homemade, is fashioned with ordinary wire.

The Hall of Fame was refurbished this winter with a grant from First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard. With the donation, the Lake Norden Hall of Fame Board of Directors contracted with Siouxland Heritage Museum of Sioux Falls for the makeover.

Some of the theme areas in the building include Hall of Fame Inductees and Equipment, State Tournaments, State Baseball Parks, State Championships, Major-Minor Leaguers, Courageous Players and Media.

As an added bonus on your trip, drive by the huge, ultra-modern Lake Norden Cheese Plant – also on main street – where more than 60 truckloads of milk arrive daily for processing.



This photo, taken before his death, shows Lake Norden Toy Museum benefactor, retired farmer Don Christman of Hazel, displaying some of the toys he had collected since boyhood.



Photo Three

The South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in Lake Norden.