SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Schoolhouse teacher, frightened students blamed for gator escape
This week in South Dakota history: Sept. 19-26
An alligator got loose in southeast South Dakota 75 years ago this week.
Mr. and Mrs. Hatcher of Florida had gifted a juvenile gator to their nieces living in Beloit, Iowa, just across the Big Sioux River from Canton, according to the Sept. 22, 1950, edition of the Argus Leader, which reported that a schoolhouse teacher had taken the out-of-place critter on loan for educational purposes. But when Miss Marguerite Lems lost control of the gator in a rural classroom, student fright left her without any help to corral the reptile. It darted out an opening, escaping into the wild prairie.
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