South Dakota Lifetime State Park Entrance License

Section 41-17-13.4 gives free admission to any South Dakota state park or recreation area, and a fifty percent discount on any camping fee and associated electrical service fee, to a South Dakota resident in one of four positions: a resident who receives a veteran allotment for a total disability deemed a service-connected injury; a resident who has received a United States Veterans' Administration K Award; a resident who was held as a prisoner of war; or a resident who served on active duty, or as a member of the armed forces reserve or the National Guard, and is classified by VA as totally disabled as a result of a service-connected injury. A qualifying applicant is issued a lifetime park entrance licence. Two of those routes ask for nothing like a hundred percent rating. The K Award is special monthly compensation under 38 U.S.C. 1114(k) for anatomical loss or loss of use, and a veteran drawing it can have a modest combined rating. Prisoner of war status asks about captivity, not disability, and a former prisoner of war with no rating at all qualifies on the face of the statute. The Department of Veterans Affairs' own page describing this benefit mentions only "100 percent total and permanent disabled or is a 'K' Award recipient" and leaves the prisoner of war route out entirely, which is the sort of omission that sends a qualified applicant away. Game, Fish and Parks, meanwhile, administers it more broadly than the statute reads. Its application page lists three acceptable documents: a K Award or a VA letter indicating 100 percent total service-connected disability, documentation verifying prisoner of war status, or documentation verifying Purple Heart recipient status. A Purple Heart route appears nowhere in 41-17-13.4. An applicant holding only a Purple Heart is being admitted by administrative practice rather than by statute, which is worth knowing in both directions: it is available now, and it is not protected by the statute if the practice changes. Applications are made through the Go Outdoors South Dakota system, with documents uploaded to the customer profile. Approved applicants get a billfold card and a hang tag, the card holder must be present at the park entrance and may be asked to prove identity, and the camping discount is applied automatically to online reservations once the paperwork is processed. Three unrelated park exemptions reach military groups without any disability test. Park entrance licences are not required for past and present military personnel, their families and guests participating in an approved military group event held in a state park, which includes South Dakota veterans, Guard and reserve members, and patients of veterans hospitals in the state with their families. Members and guests of a South Dakota veterans organisation, a Guard or reserve unit, and patients currently admitted to a veterans hospital with their attendants are exempt from the George S. Mickelson Trail user fee for a special event hosted by their organisation, on a permit obtained at least five days in advance. Separately, 41-17-11 authorises agreements and leases for the use of Custer State Park by the National Guard.