BELLE FOURCHE - "I am looking at pieces of history," Suzanne Page said Wednesday while holding her Appaloosa at the Center of the Nation Monument in Belle Fourche.

The school bus driver from Fairfax, Vt., and husband, Sandy, relaxed after taking part in ceremonies celebrating America's "Heartland" with the rest of the trail riders and crew of the Best of America by Horseback cable television show.

Trail master and show producer Tom Seay told Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard at the ceremonies that the stopover in Belle Fourche impressed the entire group enough that they were adding a rest day to enjoy the community.

Seay had planned the Belle Fourche stop with the S.D. Department of Tourism's Emily Currey and Belle Fourche Chamber of Commerce executive Teresa Schanzenbach as a major focus of filming the riders at the nation's center.

The ride and stopover in Belle Fourche is expected to be featured in Seay's RFD-TV cable show this fall - but he added Tuesday night that he's hoping to get a high-definition television series out for an even wider audience.

"We're negotiating," he said.

The "Best of America" trail ride includes crew members, riders making the entire trip from Mexico to Canada across the nation, and riders who join the group for a week, two or three during the trek.

They come from all over the U.S., including places where cowboy clothing is not an everyday outfit as in Belle Fourche.

Seay is a Virginian.

"My Dad was into horses, and I wouldn't call it 'cowboy,' but the lifestyle of rural America goes back to Jamestown - being tied to the soil and your roots."

His show took an earlier ride on an east-west line across the nation before, "but I didn't have time to enjoy it. This time we wanted to go really through the heartland of the country with people who made you feel at home."

He praised the state's tourism department and Belle Fourche chamber, noting, "There are 49 states that ought to take a course from South Dakota tourism on how to do things right."

At Wednesday's ceremonies, he presented Currey and Schanzenbach certificates proclaiming them the best state tourism and best town chamber organizations in the country.

He added that where he lives 90 minutes from Washington, D.C., there are drive-by shootings and killings every day. In America's heartland, he said, people want to help their neighbors instead.

As for the trail riders from all walks of life, he said, "I'd take these people anywhere."

He added that they began the ride as strangers and now are a family.

His show is available throughout Europe as well as in the U.S., Seay said.

"They are hungry to see America - and not what they see on CNN."

He added that they marvel at the friendliness of rural America and the variety of landscape and freedom not found on their continent.