South Dakota & a bit of Nebraska

The drive from Bismarck to Wall near the Badlands was through very empty country – really empty. Hard to find a bathroom stop place. Lots of prairie and big ranches.

We stopped in Pierre to visit the South Dakota Heritage Center. Had expected it to be very similar to the one in North Dakota, but were surprised. The major Indian culture in these parts was the Sioux, as opposed to the agricultural Mandans and Hidatsas. Also, the homesteaders had a tougher time of it in “West River” (west of the Missouri). Lot more sod houses than up north. And more of a problem from the dust bowl era.

We also visited the National Grasslands visitor center in Wall; this was quite interesting and is the only center representing the 21 National Grasslands in several states, including one site in NE California. Interesting for us is that these Grasslands largely came from land that the US Govt. bought back from homesteaders who met with failed expectations during the dust bowl years of the Great Depression. Those folks generally had a very rough time, but the land is certainly in much better shape now (no plowing to expose the soil). The rolling prairie with the grasses leaning over in the ever-present wind is a beautiful sight. And of course we had to visit Wall Drug.

Sunday was hot; 100 deg F in Rapid City with a strong wind from the SE. It had been three years since the city has seen 100 (but, we have noted that 95 or so has been rather common this summer). Had a nice drive through the Badlands,

Bighorn Sheep ewes and lambs

 then we took a swing through the Black Hills above Mt Rushmore. It was more pleasant up there, and we got some good advice from rangers at a National Forest visitor center about sights to see on our Monday drive up in the northern part of the Black Hills.

Wow! They do have weather changes here. As predicted, a front came in from the north on Sunday night dropping a bit of rain and the high in Rapid City was only in the mid 70’s on Monday. A very welcome change. We enjoyed a nice drive into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower and enjoyed a nice walk around this monument – it is big!

Devil's Tower dominates the landscape

A climber's paradise

Well fed prairie dog

Up through Spearfish Canyon for a beautiful drive and waterfalls,

then after a picnic, on to Lead for a very interesting tour of the Homestake Gold Mine site – the mine closed in 2002 after 120+ years of operation. Our guide said it was the largest gold mine in the world. They had both an open pit that was nearly a mile across, and tunnels down 8,000 feet below the surface. But since the mine closed the town is rather dead with lots of property for sale.

Open Pit mine, 1 mile across

Three miles down the hill the good folks in Deadwood saw this coming and managed to petition the state of ND to allow gambling – Deadwood is the third largest gambling city in the US behind Vegas and Atlantic City. Just as I write this I wonder why our tour guide thinks they are larger than Reno?? In any event; every spot in town has slot machines and we saw plenty of blackjack tables, and poker, but no craps tables. At least in the two large casinos we visited. We also visited the Deadwood cemetery to see Wild Bill Hickok’s and Calamity Jane’s graves, among others.

Wild Bill on the left and Calamity Jane on the right

The scenery on this drive through the higher country of eastern Wyoming and the northern Black Hills was really pleasant – beautiful.

So Tuesday we go to the Central States Fair in Rapid City – their web site made us believe that this fair is a big deal. Well, maybe to the good folks here. It really seems more like a small (really small) county fair but fun none the less. The fair started last Friday (four days ago) and we were rather stunned to learn that all of the animals (except for a very small sample) were gone already! Apparently the 4H’s and others bring ‘em in on Friday, do their showing and judging things on Saturday and Sunday and take ‘em back home Sunday evening. Oh well. We will be back on Thursday for a rodeo.

One of the show categories/competitions was Legos

Wednesday found us back east of Rapid City and a tour through the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The Minuteman II missiles were in service from 1962 until about 1992; we toured the Delta control center including a visit down into the command center where two officers were on duty in 24 hour shifts. Our guide served there in about 1965 and it was very interesting to hear his account of life “in the capsule”. He did explain that the two on-duty officers were not necessarily bored out of their minds; they had the opportunity to take college classes so they could use that 24 hour time period to study. Then we drove over to one of the missile sites; each control center had 10 missiles scattered ~10 miles around the center. And there were about 1,000 missiles in service during this 30 year time period. Anyway, we could look down into the concrete tube and see the missile “ready to go”. Not quite; it has been decommissioned. Very interesting experience. Incidentally, there are still several hundred Minuteman III missiles in service.

Finally on Thursday we visited Mt. Rushmore and spent more time there then we had anticipated. This is quite a place; we went on a ranger guided walk to learn all about the development of this project and enjoyed our time there.

Off to Custer State Park to drive through this part of the Black Hills which is very hilly, steep and interesting. Quite different from the northern Black Hills. Saw various animals.

Antelope

A not so wild "wild donkey"

Then back to Rapid City and a visit again to the fair to see the rodeo – we had great seats and enjoyed the show.

Friday found us leaving on our route south into the panhandle of Nebraska before turning west to Cheyenne Wyoming. England has Stonehenge, Nebraska has Carhenge.

And this whole part of the country has “hoppers” – grasshoppers are everywhere, and very plentiful. While in Nebraska we visited two historic sites where we learned more about the emigrants traveling the Oregon-California-Mormon-Pony Express trails. That’s the way they describe the trail in Nebraska now as they all used about the same route.

Chimney Rock

Good stuff; history is very interesting. Next, off to Colorado.