From Badlands National Park, we drove 80 miles to spend four days in the Mount Rushmore area, which included Deadwood City, Rapid City, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Custer State Park. I was surprised, there was a lot more to do there than I expected!
Since this post is long and there are a lot of pictures, I have placed the pictures in three separate pages. There are links below to the pages.
Deadwood
Deadwood is a taste of a late 1800's Midwest mining town but with cars and motorcycles cluttering the streets and modern-day casinos, hotels, restaurants, and tourist shops replacing the old establishments. Yet, it still had an 1800's charm. Deadwood was a mining town established in 1876 during the beginning of the Black Hills Gold Rush (in 1874 gold was confirmed in the Black Hills and gold was found in a narrow canyon near Deadwood in 1875). The canyon became known as "Deadwood Gulch," because of the many dead trees that lined the canyon walls and hence the name stuck for the town, veeerryyy clever those miners.
One of the claims to fame for Deadwood is that Wild Bill Hickok met his demise August 2, 1876 there. While many stories propose that Calamity Jane and Bill had a wild relationship, that is highly unlikely. Wild Bill was newly married and came to Deadwood (without his wife) just a month or two before his death to seek his fortune in the new gold town, by mining the miners at cards. He spent almost all his days gambling at Saloon # 10, and winning. Normally, he sat in his lucky chair with his back to a wall facing the door. But on the fateful day, the other players forced him to take a chair with his back to the door. That day, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall. McCall was tried the next day and found innocent because he claimed that Bill had killed his brother, but McCall didn't have a brother. Can you say conspiracy??? However, after McCall fled to the Wyoming Territory he began bragging about killing Hickok. McCall was then tried again in Yankton for Hickok's murder, and was quickly found guilty. They determined that the first trial was not legitimate and didn't have jurisdiction, no double jeopardy! After almost three months in jail, he was hanged on March 1, 1877, aged 24.
Bill and Calamity met each other on the stage ride to Deadwood where they both were outriders (riders ahead of the stage). Bill had a lot of respect for Calamity. Calamity loved to dress and cuss like a man and was homely looking. She said when she died, she wanted to be buried next to Bill. She died on March 1, 1903 and was buried next to Bill.
We took a one-hour tour of Deadwood and the cemetery to get the historic background and in the afternoon, we got caught up in the middle of a gunfight, but fortunately, unlike Bill, we weren't hurt.
Rapid City
Rapid City is the main large town in the Mount Rushmore area. After visiting Deadwood, we went to Rapid City. It is called the City of the Presidents because it has a statue of every president (except Obama and Trump) on the corners of two adjacent streets, five blocks long. After making it to each statue, we went for dinner at Firehouse Brewing Co. Like Wall Drug, Firehouse Brewing Co had road signs for a hundred miles leading to the city and many of them had fire engines by the road signs, some parked on their front or back sticking in the air. Besides, Larry Britts told me to eat there and I would be afraid not to listen to him. Well, he was right, it was very good. Thanks Larry!
Pictures of Deadwood and Rapid City
Mount Rushmore
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln all inside the rock of a mountain? I guess so. All Gutzon Borglum had to do was blast away some rock and let them out.
In the early 1920s, South Dakota's state historian Doane Robinson came up with the wild idea to sculpt the Needles (several giant natural granite pillars) into the shape of historic heroes of the West. Robinson contacted Gutzon Borglum who suggested that the subjects of the work be George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as that would attract more interest. He later added Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. Carving began October of 1927. As you can see from the picture (click link below) of the sculpture's model, the original intent was to represent the presidents from the waist up, but after discovering how hard it was and insufficient funding, carving was halted after completion of their faces. Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941 and his son Lincoln completed the final work October 31, 1941, 14 years in the making.
I figured seeing this monument would be nice and that we would spend an hour or an hour and a half at the site, that is what most people do. After arriving, we found an audio tour where you rent ($4 each) a handset and walk around to numbered posts and play the audio. This was done very well and included 29 stops with many along the Presidential Trail that loops around in front of "the heads." After eating our picnic lunch, going to the museum, watching the film, and taking the audio tour (oh, and the gift shop), we were there for four hours and enjoyed it very much.
Crazy Horse
After "the heads," we were off to see Crazy Horse, 17 miles from Mount Rushmore.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction. Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The monument has been in progress since 1948. Now 70 years later, there is a head. In the pictures, you can see the sculpture's model which shows the intent of the monument to be Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. Crazy Horse is reportedly to have said, "My lands are where my dead lie buried." His extended hand on the monument is to symbolize that statement.
At the monument, we saw the film, looked around the museum a little, viewed the monument from afar, and found the sculpture's model. While the work underway is impressive and I am glad we saw it, we only spent about 45 minutes there.
Pictures of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
Tour of Custer State Park
I hadn't heard of Custer State Park until planning for this trip. It is definitely a place to visit if you are in the area. There are several (6?) narrow tunnels through rocks, great vista views from the top of mountain lookouts, lakes, giant granite pillars ("needles"), two herds of bison (buffalo), big horn sheep, mountain goats, elk, etc. Oh, and especially, prairie dogs, can't forget the prairie dogs. Custer State Park was originally established as a game preserve back in 1913.
With all there is to see, we took a six-hour tour through Black Hills Open-Top-Tours with our guide Otto and in a convertible (with top down) PT Cruiser. One of the first stops we made was at Sylvan Lake. If you have seen the movie National Treasure 2, this is where they filmed the lake scene which in the move is supposed to be right next to Mount Rushmore. That is Hollywood for you.
You can see a few of the pictures from our tour at the link below.
Pictures of Tour of Custer State Park
Links to Pictures
Pictures of Deadwood and Rapid City
Pictures of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
Pictures of Tour of Custer State Park