7/9: Wild West Town of Deadwood, South Dakota

After visiting Devils Tower National Monument, Steven and I headed further east to the nearby Black Hills just over the Wyoming border into South Dakota. 

Outside the small town of Spearfish, we found the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway which took us on a very roundabout way to the Wild West town of Deadwood but it sure lived up to its name!

Driving through the very small community of Lead led (!!) us to Deadwood.

Deadwood:

Remember, I did say the Wild West town of Deadwood - can't get much more of a Wild West feel than a shootout on the town's main street as we encountered on arrival! Though we didn't see all of the show, what we did see was still pretty thrilling.

Though we'd been to Deadwood years ago with our children, we still enjoyed walking its main drag, envisioning its lively past as a gold rush boomtown when it was a haven for gamblers and gunslingers like Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and Wild Bill Hickock!

More local character and characters!

We walked by the spots on Main St. where Wild Bill Hickock was killed during a poker game in August of 1876 and where his killer, Jack McCall, was captured.

In the middle of the gold rush in 1876, thousands of people suddenly arrived in Deadwood Gulch, some to try their luck at mining and others hoping to strike it rich with saloons, shops and restaurants. Prior to 1881, what is now Deadwood was just a collection of about a dozen, individual mining camps. When the city was officially incorporated by the Dakota Territorial Legislature, the camps were combined into one municipal government. Many of the old mining camp names are still used to designate Deadwood's residential neighborhoods. 

It came as a compete surprise to both of us that Jewish American pioneers significantly contributed to both the establishment of responsible government in Deadwood and to its commercial development. The efforts of the Jewish community helped bring prosperity, recognition and jobs to the region. Not only did they help to build the town and rebuild it after its many floods and fires, they convinced the railroads that Deadwood should have a railroad link to the outside world so it could become a major commercial center. 

Though the town had been full of visitors for the shootout, none appeared to be gambling in Deadwood's many casinos. We popped into one to use the facilities and noticed just one person playing the slots. I don't know whether that was because of Covid-19, the economy or what but it was sad for the town.

When a fire broke out a bakery in Deadwood in September of 1879, it spread so quickly that 300 buildings were destroyed, leaving 2,000 people homeless. The town was quickly rebuilt with bricks and stone to provide resistance to fire and create an image of permanence. These photos of Deadwood before and after the fire tell of its devastation. 

Lest I leave you with the impression that Deadwood was all honkytonk and Wild West, there were some elegant touches!

It had been fun to return after so many years to Deadwood but we still needed to reach Keystone, our pitstop for the next two nights so on we drove via the scenic Pactola Reservoir.

Hill City's historic Engine #7 was reason enough to break up our journey again. The engine which turned 100 in 2019 had been forced to 'retire' in 2012. It had appeared in several films including Gunsmoke, a Disney movie, and even a Steven Spielberg TV series.

You've probably figured out by now that if there is a straight line connecting two places, Steven and I will do our best to avoid the direct route and take the back road as often as we can! That was again the case here when we chose the Old City Road to reach Keystone through the roads less traveled.

We'd come to Keystone as it was so close to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and other sights in the Black Hills we wanted to see again. As you may recall President Trump had come to Rushmore on the 4th of July to celebrate the holiday. That was why there were still a slew of pop up shops hawking memorabilia to his fans.

In a sense, Keystone's main street reminded us of Deadwood's with its multiple tacky souvenir shops but there were at least fewer of them compared to other types of stores. Keystone was also established as a mining town soon after the Holy Terror Gold Mine was discovered in 1894. The mine was named after its owner's wife who had complained he never named a mine after her!

After a longish but enjoyable day, we relaxed over dinner on the upper balcony and watched the world go by!

Next post: The one and only Mt. Rushmore!

Posted on December 28th, 2020, from Yuma, Arizona, where we've come to see the nearby Center of the World, the border wall, and some other sights before traveling on to Tucson in the morning for several days. I hope and pray that 2021 will be a far healthier and happier one for you and your loved ones and that you will also soon be happy saying Bah Humbug to 2020!

7/9: Gillette, WY-Keystone, SD via Devils Tower National Monument

While nearing the end of our month-long Western states road trip this past summer, Steven and I decided to eliminate our stay in Grand Teton National Park and instead drive east to northeastern Wyoming as he had long wanted to visit Devils Tower National Monument.

These were our first and very magical views of the monument located not far from Gillette.

I don't think we've ever waited so long to enter a national monument as we did here. The line was progressing at a snail's pace so I ran ahead to the souvenir store to buy park socks and a t-shirt for our son, Zachary, while Steven inched along.

Thousands of people visit the Tower every year to enjoy nature by walking the trails and looking for wildlife. From the earliest time, the Tower has been a magnet to native people who have seen it as a gathering place, a place of community and a place of refuge. Native Americans still visit as the Tower, aka Bears Tipi, is considered as a sacred place. 

I read that ancient rivers took millions of year to excavate Devils Tower with the water carrying away softer sedimentary rock and leaving behind the harder igneous rock called phonolite. The rock, although most commonly found in East Africa, was also present in central Montana as well as here in northeastern Wyoming.

Visitors were restricted to walking below the boulder field unless they had a permit to climb the tower.

Since the late 1800s, ranchers have gathered at the Tower to picnic and camp. The tradition of an Old Settlers' Picnic at Devil's Tower began in 1932.

The Tower began about 50 million years ago when magma or molten rock was injected into layers of sedimentary rock which formed the Tower a mile and a half underground. It has since taken millions of years to erode away the surrounding  sedimentary rock to expose the Tower visible today. Geologists agree the Tower is an hardened igneous or magma intrusion but differ on the Tower's original size and shape.

The Belle Fourche River continues to wash away the tower's softer sedimentary rocks, indicating the tower is still emerging. It was interesting to learn that plateaus across the valley, even some higher than the tower's summit, were eroded layers of the same sediment that once surrounded and covered Devil's Tower. Even though the tower still stood at an impressive height of 867 feet at the summit, about 1.5 vertical miles of rock and sediment have washed away since the tower formed. 

As we hiked along the Tower Trail which circled its base, it was clear that no two sides of the tower were alike. Walking through the boulder field and then the pine forest, it was interesting to see how the tower's appearance changed. The south side had more eroded columns whereas the north was smoother. The west side had fallen, broken columns which made us wonder if that was the future for the tower?

A view from the Tower looking into the valley:

Archaeological discoveries have shown that the Tower and adjacent Black Hills area of South Dakota have been a gathering place and home for over 10,000 years. As time passed, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota and Shoshone have all developed spiritual connections with the Tower, handing down their beliefs from one generation to the next. 

We learned that the top of the Tower was about the size of a football field and was rounded rather than flat in shape. Those who have ascended the Tower have noted the presence of mice, woodrats and even the odd snake!

If you look really closely or use a vivid imagination, you should be able to spot the climbers as we did once we rounded this side of the Tower!

The Tower has had a long climbing history. In 1893, two local ranchers were the first to climb it, using a wooden stake ladder. The first ascent using ropes and modern techniques didn't come until 44 years later. Unlike many sacred sites around the world, the National Park Service still considers climbing to be "an acceptable recreational use and also recognizes the Tower as a sacred site to many American Indian peoples." However, climbers are asked to refrain from climbing or scrambling in the boulders in June only out of respect for traditional cultural practices because they take place near the summer solstice which is considered a significant spiritual time. 

Prayer cloths were used in Native American religious and cultural ceremonies at the Tower. 

Fortunately, the trail around the Tower was a one-way loop especially in this era of Covid-19.

Devils Tower was comprised of symmetrical columns that were the world's tallest - some more than 600 feet - and widest - 10-20 feet. Along this part of the trail, we could spot columns that lay toppled among the pine trees. As we looked back up at the face of the Tower, it was fun to imagine where the columns might once have stood!

We spotted these deer about the halfway point on our hike.

See where a massive chunk of the rock face had tumbled down, almost like it had ben perfectly carved out!

A sign quoted Mother Teresa as saying "how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, the sun, how they move in silence." What a perfect message for Devils Tower.

I was glad to learn that park managers and the local community have worked together to lessen the impact of development on the Tower and its natural environment by establishing procedures to direct aircraft away from the Tower.

The north side of the Tower, well away from the Visitor Center, was far quieter than the others - I guess we were among the minority of visitors who walk around the entire Tower. I could only see that as their loss but we certainly benefitted by how quiet and peaceful it was there. 

The Wind Circle sculpture, also called the Sacred Circle of Smoke, was created by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto in special recognition of the Tower as a sacred place. Designed to evoke the image of a puff of smoke from a sacred pipe, it was the third in a series of seven “peace sculptures” planned for significant sites around the world. Two others have already been installed – one at the Vatican in 2000, and the other in 2005 at Buddha Gaya, India, where the Buddha attained enlightenment. 

Darlene: I thought of you when we stopped and looked at a signboard about black-tailed prairie dogs who now inhabit just two percent of the area they had 200 years ago where they lived throughout most of the Great Plains. Eradication programs have diminished their range from thousands of square miles to a few scattered ones like this one at Devils Tower. I wonder what type of prairie dogs are all but taking over at Clement Park!

Not sure the sign prohibiting the feeding of prairie dogs was big enough!

Next post: On to the Wild West town of Deadwood, South Dakota!

Posted at long last on Christmas Day, 2020, from Las Vegas aka Sin City! Since Steven and I left our home in Denver a week ago for a swing through the southwestern states I had planned every day to finish this post but we have been so busy playing tourist for me to have the energy or time to even think about finishing this post before tonight. For that, I extend my apologies and my intent to finish writing about our Northwest trip as soon as possible! On today of all days, we sincerely wish you and your loved ones have had a Merry Christmas, will stay safe and connected, and have a healthier and happier new year than 2020 has been.