Friday, May 31, 2024
This morning at 7:30 am, we rendezvoused with Jeff and Comeka at the Custer State Park Stockade. Because we needed to change campsites today (and check-in time wasn’t until noon), we unhooked the View and drove it and the car separately. Leaving our RV in the lonely spacious parking lot, we followed the yellow Prius in our car toward Hill City. First, we stopped at the Feel Good Cafe for breakfast where Jane and I sampled South Dakota’s official dessert, Kuchenettes.
Our Breakfast Venue
After breakfast, we continued on to Hill City and parked at the depot for the Black Hills Central Railroad 1880 Train. A cold, light intermittent rain fell while we waited to board, visited the gift shop, and watched the steam train’s water tank being filled from an overhead tank. Eventually, we boarded. Jeff had reserved seats in the caboose to avoid smoke from the train’s engine. We were the only people in this rear car and so changed seats during the slow ride to Keystone to get the best views. An announcer informed us about historical sites, largely related to mining, as we chugged through the Black Hills region in the chilly unheated caboose. We stopped several times along the way due to an overheated bearing. We arrived and disembarked at the Keystone depot about 45 mintues behind schedule.
—— 1880 Train Ride – Hill City & Outbound Leg ——
We were allocated 15 minutes in Keystone to use the restrooms, walk through the gift store, and warm-up. Meanwhile, the engine water tank was refilled and the engine moved to the rear of the train for the return trip which was full of passengers. Jeff had sagely reserved seats in the new end car named Edward Gillette because the caboose was now the first car behind the engine. This car was nicer and warmer than the caboose. We only stopped once to cool bearings on the return leg.
—— 1880 Train Ride – Keystone & Return Leg ——
After disembarking the 1880 Train at the Hill City depot, we got into our respective cars and Jane & I followed Jeff & Comeka a little ways out of town to the Miner Brewing Company where we intended to eat lunch. However, the lunch menu was sparse (and actually a food truck) so we walked next door to the affiliated Prairie Berry Winery. After we ordered lunch (with Miner Brewery beers), we performed a free wine tasting which included their famous Bad Ass Rhubarb wine.
Over lunch, we continued our conversations with Jeff and Comeka, including learning more about their investigations of a potential move to Mexico. After lunch, we said our farewells hoping that we could see each other again in the near future.
Miner Brewing Company
—— Prairie Berry Winery ——
After parting ways with Jeff and Comeka, Jane and I drove about 20 mintues to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. After leaving our car on the top floor of the parking deck, we joined fellow visitors on the inspiring walk through the Avenue of Flags (all 50 states) to the Grand View Terrace where the crowd collectively gawked in amazement at the huge group of four stone heads (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln) majestically carved into the Black Hills mountains.
We then went into the Visitor Center and gift shop where we got our Passport book stamp, watched a film about sculpting the monument, and walked through an inspiring display room. We learned that the design and project supervision of the mammoth carving operation was by a Danish immigrant, Gutzon Borglum. Unfortunately, he passed away just before the 14-year-long project was completed, but his son, Lincoln, then oversaw the project until its completion in October 1941. The film and photographs of executing this colossal project were awesome. Jane and I departed with a rewarding patriotic feeling of having visited another iconic symbol of America.
—— Mount Rushmore ——
Before …
… and After
After visiting Mount Rushmore, we drove about 25 minutes to see the Crazy Horse Memorial where we paid a combined $30 admission fee. We parked and entered the Welcome Center which served as an entrance to a complex of buildings and outdoor features including the Indian Museum of North America, a restaurant, shoppes, workshops and the Native American Educational & Cultural Center. After wandering around awhile, we entered the theatre and watched a fascinating video of the memorial’s history.
The memorial was started in 1948 after Chief Henry Standing Bear had invited Korczak Ziolkowski, a renowned sculptor of Polish descent, to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse. Later, he married Ruth Ross who was also instrumental in initiating this monumental task.
Native Americans chose Lakota leader, Crazy Horse (Tasunke Witco) as the memorial’s subject not only for his leadership role in the Battle of Bighorn but also for his later efforts to negotiate a truce with the U.S. Military during which he was mortally wounded. Although there were no images of Crazy Horse, Sculptor Ziolkowski created one to honor Native American principles and values. The sculptor’s model is of Crazy Horse riding his horse out from the sacred Black Hills with his left hand pointing forward to the lands where the dead of his pepole lie buried.
Although blasting for the stone monument began in 1948, the project is still ongoing with only Crazy Horse’s face and hand completed. However, these are impressive; his face is 87.5 feet tall and his index finger is 29.5 feet long. Hopefully, funds raised via the memorial and its associated educational and outreach efforts will allow the completion to accelerate. I, for one, would love to view the finished work of this important memorial.
—— Crazy Horse Memorial ——
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Wife, Ruth
We were growing weary after departing the Crazy Horse Memorial, but Jane insisted on driving the Needles Highway, an attraction about which she had read a lot of good reviews. So, off we went on this spectacular 14-mile long drive through the Black Hills. From the twisting road we had beautiful views of tall needle-like granite projections among forests of spruce, pine, birch, and aspen. As we climbed, traversed the top pass through huge rock fingers, and descended, we passed through three narrow one-way tunnels carved through the granite. One tunnel was appropriately named, “Needles Eye.”
After we had descended and the road became more level, we were astonished to see a lone wild bison feeding on grass in an open pine stand. After watching him graze for awhile, we continue on and sighted a group of five bison on the opposite side of the road. As we watched from the car, they made their way toward us and the lead buffalo was only 15-20 feet away from Jane’s side of the car when she suddenly decided it would be prudent to drive away.
—— Needles Highway ——
We eventually made it back to the Custer State Park Stockade parking lot where our motorhome awaited us. We walked to the stockade to have a glimpse inside, enjoyed viewing the water fowl in the marshes of the nearby lake, and watched a deer munch on the lawn of a house across the street while its owner was mowing the back yard.
I followed Jane’s car in the RV to our new campsite in the North Stockade Campground. We set-up quickly, met our neighbor, and got checked-in by the hostess. After dinner in our motorhome, we speedily turned in, exhausted by our day full of adventures.
—— Custer State Park Stockade ——
So great to see you two again; I was telling Jane that I think it was really 1996 as the last time I saw you. You guys had a really amazing day and I’m glad you chose to take a turn into South Dakota