Helena, MT        All Pictures   (Helena City Tour,  Gateway to the Mountains)

August 1, 2003

We took the Last Chance Tour Train around Helena.  A fun train with car tires that runs around the streets of the city.  We drove through the Capitol District looking at the Capitol building, Legislature building, jail, and a few museums.  The Capitol is an impressive Greek Renaissance building made from native sandstone and crowned with a massive copper dome.  We passed one of the few remaining fire towers left standing from 1876.  We passed several old Victorian homes including the old and new governor’s homes.  Personally, we like the old governor’s home better than the new one.  Helena’s mining millionaires owned most of the large Victorian homes that are still standing today.  Helena was a gold mining town in the late 1800’s and originally named Last Chance Gulch by four prospectors looking for gold in the mountains when after panning for gold several places, came to Helena for one last chance.  They found gold and the rush was on, Last Chance Gulch was born.  Over 3 million dollars worth of gold was mined in the Gulch.  The founding fathers chose to rename the town to Helena after running a contest.  With the end of the gold rush, they didn’t want Helena to end up a ghost town like so many others so they petitioned the state to make Helena Montana’s State Capital.  Vote was determined by popular vote of each town’s residents and Helena won.  It wasn’t until years later that one man found out the number of voting ballots from Helena were double that of the population but I guess nothing was ever done about it because Helena is still the State Capital.  The Cathedral of Saint Helena.  A large gothic church with absolutely beautiful two story high stained glass windows.  The pews and woodwork are all done in hand carved oak, the lighting fixtures are hand-forged bronze and there are marble statues throughout.  They say the Cathedral is a glorious tribute in stone, marble, glass and bronze to the memory of the past, the glory of the present and the hope of the future.  What a beautiful place.  The most unusual thing is that the stained glass windows inside are absolutely beautiful in colors and pictures but outside all you see is gray glass.  

Gateway to the Mountains  -  Gateway to the Mountains

We took a boat tour through the Gateway to the Mountains about 16 miles from Helena.  Lewis & Clark named Gateway to the Mountains on their journey up the Missouri River because they came to large white cliffs surrounding the river that looked as though there was no exit but as they continued up river, the mountains seemed to open like a sliding gate allowing them to continue.  We started from Holden Lake created when the dam was built with rolling countryside surrounding it.  As we started down the Missouri, we entered the canyon and large white cliffs of limestone rise up to about 200 feet on both sides.  There are several primitive camping/picnic areas along the river and we stopped at one for about 10-minutes.  This picnic area was just upstream from the Mann Valley where 13 men lost their lives trying to fight a serious forest fire in 1959.  The men were fire jumpers flown in to fight the fire started by lightening.  The fire spread and burned 3,000 acres in 10 minutes time traveling at approx. 35 miles per hour.  Only three men survived that fire, one who started a back fire and laid down in the ashes while the fire burned around him and two young rookies who had the speed and stamina to reach the ridge to safety.  Backfires were never thought of before and Wag Born was the first man to start one that saved his life.  Because of this tragic fire, there are now fire schools to study the nature of fire and it is now common practice to build backfires.  There are memorial markings in the valley where the 13 men that died in that fire were found.  The tour guide pointed out various plants, animals and rock formations like the ”monster of the canyon,” two large holes above an even larger one that resembles a month, an elephant and the devils slide.  The east side of the canyon is a national forest with no road access and the west side is privately owned but with restrictions so that no homes can ever be built there.  This canyon is and will always be just the way Lewis & Clark first saw it.  We floated about 6-miles down the river where the landscape once again turns into rolling countryside and turned around to start back up the Missouri as Lewis & Clark did.  As we started up the river the mountains seem to close off the route but as you get closer the mountains seem to move aside or open up sliding just like a gate to allow you to continue. 

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area  -  Pictures

Hardin, MT - August 8, 2003

We drove down Hwy 313 to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.  Hwy 313 takes you to the Yellowtail Dam Visitor’s Center or you can turn left and go to Bighorn Lake.  After paying to enter the recreation area we took the 10-mile scenic drive to Bighorn Lake.  The Lake has a boat launch, snack bar and a small beach and swimming area.  The lake was created when the dam was built around the bend.  It’s a beautiful lake surrounded by high limestone cliffs.  We watched a few kids playing in the water and as one guy put his boat in.  Sure wish I could have gone with them through the Canyon, from what we could see it looks really beautiful and it does for 71 miles.  All this is on Crow Indian land and there is no vehicle access into the canyon, yet.  I asked the guy at the fire station where we purchased our day pass if Hwy 313 went through the canyon into Wyoming.  He said they would like to connect the Hwy to go into Wyoming but they have to negotiate with the Crow Indians for building the road and as of now, the Crow Indians will not permit the road to be built.  After leaving the Lake we drove down to the dam.  The Yellowtail Dam is one of the largest dams in North America at 525 feet high.  We watched one movie that was already in progress about the Indian people in the western states.  There were several movies you could request and one was about the Bighorn Canyon so I requested to see it.  The girl told me it was more of an amateur video rather than a professionally done one but would put it in if I wanted.  She was right; it was a pictorial of a trip down the river by 14 doctors in 1957 with Kronocrome film that was poor quality.  Half the time the lighting wasn’t good enough to even see the mountains.  We watched about 20 minutes of it and left.   

We walked around the town of Hardin, MT.  I don’t know about the rest of the town but this part has a lot of shops that are empty.  The town is small and depressed.  One store we walked into asked if we were taking the tour of town and that he thought he was the only store open.  We ate dinner at a little restaurant down town called Merry Mixer, a small local place in the middle of down town.  We both had chicken fingers that were good and I had cheddar broccoli soup that was excellent.  There are a lot of Crow Indians in town and even though we don’t know much about the lifestyles of the Crow Indians today, they all have the dark skin, a hard rough look and long black hair.  From the pictures I’ve seen they look exactly like those of years ago.  The whole area is farmland of wheat, hay and alfalfa.

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Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument  - Pictures

Crow Agency, MT - August 10, 2003

Today we took a tour of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  Inside the Visitor’s Center is a museum with displays of Indian and soldier artifacts from the battle.  We listened to a park guide describe the battle before we walked up Last Stand Hill to the Memorial for those men of the 7th Cavalry and other civilians who participated in the battle.  Out of the 260 men who fought in the battle, 249 are buried around the base of this memorial with their names carved on it.  The Deep Ravine Trail next to the Visitor’s Center is scattered with markers where the bodies of men were found after the battle.  In 1993 a victory celebration was held after Congress passed legislation to change the name of the battlefield from Custer Battlefield National Monument to Little Bighorn National Monument in 1991and create an Indian Memorial.  1996 over 500 entries were submitted for the Indiana Memorial and a final design chosen 1997.  They broke ground in 1999 and the dedication was this June 2003.  The memorial is to honor Native American participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.  The memorial is a tall circular earth and stone open mound that is symbolic of the Indian’s journey of life.  You walk around one side of the mound to enter through tall walls of rock.  Inside to the left is another opening through tall rock walls with water running down them into a gravel bed below.  This is the weeping wall symbolizing the tears of Indian People and the suffering that resulted from the battle.  On the right is a lower wall with a beautiful iron sculpture depicting the Indian Spirit Warriors.  All the walls inside the circle commemorate the five tribes who fought here: Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow and Arikara Indians.  It is impressive and I think really does pay honor to those who died here. 

We drove the car the 5 or 6 miles along Battlefield Road that takes you from Last Stand Hill (Custer’s Last Stand) over the rolling hills of the battlefield to Ren-Benteen Battlefield.  All along the way there are markers telling the story of the battle as well as white markers at the spots where men died.  There are a few places that you can get out of your car and walk along a walkway along the ridges where Custer’s men fought passing the white markers.  The Indians removed their dead, estimated to be between 60-100 but Custer’s soldiers were buried in shallow graves at or near where they fell, hence the white markers.  They were later removed and buried around the Memorial.  The National Park Service placed three markers in 1999 and one in 2001 indicating where Indians fell.  And to think that all this started because of a gold rush that violated the treaty. 

Wyoming - August, 2003

Ten Sleep  -  Pictures

 August 13, 2003

We decided to take a ride down Hwy 16 west to Ten Sleep.  Hwy 16 west runs through the Big Horn Mountain range and was a nice ride with some really nice scenery.  We stopped at the Powder River Pass at an elevation of 9,666 feet, the highest point in the Big Horn Mountains.  The road continues through Ten Sleep Canyon to the town of Ten Sleep.  What views.  Ten Sleep is a little town with western charm and probably making a good living at their café and ice cream parlor.  Hwy 16 from Buffalo is the only highway to Cody and Yellowstone if you don’t go up and down the 10% grades of Hwy 14 from Sheridan.  We saw a lot of motor homes and trailers driving this road and it looked like they all stopped at Ten Sleep.  A sign in town said Ten Sleep got its name from the Indians because it took ten nights of sleep to reach from their camps; hence, Ten Sleep.  We walked around town, stopped at a free Pioneer Museum but it was closed.  We went to Dirty Sally’s, an gift shop that had everything including huge ice cream cones and headed back to Buffalo.  We stopped at beautiful Meadowlark Lake.  The lake has cabins you can rent and a few campsites but getting to the sites would be a challenge as the road is downhill and rocky.  We were told the lake is man-made and it is next to the Big Horn Mountain Sky Resort.  It is a really nice setting with nothing there except loads of baby dragonflies everywhere.  We saw a Moose!  And he was a big one too.  He was eating in an open field at 2:00 in the afternoon.  That’s really unusual for moose to be out in the open in the afternoon but there he was and we saw him.  I got pictures, Finally, after all the traveling in the east and Canada; we finally saw a moose in Wyoming.

South Dakota - August 2003

Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway  -  All Pictures  (Scenic Byway,  Roughlock Falls,  President's Park, D.C. Booth Fish

 Spearfish, SD- August 18, 2003                                                          Hatchery,  Termesphere Gallery)

We took a ride down the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, Hwy 14A.  It was a nice drive with tree lined mountains and interesting rocks.  We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls that you can see right from the roadway.  With the lack of water in the area there wasn’t a lot of water coming over the falls but just enough to make it pretty.  Hwy 14A follows the Belle Fourche River through the canyon and there were some pretty rapids.  At the Spearfish Canyon Lodge we walked around the lodge itself, wow what a place with it’s large stone fireplace and large log framing.  We walked along a trail that led through botanical gardens and Jack found a gold coin just lying on the ground under a bush.  Turned out to be some kind of religious coin - interesting how it was just lying there. 

Roughlock Falls  -  Roughlock Falls

We drove up a gravel road to Roughlock Falls.   You had to walk through the wood a few hundred feet to steps that followed down a large drainpipe to one side of the falls.  We walked over to the other side for a better look, pretty falls. 

President's Park Sculpture Garden  -  President's Park

We continued on Hwy 14A and about 5 miles from Lead on Deer Mountain is the President’s Park Sculpture Garden.   This ”Garden” is a 20-acre park with huge carved busts of all 43 Presidents.  The sculptor David Adickes so inspired by the grandeur of Mt. Rushmore wanted to create his own tribute to the American Presidency.  He sculpted the huge busts in Houston in 1995 and placed them in the park which opened in June 2002.  Each one has a panel with information pertaining to that President.  The last busts, President George Bush, Jr. was unveiled in a special ceremony held in Huston, TX by the former President George Bush, Sr. in February 2002.  The sculptures are impressive and a lot of work was done to get all the designs of the hair, ties, suits, etc.  

D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery - D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery

This is one of the west’s oldest fish hatcheries established by the U.S. Government in 1896.  The hatchery spans several acres and the fish are in large open lakes with ducks and swans.  You can even buy fish food to feed them, which of course we did.  The whole area is in such a pretty setting of rolling grasslands, lakes and trees.  One large lake with the big 10-pounders in it has steps you go down to view the fish underwater.  We saw the hatchery with its race tanks and the museum that is housed in the original 1899 hatchery building.  It has exhibits on the hatchery history and equipment on display.  We then visited the D.C. Booth House that was built by the Government in 1905 for $5,000 and was the home to the D.C. Booth family and succeeding Superintendents until 1983.  This house was the social center for many of the citizens of Spearfish and President Hoover even visited there.  The house is a good size and impressive for its day.  There is a garden out back that is very nice.  There is also an old icehouse that now houses a film and pictures of the railroad transportation known as the Fish Car with the refurbished car #3 next door.  There were ten such cars made to transport the fish from the hatchery to lakes all around the area. 

Termesphere Gallery  -  Termesphere Gallery

This gallery is in the home of Dick Termes, an internationally acclaimed painter/artist whose artwork has been recognized from San Francisco to France, from New York to Japan.  He has been painting on spheres for 30 years.  Each globe hangs from the ceiling and is motorized to spin one revolution per minute.  Each globe is a complete world.  The brochure says the globe is as if you put a transparent sphere on your head and painted what you saw from the north, south, east, west, up and down.  He has hand-painted over 400 pieces ranging in sizes from 1 to 7-1/2 feet.  Some of the globes are realistic and show pictures Termes took of famous areas throughout the world, some are geometric, some are surrealistic and some a mixture of all three.  Each piece is unique with only two globes that have been reproduced.  We stood there in awl.  The paintings on these globes are incredible; we even bought a VCR tape he made of his work.

Black Hills Passion Play     (no pictures allowed)

We joined our friends, Wally and Ester, at the Black Hills Passion Play.  It started raining before we left so we all geared up for the worst and glad we did because the rain came down on and off during the play with the worst just as they were crucifying Jesus.  The play lasted two hours and was performed on a stage with six different permanent sets and a hillside with trees and bushes.  An angel came out welcoming everyone and wishing us all peace in their hearts.  Numerous people came out walking across the entire length of the stage followed by worshipers coming out of one of the buildings.  Then came more people and men on horseback across the stage followed by more people with lambs and camels.  There was no narration or anyone talking until one man came staggering out and a women gave him water.  At that point, everyone started talking.  The scenes went through the process of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, his sentencing to dead by the church elders to King Hared and Pontus Pilot.  Then Jesus carried the cross across the stage up to the hillside for his crucifixion.  They raised the three crosses up on the hillside with the three men, representing Jesus and the two thieves, on them.  The next scene was placing Jesus in the tomb on stage and rolled the stone in front.  Next scene the stone was rolled away and an angel appeared to tell everyone that Jesus had risen.  The last scene of the play with Jesus in the middle of the stage surrounded by the twelve disciples ended with the Halleluiah Chorus.  I can appreciate the work that goes into the performance and the props and I’m glad we went.

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Sturgis Motorcycle Museum  -  Pictures 

August 20, 2003

We visited the town of Sturgis, SD.  The Sturgis motorcycle rally was there from August 1st to August 12th, now the town is empty, and I really mean empty.  We walked around town and ¾ of the stores were empty, everything has been cleaned out.  One store told us that they were told to move everything out for the Sturgis week and was just moving back in.  The town isn’t all that big.  Except for all the motorcycle stuff there is nothing else there.  Every store that was open was having sales on Harley-Davidson leathers, t-shirts, vests, hats, etc.  I found a really pretty South Dakota t-shirt.  We did go into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum.  They had some really old motorcycles and some bright, shiny ones also.  We only spent about an hour in Sturgis and 45 minutes of that was in the museum. 

Kool Deadwood Nights Car Show  -  Pictures

Deadwood, SD -  August 22, 2003

Deadwood is host to the Kool Deadwood Nights car show.  They said there were going to be 500 cars there but it looked more like 100 to us.  There were some nice cars coming in.  They had a band at Tin Lizzi’s, the host of the car show, playing on the roof and a large center stage in the middle of the road set up for Dion who was supposed to perform tonight but backed out the last minute and another group was performing.  In front of the bandstand everyone set up chairs in the street to listen.  There were so many people there the chairs lined across the street for third solid blocks.  The town was packed.  The next day there were a lot more cars everywhere and when we asked where most of them were, we were told in Deadwood Gulch where they are being judged.  We took the trolley there to find all kinds of cars all over at the motels.  There were some really nice rods.  We walked around for a little while, caught the trolley back into town.

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Mount Rushmore  -  All Pictures   (Mount Rushmore,  Needles Highway in Custer State Park)     

August 26, 2003

We did the Black Hills Tour today.  We got the bus in front of the office at 9:30 AM.  We were the last people on the bus of 38 other people.  Our first stop was the Lincoln Borglum Museum & Bookstore.  They put us in groups of eight people and gave us a listening stick.  We walked through the museum on a self-tour going from one exhibit to another listening to the narration of each.  Each exhibit had sculptures done by Gutzom Borglum and about his life and his work.  Lincoln Borglum is his son who carried on his work after his father’s death.  At the end of the tour we watched a short 13-minute film about the carving of Mount Rushmore.  Our next stop was Mount Rushmore.  The bus let us off right at the entrance.  We walked under a large entrance way and down a walkway called the Avenue of Flags.  On both sides flags of all the states, districts and territories of the United States of America are displayed.  This walkway leads to the main viewing area for the Memorial.  What a site.  We walked down stairs to the gift shop and the amphitheater to watch a short film on the carving.  Gutzom Borglum starting searching for a site for his sculpture in August of 1926 and original ideas of sculpting in the Needles on the tall rock formations were abandoned because people were opposed to tampering with the beauty of nature and he felt a carved needle would look too much like a totem pole.  So he continued to search until he found a mountain with a huge sheet face of stone as free of faults and minerals as possible.  He found Mount Rushmore named after a young New York lawyer who came to the Hills in 1905 to inspect a client’s tin mines.  He asked, “What’s that called?”  Slaughterhouse Rock, but we can change it was the answer, so he proposed “How does Mount Rushmore sound?” laughing.  But the name stuck and when carving began, Rushmore was so embarrassed by reporters trying to find out what he had done to deserve the honor that he contributed five thousand dollars to the monument.

Borglum explained his choices of the four heads: Washington because he was the father of our country; Jefferson because he expressed our beliefs in the Declaration of Independence and expanded our territory with the Louisiana Purchase; Lincoln for preserving the Union and Teddy Roosevelt because he fulfilled the expansionist’s dream by linking the oceans with the Panama Canal.  Borglum started his carving in 1927 at the age of 60 and he and his crew of hard-rock miners carved for over fourteen years.  During this time the project was plagued by financial problems during the depression of the 30’s and bickering between the committee and Borglum.  More problems developed when a poorly placed charge of dynamite sloped the forehead of Jefferson’s head beyond repair in its original location to Washington’s right.  The design was changed and the damaged head was blown off the mountain and started again on the left side.  This forced Roosevelt’s head back into the rock, then a hidden fault forced the head even further back until the final carving ended within ten feet of the canyon that lies behind the monument.  There are even veins of silver running through the rock that look like worry lines across the face of Lincoln.  The Washington head was dedicated in 1930, followed by Jefferson in 1936, Lincoln in 1937 and Roosevelt in 1939.  Unfortunately, Borglum died in 1941 and the final dedication was not until 50 years later.  His son Lincoln Borglum supervised the completion of the heads and carving stopped in October of 1941.  It’s hard to realize just how massive these heads are.  We walked the Presidential Trail that goes to several observation decks for a closer look.  Each head, brow to chin, is as tall as the entire Great Sphinx of Egypt.  Each head measures 60 feet from chin to the top of the head.  Each nose is 20 feet long, each mouth 18 feet wide and the eyes are 11 feet across.  It’s amazing how Borglum transferred the models of the heads to the mountain.  He used a “pointing machine: the models were sized at a ratio of 1:12 – one inch on the model would equal one foot on the mountain.  That means that the heads are proportioned to a man 465 feet tall.  A metal shaft was placed upright at the center of the model’s head.  Attached at the base of the shaft was a protractor plate, marked in degrees and a horizontal ruled bar that pivoted to measure the angle from the central axis.  A weighted plumb line hung from the bar; it slid back and forth to measure the distance from the central head point, raised and lowered to measure vertical distance from the top of the head.  Each point on the model received three separate measurements.  The numbers were then multiplied by 12 and transferred to the granite face via a large-scale pointing mechanism anchored at the top of the mountain.  There was more than 800 million pounds of stone removed from Mount Rushmore while carving the heads and workers had to climb 506 steps to get to the top of the mountain.  The Presidential Trail led to a compressor House and Sculptor’s Studio where Borglum worked on the plaster design of the heads and back to the viewing terrace. 

   Town of Custer and the Needles Highway  -  Needles Highway in Custer State Park   

We left the memorial and drove through the town of Custer.  Custer is a small town nestled in the mountains surrounded by pine trees, but the town itself isn’t much.  There are a several shops along Main Street that’s about two blocks long but most of the houses are trailers.  We passed Sylvan Lake but didn’t stop.  This lake is a really pretty lake with a resort, campground, paddleboats, promenade and climbing rocks.  We’ll have to go back again later.  We continued on Rt. 87 that’s called the Needles Hwy.  Both the Needles Hwy and Iron Mountain Road were built through the Black Hills to emphasize the beauty of the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore.  The road is narrow and the “Needle” is amazing.  The bus stopped at the “Needle” to we could take pictures and another bus pulled up; there is barely enough room for two car to pass, let alone two buses.  We passed that bus and drove between high rocks and into a tunnel that had only 2 to 6 inches between the side of the bus and the mountain; a really tight squeeze and it must have been the length of four buses.  We then drove up Iron Mountain Road, saw some really beautiful views of Mount Rushmore and the Cathedral Spirals and went through three more really tight tunnels.  This is where we also drove over two pigtail bridges.  They are called pigtail because the road goes over a bridge and winds back down under it again in a spiral, just like a pig’s tail.  The turns are 390-degree turns and the bus had to make sure no other cars were coming because he had to take the whole road in order to make the turns.  Before we went through our last tunnel, the bus stopped and let those who wanted to get off, get off, walk through the tunnel and take pictures as the bus came through, what a shot!  Jack found a Passport campground called Spokane Campground that was on Iron Mountain Road and thought about moving over there, until we drove it in the bus.  Both roads and Hwy 16A go through the upper portion of Custer State Park.  We saw a coyote, deer and a long horn sheep.  We sure were glad we took the tour instead of driving it ourselves.  Great Tour.

Crazy Horse Memorial       Pictures

Our next stop was at the Crazy Horse Memorial.  As we entered the massive orientation center we were directed into one of the two theaters to watch a short 17-minute film on the project called “Crazy Horse – Dynamite and Dreams” giving information on the mountain and the sculpture.  The Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear wanted to show the white man that the red man had great heroes too but realized that they didn’t have the expertise or the talent to take on such an undertaking, so he invited Korczak Ziolkowski to carve a statue for them.  The sculpture depicts Crazy Horse on his horse pointing toward his land and commemorates all Indian cultures.  Korczak Ziolkowski started carving in 1948 with a sledgehammer, a single-jack drill bit and a box of dynamite.  The sculpture is not a federal or state funded project but rather a nonprofit, educational and cultural undertaking financed primarily from admission to the site.  Ziolkowski started the project in 1948 and worked the next 36 years of his life blasting away 7,400,000 tons of granite to rough out virtually the entire figure, in the round.  Unlike Mount Rushmore with its substantial crew, Ziolkowski and later his sons were the only crew on the sculpture.  55 years after Ziolkowski started carving, work still continues on what will be the world’s largest sculpture.  In fact, all four of the Mount Rushmore heads would fit inside just Crazy Horse’s head and hair.  The face of Crazy Horse is nine-stories high and completed in June 1998.  The finished sculpture, as Ziolkowski saw it, will be 563 feet high by 641 feet long and carved in the round.  Imagine an Indian man and a warhorse that’s as long as a cruise ship and taller than a 60-story skyscraper.  The carving is one-mile from the observation deck so it is really hard to see any people, but you could just make out people on top of the arm and someone was in the hole under the arm.  Ziolkowski chose Crazy Horse because he is remembered in American history as one of the battle-masters who annihilated General George Armstrong Custer and as a battle hero and patriot to the Indians.  Crazy Horse was also steadfast in his resistance to U.S. occupation of Indian country and when asked “So where are your lands, now, Crazy Horse” after the Indians had lost the war, Crazy Horse responded, “My lands are where my dead lie buried” pointing out into the wilderness.  This inspired his design and the statue became not only a tribute to the man but rather to the dignity of all Native Americans.  Ziolkowski died in 1982 but wife Ruth and seven of his children continue the project today using his detailed plan books and scale models. 

The massive orientation and communications center houses an Indian Museum of North America and hundreds of Indian artifacts, several sculptures and even the home and studio of Ziolkowski.  Outside there is a Gate of Nature that is a very large iron gate inlaid with tin pictures of every animal that walked the Black Hills area.  There is also a large bronze statue of two horses called the “Fighting Stallions” Done by Ziolkowski. 

South Dakota Air & Space Museum   All Pictures   (Museum,  Thunderhead Falls,  Chapel in the Hills)

Ellsworth Air Force Base - August 27, 2003

We went to Ellsworth Air Force Base to the South Dakota Air & Space Museum.  They had all kinds of planes outside and a 1/8” Honda model of the stealth bomber.  The museum is free and inside what looks like an old hanger.  They had all kinds of flight suites, masks, pictures and missiles inside.  They even had a command control facility and the only preserved minuteman II missile silo.  Jack enjoyed looking at all the planes and especially the B52.  

Thunderhead Falls   -   Thunderhead Falls

We continued down Rt. 44 to Thunderhead Falls.  This was one of the earliest operating gold mines in the Black Hills.  The owners filed a claim in 1881 but the mine may have already been developed because of its existence on a rough map showing the course of Rapid Creek.  The mine was hand-drilled and blasted out with the aid of black gunpowder and runs horizontally back into the mountain for 600 feet.  It operated until about 1900 when miners blasted a hole into the Rapid Creek’s bed creating the unique waterfall.  Work couldn’t continue and the mine was closed.  It wasn’t until 1949 when an inquisitive passenger on the old Crouch Rail Sightseeing Line noticed the curious stream of water pouring from the side of a mountain and convinced her husband to take some time to find the source of the water flow.  What he found was Thunderhead Falls.  They acquired the land, established a road to the mine and began a tourist business.  You walk down a few steps, passed a pretty waterfall up to a building.  Up a very short walkway is a gate that leads into the mountain.  You walk along a pathway next to a river flowing out of the mountain to the waterfall outside.  The walkway is illuminated and there are signs here and there that point out the old tracks used for the mining cars, cooper and gold-bearing quartz veins in the rock and old drilling holes.  Halfway back you start hearing the waterfall and at the end you see the water gushing 8 cubic-feet per second falling vertically for more than thirty feet.  The spray hits you in the face as you stand there and the water is so very clear and cold.  In fact the entire cave is cold, Jack could see his breath when he exhaled.  What a neat place.

Chapel in the Hills   -   Chapel in the Hills

The “Stavkirke” (State) Church is a unique exact replica of a picturesque 841-year-old Borgund church in Norway.  From what we could see the church is made completely of wood and has intricate woodcarvings inside, crosses and dragonheads on the church spirals.  The structure is symbolic of the tall pines, decreasing in size as it reaches to the heavens.  The inside is very simple and small with an Alter.  They hold evening vesper serves there every night.  They had a small museum housing items from Norway and from the family.  The small gift shop also had woodcarvings on the outside and grass growing on the roof. 

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Bear Country USA   Pictures

August 28, 2003

The temperature today was only going to 83 degrees so we figured it would be a good day to go see the Bears so we headed off to Bear Country USA.  On Hwy 16 toward Rapid City, Bear Country USA is a 3-mile drive through park and the world’s largest privately owned group of American Black Bears and many other North American animals.  As we drove through the park we saw bison, long horn sheep, coyote, mountain lion and of course bears.  At the end of the drive through you park and walk through a baby land where we found a coyote, a raccoon, goats, otters, red fox and about 15 baby bears.  The bears were hanging around the trainers wanting something to eat but when a bus came into the area, all the bears ran up small tree.  Imagine 15 bears in a tree!  What a sight to see these little bears all scrabbling up a tree and it wasn’t a very big tree either.  The bus had tourists with food and as soon as the little bears realized this, they couldn’t get down fast enough.  They were fun to watch.  Next we drove further up Hwy 16 to a Black Gold Manufacturer for a tour.  No tour but you can watch them putting pieces of jewelry together behind glass.  The women said they don’t give tour anymore because there is too many chemicals used in the process and they don’t have enough insurance to cover mishaps.  It was still interesting.

Studebaker Rally        Pictures

August 31, 2003    

We drove into Hill City to see the Studabaker Rally.  We didn’t expect much but when we got there the main street was lined with about 60 Studabakers.  A few were really rough and a few were really nice.  They had an old custom with a house trailer, Skyhawk, an old 1940’s Studabaker that was in really good shape, as it should be, because the guy who owned it sells parts and has over 300 Studabakers in his yard.  A new model Studabaker was there also.  

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Wall Drugs          All Pictures   (Wall Drugs,  The Badlands National Park) 

September 2, 2003

We had a short ride from our campground to Wall, SD to see the world famous Wall Drugstore.  As we drove down the highway, all you could see was miles and miles of pastures and fields of golden grain, no more mountains.  The campground is only two blocks from the Drugstore.  The town of Wall is not much at all.  Souvenir stores line one side of the street and Wall Drug is on the other.  There is a main hallway inside lined with wooden statues of cowboys, Indians, saddles and animal heads.  From there you walk through a drug store, a western store, a souvenir store, a wood carving store and display, two rooms with old pictures, and a restaurant.  You can also walk outside to their “backyard” building that’s filled with photographs, wildlife exhibits and souvenir shops.  The photographs look like the 1800’s and early 1900’s and a Tyrannosaurus Rex that growls every 12 minutes with smoke and flashing lights.  There is an Arcade and larger than life stuffed animals you can get your picture taken with.  Wall Drug began in 1931 operated by Ted and Dorothy Husteads.  For 5 years, business was slow, then one hot summer day Ted, thinking how they could get those traveling through Wall to stop at their drug store.  Dorothy came up with the idea that what these people wanted most after driving through the desert on those hot dry days would be a cold glass of water.  So they made up signs and put them along the road offering free ice water at the drug store for anyone who wanted it.  Their business exploded and today they still dispense free ice water, sometimes at the rate of 20,000 glasses a day.  They also have 5 cent coffee and coffee and a donut for Vietnam Vets.  

Badlands National Park   -   The Badlands National Park

September 3, 2003

We took a ride on Rt. 240 known as the Badlands Loop Road through the Badlands National Park.  The road starts out going through grassland prairies when you see the land drop into valleys with all kinds of rock formations.  The interesting thing is some of the lands are canyons while others rise above the ground, but I think that’s because as you drive along, you go up and down.  The badlands were once a shallow sea that over many, many years dried up.  The first formation (Pierre shale) was made by this shallow sea some 75 to 70 million years ago.  The next layer of sedimentary rock (Chadron) formed between 37 and 34 million years ago.  The next layer of sedimentary rock (Brule) was formed between 34 and 29 million years ago.  Above this the formations are composed mostly of volcanic ash (Sharps).  Time, weather and air pollution have eroded the cliffs into most unusual shapes and colors.  There are fossilized remains that have been found in this area such as horses, pigs, rabbits, rodents, fish, birds, snails and plants and listened to a short talk given by a park ranger on the different fossils.  They say there is still wildlife that lives in the area but except for bison on the prairies and prairie dogs we didn’t see any.  We stopped next to a fairly large area of prairie dogs.  As we approached the call went out from the watch prairie dog and they all ran to their holes and hid.  We stood there for a few minutes, but the watch prairie dog was still sounding the warning call and not one was to be seen.  After we retreated to our car the warning call stopped and they started coming out again.  They are funny to watch.  The campground owners told me the 8 to 10 mile gravel road called the Sage Creek Rim Road had some pretty scenery so we drove that first for about 2 miles to the Hay Butte Overlook.  This area did have some pretty scenery but the road was really rough so we turned around and went back to Rt. 240.  We drove to the Visitor’s Center, watched a short film, ate our lunch and walked around the area.  Jack posed for a picture next to one of the formations and we fed some black and white birds.  We continued to the Northeast Entrance to the Park, turned around and headed back through to the Pinnacles Entrance where we started.  All the formations looked like they were a batch of bad cement and remind you of the moon.  Jack could crumble some of it in his hand.  Interesting.

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1880 Town         All Pictures   (1880 Town,   Pioneer Auto Museum)

September 4, 2003

The sign at the entrance reads: 1880 Town, Dakota Territory, elevation 2391 feet, population: 170 ghosts, 9 cats, 3 dogs, and 3905 rabbits.  We only saw the cats.  This is a town that has over 30 buildings from the 1880’s and houses authentic 1880 to 1920 era contents.  In 1969, one man purchased 14 acres to build places to house his dad’s Indian relics and antiques.  In 1972 a gas station was built on the property along with an idea of an old west attraction.  In 1972 a movie company came to town to film an 1880 era movie, a main street set was constructed from old buildings and a number of the Indian relics and antiques from the owners collection were borrowed for the sets.  The movie was never made but the movie company gave the owner the main street set to house his artifacts and antiques.  This was the beginning of the 1880 Town and it took years of collecting to make this authentic 1880 to 1920 era town.  You walk into a large 14-sided barn that has all kinds of stuff and antiques as well as Indian artifacts and the log cabin, tent and posters used in the movie Dances with Wolves.  Outside is the town where there are carriages, wagons, old equipment and wagons and log cabins used in the film Dances with Wolves.  A small black cat was all curled up on top of one of the wagons used in the film.  Walking toward the barn, another cat came running over to us.  Naturally Jack squatted down to pet her and she climbed right up on his lap.  It seemed that each building we walked into had another cat.  Then we saw a sign that said, “Cats for sale, $50 each, take your pick”.  Sorry, no sale here.  You walk down the main street that has The Dakota Hotel built in 1910 and moved here from Draper, SD.  There is a Livery Barn and St. Stephan’s Church built in 1915 and moved from Dixon, SD with everything intact from the stained glass windows to the bell.  The C&N-W Depot, Express Agency and Telegraph Office were all relocated from Gettysburg, SD and filled with railroad equipment.  There is a town hall that came from Belvedere, SD, the Mayor’s office, a lumberyard and a pioneer home.  The completely restored National Bank, Jewelry Store and Newspaper Office are all filled with antiques of the period.  There is also a one-room schoolhouse that was under restoration.  There is even a fire company with an old fire truck outside.  They were still refurbishing the firehouse and the bell.  The neatest thing about this place is that every building has everything in it like the people just left.  There was also a train sitting outside the town that has a 50’s style diner inside but it was closed and we didn’t get to see it.

Pioneer Auto Museum    -   Pioneer Auto Museum     

Our campground is right next door to the Pioneer Auto Museum so we just had to check it out.  This place is something else.  There are over 39 buildings crammed with over 250 antique and classic cars; some even Jack hasn’t seen, guns, glassware and toys.  Inside the main entrance you walk through three buildings of 1920 to 1950 autos and all kinds of stuff from the same period.  They even had Elvis Presley’s motorcycle and one room full of rocks, gems and fossils.  Outside are buildings with muscle cars, motorcycles, fords from 1906 to 1932, horse drawn vehicles, classic autos including a 1921 motor home, and tractor and farm machinery.  Besides all the cars there are other buildings making up a town, including a church, Kozy Kabin that’s a early tourist accommodation, a fire station, telegraph office, one room school, caboose, general store and even a circus display.  Of course they also have a gift shop with the jewelry counter made from a 1957 Chevy Belair, 50’s memorabilia and of course Elvis stuff.  Next to the museum is a restaurant.  It used to be the GTO Diner but has since changed hands and is now just the Antique Town Restaurant.  I took a picture of Jack standing in front of a really large, long green car that’s the symbol for the Museum.

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Telstar Mustang Shelby Cobra Restorations & Museum    All Pictures   (Museum,  Corn Palace)

Mitchell, SD - September 5, 2003

Jerry Regynski and his wife, Mavis are owners of Telstar Motors in Mitchell and deal exclusively in Mustang and Shelby restorations.  He met us when we pulled in and walked us into his garage where there was a Shelby GT 500 he said was the runaround car.  He showed us a brochure on his collection and talked about what we were about to see.  He sounded like he was trying to sell us on having our car restored by him, sounding like a sales pitch.  His wife Mavis took us into the garage to show us his cars.  The museum is his own personal collection and the most complete privately owned collection in existence with at least one Shelby from every year and model of production.  His showroom is temperature and humidity controlled and even has a sound system playing muscle-car era music.  Inside we saw every year Shelby, every year GT 350, every year GT 500, every year Shelby Fastback, every year Shelby Convertible, 3-’68 GT 500 KR Convertibles, 2-GT 500 428 Super Cobra Jet Drag-Pack Convertibles, AC Cobra, ’70 Boss 302, ’69 Boss 429 NASCAR, ’64 ½ Convertible, ’66 GT Convertible, ’66 Shelby GT 350 Hertz, ’65 HI-PO GT Fastback, and four engines; Boss 429 “Hemi” Tunnel Ram, 427 Cobra Side Oiler, Boss 302 and 289 High Performance.  Then there is a one of a kind mid engine-400 horsepower experimental sports-racing coupe, custom designed and manufactured by Jerry in 1969.  What a place and the quality is outstanding. 

After walking through the museum, Mavis showed us the storage garage where there were lots of parts, engines, rears and showed us into the restoration office where Jerry was.  He took us into his restoration shop.  He said he completes each restoration in about six weeks.  Imagine six weeks to completely disassemble and reassemble a car from the ground up.  The most amazing thing about this collection is that he, Jerry, said he restored every car himself and that every bolt had been removed, inspected, cleaned and rethreaded or replaced.  He had a 64-½ mustang he was going to restore for a customer.  The mustang was an ordinary two-door hardtop in really bad condition and he said he tried to talk the owners out of getting it restored, but the wife wanted it restored, so he is going to do it - for the price of about $40,000.  That just doesn’t add up in my book, but that’s what the customer wants and the customer is always right!  For this job he said he should have it done, better than new, by January.  I think Jerry enjoyed talking to someone who knew cars and I know Jack really enjoyed talking to him and seeing all the great cars.  I’m glad I called when I did.

Corn Palace  -  Corn Palace   

September 6, 2003

The Corn Palace was built in Mitchell, SD after Lewis and Clark traveled through Mitchell and wrote in their journals that the area was the Great American Desert suitable only for buffalo and that no man could ever make a living farming there.  To prove Lewis & Clark wrong and to entice settlers to the area, the Corn Palace was built to showcase all of the crops that could be grown in the rich Dakota soil.  The first Corn Palace was built in 1892 and was a 100 x 66-foot wooden structure.  A festival was planned in early September to celebrate the harvest and continues to be held every first week in September.  Unfortunately we arrived there just after the festival.  By 1905 the Corn Palace was such a success that the building was outgrown and new 125 x 142-foot wooden structure was built in 55 days.  The first two Corn Palaces had a dirt floor, no electricity and built entirely of wood, enabled it to be decorated from top to bottom and some of the pictures of these earlier murals were phenomenal.  However, in 1919 laws governing safety no longer allowed large groups of people to congregate in wooden structures and by 1921 the third and present Corn Palace had been built, made entirely of steel and brick.  Large rectangular murals along the front and sides of the building are done in corn that is cut to size, sawed in half and nailed flat-side to the building while the rest, except the top, is covered by 3,000 bushels of Milo, rye, oat heads and sour dock tied into bundles and nailed to the building.  Several of the murals were already being started for 2004.  The designs are drawn on black roofing paper and are marked as to which of the eleven different colors of corn goes where, tacked onto the Palace and the corn is literally nailed to it to produce the design.  The materials are all native corn, grasses and grains of South Dakota and the committee and the artist select a new theme each year and hire approximately 20 local residents each summer to redecorate the Palace in approximately three months.  Inside the Palace is a multi-use facility with a large basketball course with large murals on the walls.  This year’s theme was South Dakota and the murals that were still up had scenes in South Dakota.  One was Mount Rushmore.  They also have pictures on the walls of the Palace every year since 1892.