One more lazy day here in Hill City before we leave for Deadwood, South Dakota tomorrow. Kathe and Jim drove to Custer City today and spent the morning at the 1881 Custer County Courthouse and Museum, It served as the county courthouse until 1974, and since then it has been preserving and displaying Custer County history.
Kathe enjoyed the Victorian furniture and clothing, especially all of the lace wedding gowns on display. Jim spent most of his time down in the basement where they had a large
collection of shotguns, pistols, and rifles from
the 1800's and 1900's. Upstairs the historic courtroom features the original cherry wood furniture and judge's chambers. Jim couldn't resist playing judge and sitting on the bench.
The next place on the schedule today was the National Museum of Woodcarving. Here there were thousands of woodcarvings by Dr. Harley Niblack displayed. Dr. Niblack spent over 70,000 hours of his life carving and creating miniature and life sized figures and animating them. Three of his animated scenes appeared in the Smithsonian Institute. During 1954 and 1955 he helped design and build the animation at Disneyland. It was a very, very strange museum.
Later in the day we drove the Iron Mountain highway which runs through Custer State Park and offers some spectacular view of Mount Rushmore in the distance. As you pass through the tunnel, you have a clear view of the Mount Rushmore framed by the tunnel walls and the trees in the distance.
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