Deadwood Days

We arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota yesterday and spent most of the day on housekeeping chores, grocery shopping, cleaning, vacuuming, and laundry.  Lucky for me it was too late for a bath when all the chores were done.  Jim was planning to barbecue some steaks but it started thundering, lightning, and raining.  Just enough to spoil that plan.  They had pasta for dinner, yuck!

There is a free trolley from our campground into Deadwood which helped to orient us and plan our visit into to town today.

Gambling returned to Deadwood in 1998 and the casinos are every where.  That's been a source of income to spruce up the town, and many buildings have been restored to their original condition. Deadwood's streets are filled with reminders of it's past as a gold-rush boom town. And there are lots of tourists!

The first thing Jim and Kathe wanted to see today was the Mt. Moriah Cemetery (Boot Hill) where Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok are buried.  No dogs allowed!  They took a bus tour and learned about the local history and Deadwood's legendary characters.  This is a picture of Wild Bill's grave site.

They visited the Adams Museum which has a great collection of photographs and exhibits that tell the story of the glory of days of Deadwood.  In addition to Wild Bill's guns, they had a beautiful collection  of Lakota bead work on display.

Next, was a tour of the perfectly restored Adams House.  This Queen Anne style Victorian mansion was built in 1892 by a local business leader, W, E. Adams.  Upon his death in 1936, his wife closed up the house and never lived in it again.  The beautiful home is filled with original artifacts that reflect the upper class lifestyle at the turn of the 20th century.  They even had an electric stove and refrigerator.

Tonight Kathe and Jim are going out to try their luck at the casinos.

Last Day in Hill City

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.

Crazy Horse, Crazy Day

This is going to be a short post.  I got into some really sticky stickers trying to chase a bird in the grass tonight,  I had to have another bath because my hair was so sticky,  I think I will be bald by the time we get home.

We woke up early this morning and the sun was a red ball on the horizon because of all the smoke in the air.  By 7:30 it was clear again, so we drove to Mount Rushmore to get the "perfect" picture in the morning sun.  Jim was happy with his final picture and even happier that he made it back to camp in time for the pancake breakfast.

Later in the morning Kathe and Jim drove toward the town of Custer to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. They have been working on this sculpture since 1948 and when it is completed it will be the largest sculpture in the world.  To give you an idea of the size, all 4 of the Presidents on Rushmore would fit on the forehead of Crazy Horse. It will be 563 feet high when completed.

They went to lunch in Custer at the famous "Purple Pie Place" and ate blackberry pie with homemade ice cream.

After lunch they took a drive in Custer State Park on the Needles Highway.  There were several small tunnels carved in the rocks that you could drive through.  They waited to see if one of the tour buses would squeeze through the tunnel which was only 8' wide and 12' high.  He made it!

Black Hills

Here I am this morning as we entered the Black Hills of South Dakota!  The road getting here was a little curvy and steep.  Lots of hairpin turns and a 7% grade downhill.  I was glad when we finally reached the Rafter J Bar Ranch in Hill City.  We pulled out the lounge chairs enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  There's lots of green grass and large Ponderosa pines.  Jim is happy because they have a great bike path here and an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast every morning.






After we got settled into our site we had lunch and it was time for my nap.  Kathe and Jim were too excited to nap so they drove down to Mount Rushmore to take some pictures.  Of course, afternoon is not the best time to take pictures and Jim was unhappy that there were shadows on the faces of the Presidents on his pictures.  Guess they will have to come back at dawn tomorrow and miss the pancake breakfast!




Every 10 minutes they show a film in the Visitors Center that explains how the sculpture was accomplished.  It was amazing to watch the workers set dynamite and blast away the face of the mountain and then sculpt using pneumatic drills and hand chisels, all while suspended by cables in bosun chairs.

Lusk at Dusk

Today we drove from Cheyenne to Lusk, Wyoming, taking the scenic route up State route 85.  Along the first 50 or 70 miles we passed many large cattle ranches and then as we got closer to the Nebraska state line we started to see acres of corn fields.


We pulled into the BJ Campground in Lusk this afternoon around 2:00.  The park is very small, only 22 sites, but the owner greeted us with a smile, and a question.  She said, "Why the heck are you staying here 2 nights? There's nothing to see here except the Stagecoach Museum, and that will take about an hour.  I'm not kicking you out, but you should leave tomorrow and spend more time in the Black Hills."







Lusk was as once a stop on the Cheyenne to Deadwood City stage line, but today, if you blink you will miss it.  So, we are taking her advice and leaving tomorrow morning.

Jim took a bike ride this afternoon while Kathe toured the Stagecoach Museum.  Here are a few pictures from the Museum.  Their claim to fame is the original stage coach from the "Black Hills Line".  It was built in 1860.  Most of the Museum looks like some one's attic with tons of stuff like old clothes, dishes, an iron lung, guns, and my personal favorite, the two headed calf.

Historical Cheyenne

Hey, this is supposed to be "Annie's Vacation."  Yesterday it was all we, we, we! Well, what about me, me, ME?  What did I do while they were off sightseeing?  I had a great time that's what.  I ate, I slept, I played ball, and I went to the dog park.  Best of all, I spent my day in the air conditioned coach and they were out sweating in the heat!  It was over 100 degrees both days in Cheyenne.


Kathe and Jim returned to the Depot Museum today to see the model railroad exhibit they missed yesterday.  It was the an incredible display of small Wyoming towns linked together by rail.  The model maker created the tiny wooden buildings from photographs taken in the 1930's.  It was all built on HO-N3 scale and it filled a 20' x 30' room.

The railroad buffs at the museum suggested that they drive to the city park to see the "Big Boy" 4884 articulated steam locomotive.  There are only six of these 139' long, 4000 series steam locomotives still in existence.  It weighs more than 1,000,000 pounds and holds 22,000 gallons of water.

Next, Kathe and Jim went to the Cheyenne Days Frontier Museum where they have one of the nation's largest collection of horse drawn vehicles.  This museum is dedicated to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo which began in 1897 and claims to be even bigger than the one in Calgary.

The last stop today was the Historical Governor's Mansion.  It was built in 1904 and was the residence used by Wyoming's Governors until 1976.  The Colonial Revival mansion has been completely restored and reflects the different decorating styles of several periods of history. Jim liked the fallout shelter in the basement from the Cold War era.  Kathe's favorite room was the 1937 kitchen.

Sightseeing in Cheyenne

Today we traveled up the I-80 from Rawlins to Cheyenne and arrived at the A B Campground in time for lunch.  We encountered gusty winds and got a kick out of the signs warning us, "Gusty Winds the Next 5 Miles", the only problem was those signs were posted every 5 miles for the entire 150 miles.

We are very close to the Colorado state line here and there is smoke in the air from the wildfires. It's also causing unusually hot and muggy weather.

After lunch we went into town and boarded the Cheyenne Trolley for a tour of the city and a short history lesson.  The trolley took us all around the city and the driver pointed out the many museums and interesting sights that we might want to visit while in Cheyenne.  We're thinking about going to Frontier Days Old West Museum and the Historic Governors' Mansion tomorrow.

After the Trolley ride we toured the Cheyenne Depot Museum and learned about steam locomotives and the history of the Pacific Railroad in Wyoming.  The Depot has been beautifully restored in part from the city wide project called, "These Boots Were Made For Talking."  Local artists painted 21 giant cowboy boots that are placed all around the city.  The boots were sponsored by local businesses and auctioned at a fundraiser which raised nearly $100,000.  We saw several of them today, they really are spectacular.