Buffalo, Wyoming

Today was another "driving" day.  We drove a distance of about 170 miles from Deadwood, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming.  Here is the view we saw through the front windshield for most of the day, please excuse the bug guts! Lots of wide open space, grassland, a few cattle ranches with one or two small towns sprinkled in.  At least we are away from the fires and seeing some clear blue sky for a change.

Our home for the next couple of days, Deer Park, is a beautiful campground with lots of grass and mature trees.  When we pulled in and I went for my first walk, I saw a flock of giant turkey birds. I protected every one in the park with my loud bark and chased them out of the campground. They were gone so fast Kathe couldn't take their picture.

Buffalo is a small town of about 5,000 people that was founded in 1879.  It was mostly a ranching town and has a history as a cattle rustler's capital.  Also, many Native American battles took place in this area which is near the Bozeman Trail.

Jim and Kathe learned a little about this history when they visited the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum.  This small museum once was the county library, but today it houses a collection of over 8,500 artifacts collected and donated by the Gatchell family.  There were many interesting historical photographs of native Americans and a large collection of firearms.

We are staying in tonight and I have my Thunder shirt ready in case of any fireworks.  Tomorrow we are going into town to see the Occidental Hotel which is the only fully restored frontier hotel in Wyoming.

Varoom, Varoom

Today we drove the car to Sturgis, South Dakota. This is the home of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, one of the oldest and largest motorcycle gatherings in the world.  Luckily, we will be on our way west when the 300,000 or so motorcycles scream into town during the first week of August.

The streets of Sturgis were quiet today, but there were still lots of bikers in town.  You could tell that the town was gearing up for the festivities. The T-shirt shops were ready and all the restaurants had "help wanted"signs posted.

One of the attractions here was the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.  On display was a large collection of American and metric bikes dating back to the 1900.  In addition to all the rare, beautiful, antique, and unusual motorcycles there were historical photographs and memorabilia from the riders and rallies over the past 60 years.

Kathe and Jim selected their souvenir T-shirts and took a walk down Main Street to do a little window shopping.  One of the shops had the bike that Peter Fonda rode in the movie, "Easy Rider" in the window.  That was a highlight of the day.

On the way out of town they stopped at the Knuckle Saloon for a picture.  Jim didn't want to disturb the bikers, so they traveled down the road to the Dairy Queen for lunch.

Kathe and Jim had some luck in the Deadwood casinos last night and brought home $6.80 in winnings!

It is very smoky and sooty here in our campground tonight.  There is a fire close to us in Newcastle, Wyoming, which is burning about 60,000 acres.  The Governor has ask the citizens of Wyoming not to use fireworks this 4th of July.  We will head away from the fire tomorrow on our way to Buffalo, Wyoming for the next two nights.

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.