There is so much to see and do around here, no wonder SD is such a popular destination for vacationers.

Mount Rushmore

The idea of sculpting Mount Rushmore was that of State Historian Doane Robinson. His plan proposed carving figures of such noted western personalities as Lewis & Clark Buffalo Bill Cody and Chief Red Cloud, however, Gurzon Borglum (the sculptor) preferred carving the presidents so that the sculpture would be of national significance.

He surveyed the Black Hills and chose Mount Rushmore since it faced southeast toward the morning sun. He liked the hardness of the Harney Peak granite since it erodes only one inch every 10 000 years thus allowing his work to last for millienia.

The head dimensions :
Face : approximately 60 feet from chin to top of the head.
Eyes: 11 feet across
Nose: 20 feet (except Washington’s which is 21 feet)
Mouth: 18 feet across
The full sculpture is 185 feet across and 150 feet tall.

It was finalized October 31, 1941, although not to the artist’s intentions, lack of funds and the death of Borglum brought the project to an early completion.

Chief Crazy Horse

The monument to Chief Crazyhorse is still unfinished, it is a colossal undertaking, the sheer size of the sculpture is mind boggling. Just to give you an idea, the little hole under what will be the arm could hold a 10 story building, the head of the horse will be 219 ft, the head of crazy horse is 87 1/2 ft high. The sculpture is three dimensional sculpted in the round (it has two sides and a front).

Korczak was a firm believer in free enterprise and felt that Crazy Horse should be a nonprofit educational, cultural and humanitarian project, built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. He started work on the mountain in 1949 (alone), he was almost 40 and had only $174 to his name. Over the decades, he battled financial hardship, racial prejudice, injuries and advancing age. He worked on the project until his death in 1982, his wife Ruth, their 10 children (5 boys and 5 girls) took over. He left 3 books of detailed plans which are being used with his scaled model to continue the project.

The sculptor, Korczac Ziolkowski was born in Boston of Polish descent. He was entirely self-taught and never took a formal lesson in art. He was asked by the Lakota elders to carve a monument so the white man would know that the red man also had great heroes. They chose Chief Crazy horse because they unanimously decided that he represented the courage and determination of the Native Americans. He defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew. He was assassinated by a soldier who stabbed him in the back under a flag of truce on September 6 1877.

When asked derisively where his lands now were, he answered “My lands are where my dead lie buried”

The Lakota Elders thought that the fact that Korczac was born on September 6 was an omen.

Custer State Park

If you want to see wildlife, your best bet is Custer State Park. A good month to visit the park would be early October when they round up the bisons and put them in corrals, in order to manage the herd size. The bisons are then vaccinated and most of them are released. Some animals are then sold at auction for reproduction or slaughter.

We took Wildlife loop road and we met with a lot of bisons, some deers, one antelope, and quite a few prairie dogs.

The bisons and the deers were close enough to the car that would could have touched them.

Deadwood

The town that gain his fame because it is where Wild Bill Hickock was assassinated on August 2nd 1876. He died of the effects of a pistol shot like stated on his eulogy.

Typical western town, with gun fights in the street, the saloons are now casinos.

Liz and Rooster came with us to Deadwood to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary ( I didn’t one good picture of Liz, but here is Rooster)

Ellsworth AFB

Bear was stationed here in the late 70’s, he retired from Ellsworth AFB and became a policeman in Rapid City. We went to visit Ellsworth, they have a very nice Air and Space Museum. Bear used to be in charge of security of the missile silos, area 67. He had talked to me about what he was doing here and how it was, but I finally was able to see images and maps of what he was talking about, it was very interesting.

Bear used to be in charge of security for this area

He explained to me that two guys would go down into a bubble, suspended underground and be there for a 24 hour shift, making sure that the equipment was functioning and ready to push the button to launch the missiles if under alert and they received the order.

Emblem of the 44 missile security squadron that bear used to wear as a shoulder patch on his uniform.

1880 Train

We also took a ride on the 1880 train, between Hilll City and Keystone. Bear once worked here on a movie set, for the movie “Orphan train”. He was working security on the set, but also helped “shake the train” so the ride would look more realistic on film.

The ride lasts 1 hour each way, along the way we saw old mines and gorgeous scenery, wild turkeys and deers.

The train still works with a steam engine, but it burns recycled oil instead of coal now.

We stopped in Keystone for 3 hours, we had lunch and shopped. They are serious about making sure you keep and eye on your kids here, as you can see on this sign:

This guy walking in the middle of the road cracking his whip was over 7 feet tall.