"... Great Faces and Great Places"

The "Wild West" image was built on a modicum of truth and a large dollop of folklore and legend, where everybody and everything seemed larger than life.  Names like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are forever branded into our consciousness.  Our recent eight state, 5,200 mile trek, which we dubbed The Great Westward Ho! Adventure, allowed us to experience incredible scenery and landscapes that were truly amazing and other-worldly. The Black Hills, the Badlands and Devils Tower are natural vistas that seem anything but natural.  Man-made monuments such as Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse were (and are being) built on a grand scale that reflects man's desire to transcend the ordinary.

One town's creative method of enticing immigrants to the unsettled Dakota prairie has stood as an icon since 1892.  In an effort to highlight the fertile productivity of the plains,  Mitchell, SD created the Corn Palace.  The Corn Palace is decorated inside and out with more than 2,000 bushels of corn and forty tons of other grain.  Every year it is stripped and redecorated with a new theme.

2,000 bushels of corn and 40 tons of other grains and grasses are used to decorate the
Corn Palace. College students are hired to do the work. They start in the spring and finish
just about harvest time.  It takes 100 acres to grow all of the material used each year.

Local artists draw the pictures in white on black backgrounds, then indicate what colors
to put into each section, much like a giant paint-by-number picture.  275 thousand ears
of corn in 12 natural colors are split in half lengthwise and nailed up to make the murals

The Dakota Indians use the phrase "mako sica"  (literarily "land bad") to describe a topography of barren landscape with deep gorges and lunar-like spires.  Today 244,000 of those acres are part of the Badlands National Park.  This area was once part of a huge salt sea whose floor was pushed up by volcanic activity.  Millions of years of wind, rain, and snow erosion has created a breathtakingly eerie landscape.

In January 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt signs a proclamation creating the
Badlands National Monument.  In November 1978, Congress passes
legislation re-designating the Badlands as a National Park  

The rock formations are the result of eons of erosion.  Today, the rock is eroding at
the rate of about one inch per year.

This sign caught our attention as we entered Badlands National Park

Prairie Dogs are cute, but are a nuisance to ranchers.  Livestock can break legs
stepping in their holes.  And now, with the added threat of plague...

The 1928 bill authorizing the creation of a park here used the name Teton
National Park in an effort to avoid the negative-sounding name Badlands.  The
name Teton National Park was later given to the park near Jackson, WY. 

During WWII, the government took over a portion of the Pine Ridge Reservation
that now lies within  the National Park, and used the land to test new artillery
there from 1942 to 1945

On the north edge or "wall" of the Badlands is America's #1 roadside attraction.  Wall Drug has been part of the Wall community since 1931.  Ted and Dorothy Hustead were looking for a drugstore to purchase in a small community with a Catholic church.  The town of Wall (population 365) met their requirements.  The family eked out a living for five years - it was, after all, the Great Depression - before Dorothy came up with the idea of "free ice water" to entice travelers to stop at their store.  The popular ice water give-away, a campaign that placed billboards across South Dakota, and friendly service built their drugstore's reputation into a must-see attraction that today boasts 20,000 visitors on any summer day!

In addition to a 520-seat restaurant, Wall Drug has a whole mall of shops, ice cream
parlor, drug store -- you name it, they probably have it.  The restaurant houses
the largest private collection of western and illustration art in the country

The "Backyard" houses a video arcade and a whole collection of
photo op props.  Yvonne is taming a South Dakota  "Jack-a-lope"

We heard about a woman in Yellowstone getting gored when she tried to take
a "selfie" with a bison.  Mike said there is nothing to it, if you do it right.

A painted Indian pony, a Native American scout...the "Backyard"
at Wall Drug can make you feel like a kid again

About an hour west of the Badlands lie the Black Hills.  The picturesque town of Hill City, SD marks the gateway to amazing engineering feats and magnificent natural vistas.

Mount Rushmore was envisioned by sculptor Gutzon Borglum as a national memorial to honor the American philosophy and spirit.  Between October 4, 1927 and October 31, 1941, Borglum and four hundred workers created this masterpiece.  During the fourteen years that it took to complete the monument, only six years were spent in actual carving.  Raising funds and dealing with political issues caused long delays in the effort.

Seeing the faces on the mountain for the first time literally takes your breath away

The Avenue of Flags.  There are 56 flags displayed, representing 50 states, the
District of Columbia, 3 Territories and 2 Commonwealths of the United States 

I love this photo...a very powerful and moving photo of
George Washington's eyes

This view of the monument was taken from the site of  the artist's studio.
Borglum said that in his opinion, this was the best view of Mt. Rushmore

As you leave Mt. Rushmore, a view to your right
shows George Washington in profile

Our campsite at Rafter J Bar Ranch near Hill City - - a wonderful campground

Seventeen miles from Mount Rushmore in the Southern Black Hills is another astounding sculpture in progress.  Crazy Horse, a Lakota Sioux warrior, is being immortalized on the face of Thunderhead Mountain. The project was initiated by Chief Henry Standing Bear (Oglala Sioux) who contacted sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to create a monument to celebrate that "...the Red Man has great heroes too."  The eighty-seven-and-a-half foot tall face of Crazy Horse was finished in 1998 - fifty years after construction began. The statue is an on-going project and the Ziolkowski family is still integrally involved.

This is the artist's mock-up of the sculpture.  It is located at the Visitors' Center.
Look under his arm and you can see the face of the actual sculpture, one mile away

Crazy Horse's head, 50 years in the making.  The hole in the mountain is the
beginning of the space under his arm (see the mock-up in the previous picture)

Close-up of the face, with scaffolding on the top of the head

In the Crazy Horse Museum, a statue of a horse dressed in
 beautiful and very intricate beaded tack

Just 'cause I love flowers and find bees on them  interesting

Amazing spires create scenes of wonder. Taking the Needles Highway, the traveler gazes in awe at the jagged natural sculptures and holds his or her breath as the road passes through tunnels that require the mirrors to be pulled in against the vehicle.

The view along Needles Highway

Don't try to take your RV on Needles Highway

One of 6 tunnels along Needles Highway.  Most are barely wide enough to get
a car through.  We had to pull in the mirrors on our truck a couple of times

Coming out of one of the 8' 4" wide tunnels

Custer State Park, near the Crazy Horse memorial.  This bison was laying
within 10 feet of the road

Pronghorn deer, Custer State Park, South Dakota

To the north and west of Mt. Rushmore, quaint towns await exploration - - one founded on mining but famous for gambling; the other famous (some might say notorious) for an annual event known as "Bike Week."  Both, in their own way, keep the spirit of the old west alive.

The original Main Street in Deadwood, SD...now hotels, casinos, restaurants,
bars and shops.  Four times each day, there is a shoot-out on this street

It is said that Hickock was holding two pairs - aces and eights - in a poker game
when he was killed.  The fifth card in the "Dead Man's Hand" was a jack by some
accounts, a nine by other accounts, and some say he didn't have a fifth card.

Wild Bill Hickock's grave in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, SD
Calamity Jane (real name Martha Jane Cannary) is buried beside him.

Sturgis is a quiet little town most of the year, but for the 75th Anniversary Rally in
August 2015, the number of motorcycles was estimated at one million.  The
previous record was 633,000, set during the 60th Anniversary Rally in 2000

The Full Throttle Saloon, setting for a reality TV show that ran on cable for
a couple of seasons, bills itself as the largest biker bar in the world

Heading into Wyoming, a massive 875 foot magma pillar dominates the landscape.  Devils Tower is a sacred place to the Lakota and other tribes.  In 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt dedicated Devils Tower as the nation's first National Monument.

Devils Tower rises 875 feet from its base to the summit,
and stands 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River

Checking into the Devils Tower KOA, just outside the entrance to the national
monument. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed on location here, and
the KOA shows the film each evening, outdoors, with the Tower as a backdrop

On the proclamation signed by President Roosevelt, the apostrophe in Devil's
Tower was left out, and never corrected, so the "official" name is Devils Tower

Yvonne and Mike and Adrienne and Ralph at the base of Devils Tower

A lot of climbers scale the Tower.  No guide is required, but all climbers must register
with the Rangers.  A voluntary "no climbing" period is observed each June as Native
Americans gather at the Tower, which they believe is sacred ground.

The top of the Tower was first reached by two local cowboys, who attached a wooden
ladder system to the side of the Tower. Remnants of the ladders can still be seen

Checking email at the campfire at Devils Tower KOA.  Sophie is pretty relaxed, too.

Another national monument of a more sobering nature is located on the Montana prairie, near the little community of Garryowen.  The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument commemorates the defeat and death of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and 263 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry in 1876.  In recent years the monument has acknowledged and included information about the Plains Indians, their efforts to maintain and eventually the loss of their traditional way of life.

Into Montana...there is a whole lot of open land out here.

Last Stand Hill at Little Bighorn Battlefield.  The stones mark the spots where the
soldiers of the 7th Cavalry fell.  Note the stone with the black plaque on it.

This stone marks the spot where George Custer's body was recovered.
Custer is buried in the cemetery at West Point in New York.

Other than the graves in Arlington National Cemetery, this is the only other officially
recognized Tomb of an Unknown Soldier, a trooper who died in the battle of Little
Bighorn, whose body was later found.  This grave is on private property.

The Custer National Cemetery at Little Bighorn Battlefield

The grave of Two Whistles, a Crow Indian who was
a scout for George Custer.  He survived the battle
and died in 1929 at the age of 73

A glorious sunset viewed from our campsite at 7th Ranch RV Camp
near Garryowen, MT 

The sun is just about ready to slip from view.  Mike said that as he watched it,
he wondered if any of Custer's men watched the sun set on June 24, 1876,
not realizing that it would be the last one they would ever see

When the sun came up the next day, we headed toward Yellowstone National Park (see our blog 2.1 Million Years in the Making       http://ramblings-and-rumblings.blogspot.com/2015/09/21-million-years-in-making.html )    Here are some of random shots of sights we saw on the way to Yellowstone.

45th Parallel...halfway between the Equator and the North Pole

As if the price of fuel isn't bad enough, the gas stations
offer you an additional way to empty your wallet.

Acres and acres of sunflowers to produce sunflower oil and sunflower seeds

A herd of bison, just outside (north) of Yellowstone National Park

The Yellowstone River flows south to north, from the National Park up into
Montana.  This spot is about 20 miles north of the Roosevelt Gate,
the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Whether fact or legend - or more likely, some of both - the image of the "Wild West" is a part of how Americans view themselves, and part of our collective Road Stories.

 

Keep in mind, when you travel, that you are likely to
encounter at least one ass out on the road!