Hill City, South Dakota

Hill City and the surrounding small towns around the South Black Hills have lots of art work decorating the streets.

In Custer City, there are dozens of painted buffalo on display on their main street.

In Hill City, some of the shops have amazing animals built out of recycled tools and metal parts and scraps.

In all of the surrounding cities, chain saw carvers work their extraordinary magic…

And there are enough wineries, distilleries, and breweries to meet everyone’s needs.

Hill City, South Dakota

I wanted to come to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, but I fell in love with the Black Hills!

South Dakota has surprised me the most out of the states we’ve been to so far.  It’s gorgeous; well, at least the Black Hills are. It’s the only part we’ve been to so far… : -)

Color me naive but I didn’t know the Black Hills were so named by Lakota Native Americans because the denseness of the trees make the hills look black.

First, Rushmore.

How does one describe four granite carvings that are over 60 feet tall commemorating the four most notable presidents from our country’s first 150 years? Pretty hard to do…  I learned a few things today about the memorial.

Originally the carvings were to include the presidents’ torsos. The granite changed below the faces and wouldn’t hold the carvings. Here’s the artist’s original concept. I like the way it turned out better. More focus on their heads, well actually their brains. : -)

A bill was introduced in 1937 to carve a fifth head: Susan B. Anthony. The plan was neglected due to both a lack of suitable rocks and funding. (I wonder how much sooner women’s rights would have advanced had the carving been done.)

Second, the Black Hills.

They cover approximately 50 miles by 100 miles. Harney Peak, at 7244 feet, is the highest peak not only of the Black Hills but of any mountain range east of the Continental Divide to the Swiss Alps.

The beautiful Cathedral Spires are to the left of Harney Peak in the above picture.

Sylvan Lake is close to the spires. It is one of the prettiest lakes I have seen.

There was a wedding there when we drove by. What a wonderful place to start a new beginning!

Hill City, South Dakota

We rode the 1880 Black Hills Central Railroad Train today from Hill City to Keystone and back.

It’s a beautiful train and a beautiful ride.

We saw lots of deer, a badger, and clutch of wild turkeys. Apparently I didn’t look close enough at the baby turkeys because one of them is an albino!

There were two types of cars to choose to ride in: open windowed or closed windowed. Rich said he didn’t care where we sat as long as it wasn’t by the two screaming kids and their hollering parents in front of us in line. 🙂

The train runs on used motor oil. And periodically they shoot sand up the smoke stack when the train is running at full throttle. The sand cleans the creosote build up.

We passed over 20 streets and with each crossing the train’s whistle blew two longs, one short, and one long. That indicates to drivers and pedestrians that a train is neat and will be crossing soon.

All of the cars in the train are refurbished originals. They are stunning. The seat backs flip so that riders can face either way because the cars don’t turn around at the end of the track.

To celebrate our journey, Rich took his first selfie!

Hill City, South Dakota

During our drive from North to South Dakota yesterday, we drove through the middle of the United States, literally.

The geographic center of the nation was determined to be in Lebanon, Kansas until Alaska and Hawaii were awarded statehood. That shifted the center 440 miles to a private ranch 20 miles north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.

So Lebanon can claim to be the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states, and Belle Fourche of all 50 states.

Belle Fourche is a small cowboy town. In fact in the movie The Cowboys the final destination of the cattle drive was Belle Fourche. FYI The stuttering scene with Stuttering Bob in The Cowboys is the funniest ever… It ends with “You son of a bitch!”

If I had decent Internet, I’d post a link but alas I don’t…

You can find it with the following search string: The Cowboys stuttering scene. Enjoy!

Or this might work.

www.YouTube.com/watch?v=rBBS_tC4eRE

Medora, North Dakota

We drove just north of Medora to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park covers 110 square miles in the badlands of western North Dakota.

We had never heard of the park until other RVers mentioned it. It’s a stunning park, and I’m glad we visited it yesterday. The park was ‘bully’! (Bully was the word Roosevelt used to strongly emphasize a positive.)

At the visitor center, we learned about Teddy Roosevelt’s life and how he came to North Dakota.

Excerpts from Wikipedia:

Roosevelt first came to the North Dakota badlands to hunt bison in September 1883. During that first short trip, he got his bison and fell in love with the rugged lifestyle and the “perfect freedom” of the West. He invested a cattle ranch seven miles south of Medora.

Following the death of both his wife (a few days after childbirth) and mother (from Typhoid) on February 14, 1884, Roosevelt returned to his North Dakota ranch seeking solitude and time to heal.  

His adventures in “the strenuous life” outdoors and the loss of his cattle in the starvation winter in 1886-1887 were influential in Theodore Roosevelt’s pursuit of conservation policies as President of the United States (1901–1909).

We drove along a 35 mile route around the southern section of the park and saw lots of wildlife.

Prairie Dogs

We watched hundreds of them squawking and talking to one another as they worked on their burrows. 

Bison

These are my favorite animals to see in the wild. One walked down the street without a care in the world. The others were grazing peacefully among friends.

Mule Deer & Wild Turkeys

We also saw mule deer, a doe with twin fawns. They were camera shy so I didn’t get a picture.

And we saw a couple of wild turkeys. I didn’t get a picture, but here’s one I ‘harvested’ off of the Internet.

The geology of the park was amazing. Here are a few pictures…

Sophie and I discovered this survey marker on the top of a small hill where the buffalo often roam (and poop).

Medora, North Dakota

We drove to Williston, North Dakota, yesterday to take a look at all the oil drilling taking place there.

It’s crazy wild. Almost felt like the California gold rush of 1849 must have…

In ten years the size of the town has more than doubled from 12,000 to well over 30,000.

Changes in how oil is drilled (using a process called fracking) combined with the increase in oil prices set the scene for this boom.

We drove through amazing agricultural farms,  and as we got closer to Williston we saw more and more oil rigs pumping away. Rather surreal to see the drills set up in the middle of corn and wheat fields. On several ranches we saw lines of travel trailers, each with pickups and Suburbans. Once in Williston we saw cluster after cluster of “man camps”. Many of the larger contractors provide housing for their employees. As we drove through town, at least 3/4 of the vehicles were trucks–both semis and pickups. The pickups are covered in mud, but there must be rules about identifying company trucks because the front doors are wiped clean so you can see the company logo.

There are dozens of extended stay hotels, and most offer both accommodations and storage where you can store your stuff when you go home every third week. It’s hard to find places to stay. At a town about 30 miles away, a private home was offering a room for $80 per night. One of the extended stay hotels charges $599 per week for a double bed, and $799 for two double beds.

All of the restaurants in town were very busy. And there are many help wanted signs and billboards around the area.

Many businesses close down because they can’t compete with the high wages offered. I checked for jobs in Williston on monster and it listed over 800 jobs.

Towns around the area are struggling to get and keep employees. I saw a large sign at the K Mart in Glendive advertising for employees at $10 an hour to start with no previous employment necessary.

One of Williston’ s most famous native sons is Phil Jackson who coached the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers to many championships. They’ve named the main street after him. (Might be hard to see… It says Phil Jackson Way and is followed by a basketball.) The area infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Two lane country highways are being expanded to four lane freeways. If I was younger and had no kids, I would try to get a job up there. Starting salaries are reportedly $100,000, and to work there a few years to build a nest egg would be worth it.

Glendive, Montana

One of the great things about traveling so much is finding out something REALLY unique about a place.

It happens a lot, but Glendive’s 45 day paddlefish season takes the top prize on our trip so far.

Each year 4000 fisherman descend to Glendive in mid-May. From there they make a 15 mile trip north on the Yellowstone River to Intake Diversion Dam to fish for paddlefish.

Anglers snag the prehistoric looking fish because the fish won’t take bait–they are filter feeders.

A 142 pound fish caught in 1973 holds the record. Most range from 70 to 90 pounds.

In order to prevent over fishing, the state limits the count of fish caught to 1000. The 2013 season lasted ten days because the limit was caught that quickly.

The Glendive Chamber of Commerce collects the roe (eggs) from the fishermen who donate it after volunteers clean the fish for them. Workers process the roe into Yellowstone Caviar which is sold commercially.

Thirty percent of the net proceeds fund paddlefish research. The rest funds historical, cultural, and recreational projects in Eastern Montana.

Almost a million dollars had been raised in 20 years to fund over 450 grants.

(Information taken from the 2014 Glendive, Montana Visitor and Relocation Guide.)