Wednesday, July 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
There’s gold in the Black Hills
By Craig F. eisenbeis
Correspondent
At one time or another,
almost everyone makes a pil-
grimage of patriotism to Mt.
Rushmore.
While much of South
Dakota is eminently forgetta-
ble, there are lots of things to
do and see in South Dakota’s
Black Hills. So, once there,
don’t just gaze at the massive
stone faces of the presidents
and leave. Devote some time
to take in all that the Black
Hills have to offer.
The Black Hills have been
revered by Native Americans
for hundreds of years; and,
in the mad rush of European-
Americans into the West, the
area was largely left to the
natives, as the newcomers
sought out the fertile plains
for farms or pressed on farther
west. In 1868, a treaty with
the Indians precluded white
settlement of the Black Hills
“forever.”
In 1874, however, George
Armstrong Custer led an army
expedition into the area that
discovered gold; and it turned
out that “forever” meant about
six years. Ironically, Custer’s
discovery directly contrib-
uted to the Indian conflicts
that resulted in Custer’s death
two years later at the Battle of
Little Bighorn — the haunting
site of which can be visited on
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the way to the Black Hills.
Today, tourism is the big-
gest draw to the Black Hills,
and Mt. Rushmore, of course,
is the biggest draw of all.
If you haven’t been there
in a while, you may find new
things to see. This was our
third trip to Mt. Rushmore,
and there was plenty that was
new to us. First off, the new
parking garage — and the $11
parking fee — was new, but
then, so was the impressive
Grand View Terrace and the
Avenue of Flags. Some very
substantial improvements
have been added in recent
decades.
Amidst all the museums,
history, gift shops, and view-
ing opportunities, there is a
little trail I’d like to tell you
about. It isn’t the sort of trail I
usually write about in this col-
umn, but it’s something that
you won’t want to miss. Mt.
Rushmore’s Presidential Trail
is only 0.6 mile, but it offers
surprisingly close-up views of
the presidential sculptures and
entirely different perspectives
of the presidential visages.
The trail loops around
from the spacious stone plaza
of the Grand View Terrace and
passes through an attractive
pine forest directly beneath
the famed presidential like-
nesses. The trail is easy, but
there are hundreds of stair
steps involved, so be prepared.
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A ranger suggested that the
trail is best transited in clock-
wise fashion because there are
fewer steps back up at the end
of the walk. Of special inter-
est is the granite rubble carved
away from the mountainside,
much of which still bears the
sculptors’ tool marks. The
trail can be walked without
a guide, but audio-guides
are available. Informational
signs dot the entire route.
Whether coming or going
from Mt. Rushmore, be sure
to take in the beauty, forests,
buffalo, and prairie dogs of
the adjacent Custer State
Park. A drive through the
park is a wonderful trip; and
there are also many miles of
“real” trails, including the
Centennial Trail that transits
the entire length of the park.
For cyclists, there is also the
bicycle-friendly George S.
Mickelson Trail running south
from Deadwood for 108 miles
on the old Burlington Rail-
road Route.
Immediately to the south
of Custer State Park is Wind
Cave National Park. The first
time we were there, we had a
14-month-old toddler; and our
second child was due only two
months in the future. In view
of those circumstances, we
didn’t make the trip through
the cave; but on this visit, we
had no such constraints, so
we were able to tour one of
photo by craiG F. eisenbeis
Daily “shootouts” take place on the streets of Deadwood in South
Dakota’s Black hills.
the largest and most elaborate
cave systems in the world.
We spent a week in South
Dakota; and our base of
operations was near the his-
toric town of Deadwood.
This frontier gold-rush town
was made famous —or more
accurately, infamous — by
the cold-blooded murder of
famed gunfighter Wild Bill
Hickok, an incident reenacted
in Deadwood four times daily,
May through October.
Additionally, from Memo-
rial Day through Labor Day,
three infamous shootouts are
also reenacted daily on the
streets of Deadwood. When
the gold ran out, Deadwood
was in danger of becoming a
ghost town, but designation as
an historical site — and legal-
ized gambling — revitalized it.
Last year, True West maga-
zine named Deadwood “Best
Old West Gunfighter Town.”
We set aside one day to
venture across the state line
into nearby northeast Wyo-
ming to visit another of those
icons of the West that is on
most people’s must-see list:
Devils Tower National Monu-
ment. Native legends notwith-
standing, the tower resulted
from a volcanic magma
intrusion that solidified into
columnar basalt, a phenom-
enon also frequently observed
See BlaCK hIllS on page 23