Month: August 2018

Custer State Park and Wind Cave

The next day dawned gloomy and overcast, but I headed out to explore Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park.

People had raved about Custer State Park – mostly about the experience of camping there and the wildlife that you could see. What really captivated me was that they were having a free admission day. As a former teacher and a retiree, free is one of my favorite words.

In spite of it being a rather bleak day, but I set out to see what I could see.

Driving along, looking at the prairie and the rather sparse trees seemed to be the thing to do. My eyes were peeled for buffalo, though.

I thought this was an appropriate warning.

And why should you stay away from buffalo? Well, they stand nearly six feet tall at the shoulder and weigh nearly a ton.

I finally came upon a herd of buffalo. If you look in the lower right quadrant of the photo, you might notice that there are two fellows who didn’t heed the warning on the sign. When the ranger came up he used his bullhorn to tell them to come away from the herd. They did head back to their cars, but I think they avoided the ranger.

These are the corrals that are used mainly in the fall when the annual buffalo roundup and auction are held.

The park herd averages about 1,450 animals after the calves are born. During the round up in October, the herd is bright into the corrals, calves are branded and females are vaccinated. Approximately 500 animals are sorted out for sale and then tested to make sure that they meet state livestock regulations.

The buffalo that will remain in the park are released. Those that are going to be sold remain in the corrals until the auction on the third Saturday of November. Buyers come from all over the United States and Canada to take part in the sale. They buy the buffalo for breeding stock or for slaughter.

Quite frankly, the animals in Custer State Park are quite savvy and they keep their distance from the road.

You can tell this animal – perhaps an antelope – stayed far back because I had to enlarge the photo to the point of distortion to be able to make it out.

One breed of animal that doesn’t keep its distance is the wild burro.

They come right up to the cars and take whatever is offered. In fact, they stick their muzzles right into the cars.

I watched in fascination as the car in front of me fed the burros bread. I couldn’t believe that they let their daughter stick her hands out of the car and touch the burro. They do have teeth, after all.

The burro had eaten all the bread they had and then the girl told it to eat the bread that had dropped on the road.

Then the girl watched as the it ate all the bread that had fallen on the road.

The burros came to visit me, too.

He was hoping for a handout.

When none was forthcoming, he moved on.

The one behind him didn’t even stop. He just gave me a side eye as he passed by.

After a bit more driving, I came across this building. It’s labeled “Wildlife Station Visitor Center.” It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps – the CCC – during the Great Depression. They used materials that were available locally.

This fireplace is quite something, with its irregular boulders. If I remember correctly, this building had just undergone some renovation. A building like this is worth taking care of.

There was an interesting parking area that was dedication to the rutting season, which takes place between July and mid-September. I was too early in the year to watch the buffalo bulls fighting over breeding rights. Remember that my visit took place in May.

According to the information there, the bulls show dominance by making loud bellows or butting heads together. They display aggression by rubbing their horns against trees. Their hair sticks to the peeled bark and sap. In some cases the trees die from the damage. This tree looks healthy, but you can see where the bulls have rubbed against it.

There was also some information about the buffalo on the nickel.

For many years between 1913 and 1938, the United States coined the buffalo nickel. The designer, James Earle Fraser, who was born in Minnesota, stated, “I found no motif within the boundaries of the United States so distinctive as the American Buffalo.”

Ironically, Fraser used a buffalo from the Bronx Zoo as his model.

I have a warm spot in my heart for these nickels. When I was a little girl, my father would take us out on little adventures. (When you are young, everything is an adventure.) One place we would stop is a little store that we would call a convenience store these days – or maybe a party store. Well, several times when we stopped there, Dad found these nickels in the parking lot and he gave them to me.

For my father’s 80th birthday, I bought him a 1928 buffalo nickel, which was the year he was born. I told him the story, and he was quite touched.

Back to our regularly scheduled tourism.

This map documents the shrinking range of the buffalo. The areas in bright green had none, so don’t worry about the fact that bright green isn’t represented in the key.

Amazing what we can do when we set our minds to it. (But not “amazing” in a good way.)

With that, I headed to Wind Cave National Park.

Oddly enough, the buffalo were up close and easy to see in that park. 

So were the prairie dog towns. If you look a little below the center of the photo, you can see a couple of them. They are fun to watch, but kind of hard to photograph with an iPhone.

I signed up for the tour and Ranger Justin lead us over to the original entrance to the cave.

One of the interesting features of the caves found in this park is that they are said to “breathe.” When the air pressure is higher outside the cave that inside, air flows into the cave, raising the cave’s air pressure to match the outside pressure. When the air pressure inside the cave is higher than the outside press, the air flows out of the cave.

Justin demonstrated this by holding a light piece of cloth in front of the opening and I could see it moving as the cave exhaled.

After the tour of the cave, I took a picture of this display in the museum area. So the air was flowing out at about 5.35 mph.

I am surely glad that they made another entrance to the cave. I wouldn’t not want to try to enter it that way.

Wind Cave is famous for a formation known as “Boxwork.” In fact, if you want to see box work, this is the place to be, as approximately 95% of the world’s discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.

If I remember Ranger Justin’s information correctly, a softer rock formed and then cracked.

Calcite deposits formed in the cracks.

Eventually that softer rocks eroded away. I could be wrong, but that is what I remember.

There are also other formations, such as this one that is called popcorn.

These crystals imbedded in the popcorn caught my eye.

These rounded rocks were interesting, too. There didn’t seem to be the typical stalactite and stalagmite formations that are found in other caves.

The walls seemed other-worldly.

The cave is extensively surveyed, and this is the first marker the surveyors left, if I remember correctly.

At the end of the tour, I was glad that the clouds had cleared and that there was some blue sky to be seen and that the clouds had cleared. I had a choice of paths to the headquarters and the parking area.

I am not a fan of stairs. I took the ramp up to Bart and headed back to Flo and Cora.

It turned out to be a lovely day after all.

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse

As I headed toward Rapid City, I had a sudden pang of nostalgia when I hit I-90. The New York State Thruway is part of I-90, and Buffalo, New York has several exits on it. Home, sweet home!

I-90 is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States, at 3,020.54 miles. It starts in Boston, near Logan International Airport, and ends in Seattle at State Route 519, near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field.  I got to and around Rapid City and found a campground. Many people had raved about the campgrounds at Custer State Park, but I was having trouble ascertaining that they were open and if the sites would accommodate Flo and Bart. I ended up at Heartland RV Park & Cabins. Not exactly a forested paradise, but it would do.

Incidentally, I borrowed this photo from their website. There were nowhere near this many RVs there. It was still early in the season.

I settled in and did some laundry and made plans to do some sightseeing. What was I going to see?

Mount Rushmore!

The weather wasn’t the greatest, but it would have to do. I paid for the parking and headed up to see what I could see. If you want to see what people are seeing right now, you can check out the EarthCam for Mount Rushmore.

I walked up the Avenue of the States. The flags flapping the breeze where a nice touch of color on this cool, damp, dark day.

If you know anything about Mount Rushmore, you probably know that it was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum. He has such a memorable name – or maybe one of those names that is right on the tip of your tongue when you are playing a trivia game. His son, Lincoln, is also credited as involved in the creation of the monument.

You might not have known that Borglum was also the first artist to begin the sculpture on Stone Mountain in 1923. He had quite a different plan for that bas relief sculpture, which included General Lee and an army of 750 men. He left the project in 1925 over what appear to be “artistic differences.” Borglum’s work was removed and the next artist, Augustus Lukeman, took over.

Ah, but this post isn’t about Stone Mountain! If you are interested in more information about Stone Mountain, click here.

I liked the plaque that honors the people who worked on creating Mount Rushmore.

Since the weather was dreary, I decided to explore the museum and hope that it would clear up while I was exploring the exhibits. There were some interesting displays.

There were models of the faces to be sculpted. A mountain isn’t something you want to attack freehand.

There were several ideas floated. This one with Lincoln peeking out over Jefferson’s shoulder is kind of cute.

There was an interactive display where you got to depress the plunger and blow up part of the mountain.

After I did my fair share of blasting, I let this young man have a turn. It was fun sharing in the creation of the monument, even if only digitally.

This is the dedication flag that was created by the Rapid City Women’s Club for the dedication of the Washington figure on July 4, 1930.

The machine-sewn flag consists of 13 red and white stripes and 48 stars within the field of blue. Each star, measuring 27 inches wide, was hand stitched in place.

Considered to be the largest flag in the world at the time, it was displayed on the Alex Johnson Hotel for a few hours before the dedication.

If you look carefully, you can kind of make out the stripes on the sculpture of Washington at the far left.

Borglum used the flag on the dedications of the remaining presidents. The, like other textiles, is affected by environmental conditions and will eventually deteriorate, although professional conservation can stabilize and reverse the damage. The National Park Service is pursuing conservation work to extend the longevity of the flag and preserve this unique treasure for the American people.

Which leads us to the never-ending requests for funds.

There really were some interesting displays and photos about how this sculpture was created.

The weather was still on the gloomy side, so I decided to have some lunch.

I had some buffalo stew, which was the hearty, stick-to-your-ribs fare I was looking for.

I while I ate my lunch, the weather started to clear. I set out to see what else I could see.

There was a “cave” you could go in and look up the carvings. There’s George, with Abe peeking over the pine trees.

With that, I decided it was time to move along.

One last look back on my way to the truck. Then I was off.

There was a place where you could look back and see Washington’s profile from the road outside the memorial. According to the plaque where I stopped, the fact that Washington’s profile is visible from this spot was purely accidental.

Originally, Borglum had intended to put Thomas Jefferson on Washington’s right, but the rock there wasn’t suited to the design. The workers had already blocked out the rough features of Jefferson’s face when Borglum decided to reorder the line up. The Jefferson carving was blasted away and the rock smoothed down, allowing for a view of Washington’s profile from this spot.

The sculpture of Washington gives him a 60 foot tall head and a 20 foot long nose. Each eye is 11 feet across.

While I was stopped to take this photo, a mountain goat came ambling by.

Mountain goats were introduced to the Black Hills in the 1920s. They have adapted well to the steep granite cliffs, where they spend most of their time.

This one seemed happy to come down and visit. I guess he was ready for his close up.

My next stop was Crazy Horse.

As you can see, it is a work in progress. It was begun in 1948, and is far from completion. Chief Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, commissioned Korczak Ziolkowski to carve an image of the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.

This is a model of the sculpture, with the monument’s progress in the background.

It doesn’t seem like much progress has been made until you consider the shape of the mountain that Korczak began with.

On the left side of the maquette is a poem written by Korczak Ziolkowski.

The master plan of the memorial includes the mountain carving, an Indian Museum of North America and a Native American Cultural Center. They seem to be making progress, but right now they seem to have a priority of telling the story of its creation.

For instance, they have a movie at the beginning of your visit, and this inspiring portrait of the artist.

Coupled with array without information.

There is this photo of Chief Henry Standing Bear, which I find an interesting document. He was born along the Missouri River near present-day Pierre, South Dakota. He was probably born in 1874.

At age 14, he was one of the youngest and first of the Indian children to attend Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, which was the first of a horrible American innovation, the Indian boarding school.

If you are interested in scholarly information about the school, a digital resource center is maintained by Dickinson University.

Chief Standing Bear made many trips to Washington, DC, serving as an interpreter to advocate for and protect the rights of his people. He also worked for a time for a theatrical company on the East coat and spent a year working in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows.

In 1939, while Mount Rushmore was progressing, he sent a letter to Korczak. He asked him to create a monument, stating, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, also.” Chief Standing Bear learned of Korczak when he worked for a short time as an assistant to Borglum in the summer of 1939.

This photo was taken in Korczak’s home in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1947, when Chief Standing Bear came to discuss plans for the memorial.

Chief Standing Bear died in 1953 and is buried in Pine Ridge.

I guess it makes sense to tell the story of the massive undertaking of the sculpture, but I do hope they don’t forget the missions of the creation of the museum and cultural centers.

The sculpture’s final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet wide and 563 feet high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feel tall. By comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 high. If this monument is competed, it will be the world’s largest sculpture.

That won’t be in my lifetime.

But, like the Buda compressor that served them well for many years, I guess they will just keep chugging along.

 

 

 

 

 

Good Bye, North Dakota. Hello, South!

I hitched up and got ready to roll. Knowing me, I was probably on the road at the crack of noon. That’s one of the sweet things about doing things at your own speed. You get to operate on your own schedule.

I had some information that there was a free boondocking campsite in Dickinson, North Dakota. Apparently, I was operating on some old information. I went to the place that was identified. It didn’t strike me as a place I wanted to stay.

A popular topic of discussion in the RV community is what a person uses for protection when they are on the road. I had been rolling solo for more than three years at that point. I prefer to use my common sense. My common sense told me to move on, so I did.

I had to shell out a few bucks for the Dickenson City Park, but at least I knew I was in a place where they expected to have campers.

I was the only camper at the park, but they said that they were full up on the weekend. I enjoyed the lilacs. I think that was the first time I’d ever seen lilacs in a campground.

I didn’t even unhitch this time. I wanted to be ready to roll in the morning. I had a goal: Rapid City, South Dakota!

Heading down U.S. 85, I came to Buffalo, South Dakota. As a native Buffalonian, I had to stop for a few minutes to at least stretch my legs.

I must have been in the center of town. They had it all – a library, coffee shop, bar, casino and liquor store.

And right across the street was the park.

They were very proud of their heritage. I went inside the park to explore. I couldn’t resist the photo of the buffalo with Flo and Bart.

One source of much pride was Tipperary, the famous bucking horse, who lived from 1905 – 1932.

According to the sign, Tipperary bucked off 91 riders. Back then, there was no 8-second rule. The ride went on until the rider was bucked off or the horse stopped bucking. Horses weren’t trucked to the rodeos back when Tipperary was in the rodeos. According to the sign, they were “trailed,” which I assume meant that they were ridden, lead, or herded to the rodeo.

Uh, actually, I don’t suppose Tipperary was ridden. Who rides a bucking bronco?

He was raised by Ed Wickham, sold to Doc Latham and Mex Griffith and lost to Carr and Ridgeway in a poker game. Eventually, Charlie Wilson bought Tipperary to become part of the Wilson bronc string.

Charlie Wilson? That must be a common name! The first thing that came to mind was the 2007 movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

As the poster says, “Based on the outrageous true story” of the Texas politician, Charlie Wilson.

Imagine that! A Democrat from Texas!

Then, there is the singer, Charlie Wilson.

But, no, this was a man who lived before any of them, and he had broncos.

The statue of Tipperary was based on this painting that was commissioned by Alvin Cordell of Camp Crook. He was very interested in Tipperary and researched him extensively. Rather that write about what he learned, he commissioned Mick B. Harrison to paint this opaque watercolor that showed Tipperary in his famous bucking style.

Tipperary’s last rodeo was in 1926, when he was 21 years old. According to the information in the park, he continued to prance to the song, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” even though he was getting on in years. He died in a blizzard in 1932, and his bones are said to be buried in Tipperary Park, not too far from Buffalo.

You can tell that this park is a source of pride for the people in the area. They took pains to explain everything there – as well as some things that weren’t. The legibility of the signs was really notable. I can’t tell you all the times I’ve tried to figure out what I was looking at and the sign was so faded, chipped and worn that I couldn’t read the information.

Rest assured. I am not going to recreate what is on all those signs.

There were statues of the local wildlife. Deer…

a wolf…

a bald eagle.

They took some pains to show visitors what is important to them.

They included equipment that provided the energy for life out there.

You may have noticed the bricks in the photo of the signs. I was impressed with these memorial bricks with brands included.

They really wanted to let visitors know what was important to them.

I wish I had more time to explore this tiny town – maybe grab a bite at Blossom’s Brew Coffee House or knock one back at the bar – but I was on my way to the Rapid City area. I didn’t have a campground picked out and the clouds kept coming and going. I got back into Bart and headed south down U.S. 85.

Next stop: Rapid City!