Deadwood

Yesterday we took the trip to Deadwood.  I wanted to see the bar where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and where he and Calamity Jane were buried. We took a bus tour of Deadwood that took us up the hill (very steep) to Mount Moriah Cemetery.  Some myths regarding the two were busted on the tour.  Calamity Jane and Wild Bill were never lovers.  He was married and had come to Deadwood to make his fortune.  Calamity Jane was on the same stage arriving in Deadwood.  Wild Bill was only in Deadwood for a couple of months before he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall. 

      

Calamity Jane was a large woman who dressed like a man.  She loved to drink and was drunk most of the time.  However, during a smallpox epidemic she sobered up and took care of the sick.  She never lost a patient.  One child she cared for, was of the Gray family.  They were a very wealthy family in Deadwood and when she died, they paid for her to be buried next to Wild Bill. 

After the tour, we walked around the town a little and then went into Saloon #10 to watch a reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill.

 

 

 

 

Ed was chosen to play the part of the bar tender.

        

 

Wild Bill jumps onto the tour bus. 

        

Still to go…Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State park.

Devils Tower

This towering monument stands 865 feet.  Its was the nations first national monument dedicated by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.  Indian legend says that one day while the tribe camped nearby, a bear started chasing a group of girls.  They jumped on a rock three feet high and began to pray, “Rock, take pity on us; Rock save us”.  The rock heard them and began to elongate itself upwards, pushing them higher and higher.  The bear clawed and jumped at the sides of the rock, broke his claws and fell to the earth.  The rock pushed the girls into the sky where they are to this day in a group called the seven little stars (the Pleiades).

When you look at the tower it looks as if it has been clawed by a bear.  The campground we stayed at was a KOA.  We were going to stay in the park at their campground, but when we went through it we saw we couldn’t fit.  They didn’t give any length limit on their website so the KOA was the only alternative.  However that evening they did show the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” so that was kind of cool to watch it while looking at the tower!

             

Before you get to the visitor center you pass through Prairie Dog Town.  Its just an open field but there must have been hundreds of them all over.

       

We moved on to Rapid City on Sunday.  We had reservations starting on Monday but I was able to get them changed so we could go in on Sunday.  So now we are settled here at Hart Ranch, an RPI park.  This is the nicest park we have ever been to.  Totally paved roads, and cement pads.  We are here for 2 weeks now to explore the area.

Little Bighorn Battlefield

This battle should never have happened.  A scout even told Custer that there were more Indians than he had bullets.  If he had waited until all the other regiments came together they probably would have been okay. We will never know.

                    

The white marker with the black front is where Custer fell.  These were the soldiers that fell on what is now called Last Stand Hill.  He was removed from Little Bighorn and is buried at West Point. 

              

Such a vast open area.  In 1984, a grass fire went through the area.  After the fire, a lot of artifacts where revealed.  Archaeologists were able to track a lot of the movements through these findings.  All over the battlefield you see these white markers.  Most of them in twos.  They probably fought back to back.

They have an Indian Memorial.

     

A horse cemetery.  It seems a lot of the soldiers had shot their horses to use as barricades.

We also stopped at Custer Museum.  This is right down the road from where we are staying in a town called Garryowen.  Garryowen was the tune that was played as the 7th Calvary marched.  Outside they have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that was dedicated 50 years after the battle.  Actually it came about because some road workers uncovered the remains.  It’s believed that it was one of Lt Col Reno’s men.  They know it was a soldier because they found buttons.  The black and white photo is the actual dedication.  The indian is believed to be the one who shot Custer and the man is a survivor of the battle.  Inside the tomb they laid a hatchet among other artifacts.  This is where the term “bury the hatchet” came from.  Notice the man is not looking directly at the indian.

          

I’m really glad that we came this way.  It was a fun day.