Saturday, August 25, 2007
Black Hills of South Dakota
Be sure to click on photos for larger images.
This installment covers Wednesday (August 22) through Saturday (August 25).
Before making our short drive from Rapid City to Custer, South Dakota on Wednesday, we started the day at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. The museum had a few indoor exhibits, including a Minuteman Missile launch control training center, and a dozen or more outside aircraft, including B-1 and B-52 bombers, and a wide variety of fighters. We also took an escorted tour of Ellsworth AFB and were able to go down into a Minuteman missile silo that had been used for training purposes. The trip to Custer was uneventful, and we saved sightseeing in the Custer area for the next three days.
On Thursday we headed into Custer State Park then drove south to Wind Cave National Park. In Custer we saw a herd of distant buffalo, and a single buffalo walking alongside the road. We also saw a few deer grazing in the open grasslands, and one group of wild turkey. Wind Cave is now the 4th longest cave in the world (currently measured at 125 miles) and the 2nd longest in Custer County, SD (after Jewel Cave). Because of the lack of water, it does not have stalactites and stalagmites, but does have an interesting formation called boxwork. The boxwork was formed at the same time, and by the same action, as the cave – limestone dissolving in standing water and leaving harder calcite as thin formations. Unfortunately, our photos of the boxwork do not really do it justice.
After lunch in Hot Springs, our final stop of the day was the National Mammoth Site. This is an under-roof, working archeological dig (see photos). About 27,000 years ago, a sinkhole formed at the site and mammoths who went down to eat and drink were unable to climb back out. A core drilling indicated that there are bones down to at least 60 feet below the current surface; to date, only 22 feet or less has been excavated and so far 55 mammoths (110 tusks and assorted bones) have been unearthed.
We got into the car at 6:30 on Friday morning to drive Custer State Park’s wildlife loop. Between 7 and 8 a.m., we saw two species of deer, a lot of turkeys, a lot of buffalo along and in the road, and one big horn sheep. Next we drove up the Needles Highway toward Mt. Rushmore. Due to fog on the highway and rain at Mt. Rushmore, we did not get any good photos; we will try it again tomorrow.
After finishing at Mt. Rushmore, we drove back through Custer to Jewel Cave. There was a limited tour schedule today, so we took a short (20 min.) tour which consisted of a ride down an elevator to a huge underground room. Jewel Cave has only a few stalactites and stalagmites, due to the lack of water. It has now been mapped at just over 140 miles, making it the second largest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave. Based on measurements of wind volume, experts estimate that only 2-10% of the cave has been mapped.
Next we toured the National Woodcarver’s Museum, which contains a few large pieces and a number of multi-character scenes. The detail in some of the carving is amazing. Our last stop was the Crazy Horse Monument site. The monument of Crazy Horse riding his horse is ultimately planned to be several times the size of Mt. Rushmore. To date, Crazy Horse’s face is complete, and a lot of preliminary work has been done to begin to rough-in the shape of his horse. Given the pace of work, it may not be completed even in our children’s lifetime. The site also includes a nice museum with a large number and variety of Indian artifacts.
After a short stop back at the RV, we drove the wildlife loop again at dusk, from about 7-8 p.m. We saw three variety of deer (more deer than in the morning), and again saw a large number of buffalo. We did not see any elk today, although there is supposed to be a large herd in the park.
On Saturday we retraced part of yesterday’s trips, in the sun instead of the rain. We got pictures of the “eye of the needle” on the Needles Highway (see photo) and of Mt. Rushmore, including a side view of Washington’s head and a long distance view of the monument. Compare today’s sunny photo of Mt. Rushmore with yesterday’s rainy photo, when the president’s appear to be weeping (see photos).
With the Badlands, the Minuteman Missile Site, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Mt. Rushmore, we have now visited 5 National Parks or Monuments in the past week. Tomorrow we leave for a two day drive to Yellowstone National Park, with a scheduled stop en route at Devil’s Tower National Monument.
This installment covers Wednesday (August 22) through Saturday (August 25).
Before making our short drive from Rapid City to Custer, South Dakota on Wednesday, we started the day at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. The museum had a few indoor exhibits, including a Minuteman Missile launch control training center, and a dozen or more outside aircraft, including B-1 and B-52 bombers, and a wide variety of fighters. We also took an escorted tour of Ellsworth AFB and were able to go down into a Minuteman missile silo that had been used for training purposes. The trip to Custer was uneventful, and we saved sightseeing in the Custer area for the next three days.
On Thursday we headed into Custer State Park then drove south to Wind Cave National Park. In Custer we saw a herd of distant buffalo, and a single buffalo walking alongside the road. We also saw a few deer grazing in the open grasslands, and one group of wild turkey. Wind Cave is now the 4th longest cave in the world (currently measured at 125 miles) and the 2nd longest in Custer County, SD (after Jewel Cave). Because of the lack of water, it does not have stalactites and stalagmites, but does have an interesting formation called boxwork. The boxwork was formed at the same time, and by the same action, as the cave – limestone dissolving in standing water and leaving harder calcite as thin formations. Unfortunately, our photos of the boxwork do not really do it justice.
After lunch in Hot Springs, our final stop of the day was the National Mammoth Site. This is an under-roof, working archeological dig (see photos). About 27,000 years ago, a sinkhole formed at the site and mammoths who went down to eat and drink were unable to climb back out. A core drilling indicated that there are bones down to at least 60 feet below the current surface; to date, only 22 feet or less has been excavated and so far 55 mammoths (110 tusks and assorted bones) have been unearthed.
We got into the car at 6:30 on Friday morning to drive Custer State Park’s wildlife loop. Between 7 and 8 a.m., we saw two species of deer, a lot of turkeys, a lot of buffalo along and in the road, and one big horn sheep. Next we drove up the Needles Highway toward Mt. Rushmore. Due to fog on the highway and rain at Mt. Rushmore, we did not get any good photos; we will try it again tomorrow.
After finishing at Mt. Rushmore, we drove back through Custer to Jewel Cave. There was a limited tour schedule today, so we took a short (20 min.) tour which consisted of a ride down an elevator to a huge underground room. Jewel Cave has only a few stalactites and stalagmites, due to the lack of water. It has now been mapped at just over 140 miles, making it the second largest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave. Based on measurements of wind volume, experts estimate that only 2-10% of the cave has been mapped.
Next we toured the National Woodcarver’s Museum, which contains a few large pieces and a number of multi-character scenes. The detail in some of the carving is amazing. Our last stop was the Crazy Horse Monument site. The monument of Crazy Horse riding his horse is ultimately planned to be several times the size of Mt. Rushmore. To date, Crazy Horse’s face is complete, and a lot of preliminary work has been done to begin to rough-in the shape of his horse. Given the pace of work, it may not be completed even in our children’s lifetime. The site also includes a nice museum with a large number and variety of Indian artifacts.
After a short stop back at the RV, we drove the wildlife loop again at dusk, from about 7-8 p.m. We saw three variety of deer (more deer than in the morning), and again saw a large number of buffalo. We did not see any elk today, although there is supposed to be a large herd in the park.
On Saturday we retraced part of yesterday’s trips, in the sun instead of the rain. We got pictures of the “eye of the needle” on the Needles Highway (see photo) and of Mt. Rushmore, including a side view of Washington’s head and a long distance view of the monument. Compare today’s sunny photo of Mt. Rushmore with yesterday’s rainy photo, when the president’s appear to be weeping (see photos).
With the Badlands, the Minuteman Missile Site, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Mt. Rushmore, we have now visited 5 National Parks or Monuments in the past week. Tomorrow we leave for a two day drive to Yellowstone National Park, with a scheduled stop en route at Devil’s Tower National Monument.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
South Dakota Part I
Be sure to click on photos for larger images.
This installment covers Friday (August 17) through Tuesday (August 21).
On Friday we started by visiting the President’s Park Sculpture Garden. This attraction has a large bust of every president (see photo) accompanied by a display which highlights his life and presidency and contains a brief comment on his First Lady. We then visited a natural history museum in Hill, SD, containing a variety of rocks, fossils, and dinosaur skeletons. After window shopping on the short main street, we had lunch at Desperados, a restaurant housed in the oldest surviving commercial log structure in South Dakota. We finished the day’s sightseeing by driving to Sturgis, the home of an annual motorcycle gathering which ended about a week ago. While there, we visited the Motorcycle Museum. Back at the RV for the evening, where we had a very heavy rain and a little small hail. Deadwood missed the worst of the storm – there was baseball size hail about 12 miles due south of Sturgis, with flash-flooding in the same area.
On Saturday we drove a “scenic byway” from Deadwood to Spearfish. En route we walked a short paved trail to Roughlock Falls. It is so named because the surrounding hills are very steep and in the early days they were navigated downhill by tying (rough-locking) the wheels of a wagon, hitching the team to the back, and letting the horses slow the wagon’s slide downhill. In Spearfish we visited the High Plains Museum, which featured a lot of cattle related items, including a vast barbed wire collection. This is the first place I have ever seen a men’s room sign saying “Please exercise diligence when using the urinals.” After lunch we returned to explore downtown Deadwood.
In Deadwood we won a little money (about $11) at video poker in one of the many small casinos; souvenir-shopped; watched a mock gunfight (not nearly as elaborate as the one we saw last week at Ft. Lincoln); visited the Deadwood Museum (where we learned that Wild Bill Hickok’s killer was found not guilty at his first trial in Deadwood, but was convicted and hanged after a second trial a few weeks later in a nearby city – so much for double jeopardy); and drove up a steep hill to visit Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where we saw the gravesites of Hickok (see photo) and Calamity Jane.
On Sunday we drove from Deadwood to Pierre, SD, where we are staying for two nights in a nice campground (Lake Oahe Downstream) managed by the State of South Dakota on a Corps of Engineers lake. Our first stop was at the touted Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD (see photo) – it has more road signs announcing its approach than does Rock City.
Next we drove through Badlands National Park, stopping at a lot of overlooks for sightseeing and photos (see photo).
On Monday we drove to downtown over the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River – this is one of the largest rolled earth dams in the world. We then took a self-guided toured of South Dakota State Capitol, which is a highly decorated building (see photos) that looks much more like a typical capitol than did North Dakota’s. The floor in the rotunda is mosaic. Since the artisans who laid the mosaic could not sign their work, each was given one blue tile to place as a signature – apparently on 55 of the 67 artisans actually laid these tiles. When the floor was refurbished, each of the tile-layers was given a heart-shaped tile to place as a signature. Next we walked around Capitol Lake and saw the memorial to South Dakota servicemen and women (see photo).
After lunch, we toured the South Dakota Heritage Center. This was another nice museum whose claim to fame is that it is covered by earth, making it very energy efficient. From the upstairs, looking downtown, you can see that Pierre is located in a valley surrounded by hills on all sides.
We left the campground about 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning so that we could get to the half-day a week (Tuesday 9:30-12:00) open house at the National Park’s new Minuteman Missile sites located near the Badlands National Park.
There are two Minuteman sites – Delta 01 is the former Delta flight’s launch control center, Delta 09 is the silo for one of the flight’s 10 Minuteman II missiles. The preservation of these two sites as a museum was negotiated as part of the arms reduction talks. The other 44 Minuteman II launch control centers and 449 missile silos have been destroyed. (There are still about 500 active Minuteman III missile sites in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, and they are scheduled to stay in service until at least 2025.)
The story of Minuteman missiles: These were the first solid fuel missiles that were deployed; they replaced the liquid fueled Atlas and Titan missiles. The earlier missile silos had to be adjacent to the launch control centers because of the manual process involved in raising and fueling the missiles. Each ten Minuteman II silos, which were built by the Corps of Engineers between 1961 and 1963, were controlled by one launch control center. (A squadron consisted of 5 launch control centers, controlling a total of 50 missiles.) These silos were located remotely – typically 3 to 15 miles from the launch center – and were tied into the center by underground copper cable. They remained in service for thirty years, from 1963 to 1993.
The above-ground life support and security facilities at the launch center were manned by a USAF facility manager, 6 security policemen, and a cook, who worked 36 hours on, 36 hours off. Sometimes these personnel were joined by maintenance personnel. The launch control facility, located 30 to 90 feet underground depending on the soil conditions, was manned by two missilers who worked 24-hour shifts behind an 8-ton hydraulically-operated, steel and concrete blast door (see photos). This was a “no-lone zone,” which meant that there could never be one person left alone in the launch facility.
Our guide in the launch control center was a former missiler. He explained that a “war order message” would be announced by a warbling tone followed by two six digit codes. Once these codes were authenticated by both of the missilers, they would use separate keys to open a red lock box containing launch codes and launch keys. They would then determine, from the war order codes, which of the particular launch codes was to be used. Each missile had six preprogrammed targets. The particular launch code would determine which missiles would be launched at which targets, and which missiles would be held in reserve. The war order message also contained a launch time. The missilers would enter the launch codes and, at the appointed time, would turn their launch keys in slots located 12 feet apart. No missiles would be launched, however, unless keys were turned simultaneously in at least two of the squadron’s five launch control centers. Once launched, there was no way to destroy the missiles in flight.
At the Delta 09 site, we saw a missile in its silo (see photo). The missile was normally covered by a 7-ton concrete door. As part of the launch preparation sequence, explosive charges would be remotely detonated in order to blow the door away.
After finishing the tour of the two Delta sites, we drove on to Rapid City on a state highway that traveled primarily through a national grasslands preserve. After a late lunch we went to a theater to see “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
This installment covers Friday (August 17) through Tuesday (August 21).
On Friday we started by visiting the President’s Park Sculpture Garden. This attraction has a large bust of every president (see photo) accompanied by a display which highlights his life and presidency and contains a brief comment on his First Lady. We then visited a natural history museum in Hill, SD, containing a variety of rocks, fossils, and dinosaur skeletons. After window shopping on the short main street, we had lunch at Desperados, a restaurant housed in the oldest surviving commercial log structure in South Dakota. We finished the day’s sightseeing by driving to Sturgis, the home of an annual motorcycle gathering which ended about a week ago. While there, we visited the Motorcycle Museum. Back at the RV for the evening, where we had a very heavy rain and a little small hail. Deadwood missed the worst of the storm – there was baseball size hail about 12 miles due south of Sturgis, with flash-flooding in the same area.
On Saturday we drove a “scenic byway” from Deadwood to Spearfish. En route we walked a short paved trail to Roughlock Falls. It is so named because the surrounding hills are very steep and in the early days they were navigated downhill by tying (rough-locking) the wheels of a wagon, hitching the team to the back, and letting the horses slow the wagon’s slide downhill. In Spearfish we visited the High Plains Museum, which featured a lot of cattle related items, including a vast barbed wire collection. This is the first place I have ever seen a men’s room sign saying “Please exercise diligence when using the urinals.” After lunch we returned to explore downtown Deadwood.
In Deadwood we won a little money (about $11) at video poker in one of the many small casinos; souvenir-shopped; watched a mock gunfight (not nearly as elaborate as the one we saw last week at Ft. Lincoln); visited the Deadwood Museum (where we learned that Wild Bill Hickok’s killer was found not guilty at his first trial in Deadwood, but was convicted and hanged after a second trial a few weeks later in a nearby city – so much for double jeopardy); and drove up a steep hill to visit Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where we saw the gravesites of Hickok (see photo) and Calamity Jane.
On Sunday we drove from Deadwood to Pierre, SD, where we are staying for two nights in a nice campground (Lake Oahe Downstream) managed by the State of South Dakota on a Corps of Engineers lake. Our first stop was at the touted Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD (see photo) – it has more road signs announcing its approach than does Rock City.
Next we drove through Badlands National Park, stopping at a lot of overlooks for sightseeing and photos (see photo).
On Monday we drove to downtown over the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River – this is one of the largest rolled earth dams in the world. We then took a self-guided toured of South Dakota State Capitol, which is a highly decorated building (see photos) that looks much more like a typical capitol than did North Dakota’s. The floor in the rotunda is mosaic. Since the artisans who laid the mosaic could not sign their work, each was given one blue tile to place as a signature – apparently on 55 of the 67 artisans actually laid these tiles. When the floor was refurbished, each of the tile-layers was given a heart-shaped tile to place as a signature. Next we walked around Capitol Lake and saw the memorial to South Dakota servicemen and women (see photo).
After lunch, we toured the South Dakota Heritage Center. This was another nice museum whose claim to fame is that it is covered by earth, making it very energy efficient. From the upstairs, looking downtown, you can see that Pierre is located in a valley surrounded by hills on all sides.
We left the campground about 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning so that we could get to the half-day a week (Tuesday 9:30-12:00) open house at the National Park’s new Minuteman Missile sites located near the Badlands National Park.
There are two Minuteman sites – Delta 01 is the former Delta flight’s launch control center, Delta 09 is the silo for one of the flight’s 10 Minuteman II missiles. The preservation of these two sites as a museum was negotiated as part of the arms reduction talks. The other 44 Minuteman II launch control centers and 449 missile silos have been destroyed. (There are still about 500 active Minuteman III missile sites in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, and they are scheduled to stay in service until at least 2025.)
The story of Minuteman missiles: These were the first solid fuel missiles that were deployed; they replaced the liquid fueled Atlas and Titan missiles. The earlier missile silos had to be adjacent to the launch control centers because of the manual process involved in raising and fueling the missiles. Each ten Minuteman II silos, which were built by the Corps of Engineers between 1961 and 1963, were controlled by one launch control center. (A squadron consisted of 5 launch control centers, controlling a total of 50 missiles.) These silos were located remotely – typically 3 to 15 miles from the launch center – and were tied into the center by underground copper cable. They remained in service for thirty years, from 1963 to 1993.
The above-ground life support and security facilities at the launch center were manned by a USAF facility manager, 6 security policemen, and a cook, who worked 36 hours on, 36 hours off. Sometimes these personnel were joined by maintenance personnel. The launch control facility, located 30 to 90 feet underground depending on the soil conditions, was manned by two missilers who worked 24-hour shifts behind an 8-ton hydraulically-operated, steel and concrete blast door (see photos). This was a “no-lone zone,” which meant that there could never be one person left alone in the launch facility.
Our guide in the launch control center was a former missiler. He explained that a “war order message” would be announced by a warbling tone followed by two six digit codes. Once these codes were authenticated by both of the missilers, they would use separate keys to open a red lock box containing launch codes and launch keys. They would then determine, from the war order codes, which of the particular launch codes was to be used. Each missile had six preprogrammed targets. The particular launch code would determine which missiles would be launched at which targets, and which missiles would be held in reserve. The war order message also contained a launch time. The missilers would enter the launch codes and, at the appointed time, would turn their launch keys in slots located 12 feet apart. No missiles would be launched, however, unless keys were turned simultaneously in at least two of the squadron’s five launch control centers. Once launched, there was no way to destroy the missiles in flight.
At the Delta 09 site, we saw a missile in its silo (see photo). The missile was normally covered by a 7-ton concrete door. As part of the launch preparation sequence, explosive charges would be remotely detonated in order to blow the door away.
After finishing the tour of the two Delta sites, we drove on to Rapid City on a state highway that traveled primarily through a national grasslands preserve. After a late lunch we went to a theater to see “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Western North Dakota
NOTE: Click on any photo for a larger version.
This installment covers Monday (August 13) through Thursday (August 16).
On Monday, we drove west from Minot to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, where we visited the Confluence Interpretive Center, Fort Buford, and Fort Union. Fort Buford was a military post which at its height housed 6 companies of men. Only one or two original buildings remain, including the restored base commander’s quarters which serves as a museum. This is the building (shown below) in which Sitting Bull surrendered. Nearby Fort Union was an American Fur Company trading post (shown below). American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor and was later joined by McKenzie of the North West Company after the latter was absorbed by the Hudson Bay Company. The post was large and elaborate, and dealt with both independent white fur traders and with a number of Indian tribes.
We then turned south toward the North Dakota Badlands and the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. En route we stopped in Alexander, ND, at the “Lewis and Clark Trail Museum,” so-named because it is on the route of the expedition, not because it features Lewis and Clark. This turned out to be a nice local museum in a 3-story 1920s vintage school house with attached gymnasium. The museum included a lot of local artifacts organized in separate rooms by subject area. One room consisted of a number of display cases, purchased by local families for $100 each, containing family memorabilia (shown below).
We spent the night in the national park. In the early evening we drove the 14 mile road into the park. We got some good views of the badlands and the Little Missouri River, saw a couple of mule deer, and encountered a small herd of buffalo crossing the road.
Since check-out time is noon, on Tuesday morning we drove the park road again. We saw a lot of buffalo, starting with a herd that was making its way through the RV park just as we prepared to leave (shown below). We then encountered three more herds along the drive.
Our RV trip on Tuesday was a short drive south out of the badlands, through hilly ranching country, a little flat farming country, and back into more badlands just outside Medora. On Tuesday evening we went to the Medora Musical. The performance takes place in an open-air amphitheater that goes sharply down the side of one of the badlands hills. In addition to performance on the stage, some action takes place behind the stage on a facing hill. The song and dance was high energy, some country, some patriotic, and some N.D. championship yodeling. All-in-all a unique and entertaining show.
We were in Medora again on Wednesday. In the morning we toured the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There are several prairie dog towns along the route, and the animals were out in force (shown below). We walked the ridge trail, which took us to a high spot with a 360 degree view of the badlands landscape – nice to look at but impossible to get a good photograph. We also walked the coal fire trail, which took us across land under which a 12’ thick coal vein burned between 1951 and 1977. Some of the artifacts are a depression where the overburden sank, and what the locals call “scoria,” a red brick like substance on the hilltops that was produced when the clay and earth on the surface was heated by the burning coal below (shown below). In this area we saw our only buffalo of the day, quietly grazing alongside the trail, and got Carol’s picture with the buffalo in the background (shown below).
In the afternoon we saw a 45 minute one-act play entitled “Bully.” This was a monologue by a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator who told stories that reflected Roosevelt’s philosophy and the highpoints of his adult life. It was an interesting way to get a mini-history lesson. Next we toured the Chateau De Mores, the summer house built by a French Marquis who came to Medora in what was ultimately an unsuccessful attempt to operate a slaughterhouse (shown below). Though the family returned to France after a few years, the family hired caretakers for the next 50 years, who maintained the property to some extent until it was gifted to the state in the 1930s and rehabilitated by the CCC.
Thursday was a repositioning day. We drove the 221 miles from Medora to Deadwood, gaining about 2500 feet of altitude in the process. Until we got near Deadwood, most of the drive was through high plains. At one point, US-85 ran due south in a straight line without a town for about 40 miles – and we could see distant hills on the road 10 miles away. After arriving in Deadwood we shopped, ran errands, and cleaned the RV.
This installment covers Monday (August 13) through Thursday (August 16).
On Monday, we drove west from Minot to the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, where we visited the Confluence Interpretive Center, Fort Buford, and Fort Union. Fort Buford was a military post which at its height housed 6 companies of men. Only one or two original buildings remain, including the restored base commander’s quarters which serves as a museum. This is the building (shown below) in which Sitting Bull surrendered. Nearby Fort Union was an American Fur Company trading post (shown below). American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor and was later joined by McKenzie of the North West Company after the latter was absorbed by the Hudson Bay Company. The post was large and elaborate, and dealt with both independent white fur traders and with a number of Indian tribes.
We then turned south toward the North Dakota Badlands and the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. En route we stopped in Alexander, ND, at the “Lewis and Clark Trail Museum,” so-named because it is on the route of the expedition, not because it features Lewis and Clark. This turned out to be a nice local museum in a 3-story 1920s vintage school house with attached gymnasium. The museum included a lot of local artifacts organized in separate rooms by subject area. One room consisted of a number of display cases, purchased by local families for $100 each, containing family memorabilia (shown below).
We spent the night in the national park. In the early evening we drove the 14 mile road into the park. We got some good views of the badlands and the Little Missouri River, saw a couple of mule deer, and encountered a small herd of buffalo crossing the road.
Since check-out time is noon, on Tuesday morning we drove the park road again. We saw a lot of buffalo, starting with a herd that was making its way through the RV park just as we prepared to leave (shown below). We then encountered three more herds along the drive.
Our RV trip on Tuesday was a short drive south out of the badlands, through hilly ranching country, a little flat farming country, and back into more badlands just outside Medora. On Tuesday evening we went to the Medora Musical. The performance takes place in an open-air amphitheater that goes sharply down the side of one of the badlands hills. In addition to performance on the stage, some action takes place behind the stage on a facing hill. The song and dance was high energy, some country, some patriotic, and some N.D. championship yodeling. All-in-all a unique and entertaining show.
We were in Medora again on Wednesday. In the morning we toured the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There are several prairie dog towns along the route, and the animals were out in force (shown below). We walked the ridge trail, which took us to a high spot with a 360 degree view of the badlands landscape – nice to look at but impossible to get a good photograph. We also walked the coal fire trail, which took us across land under which a 12’ thick coal vein burned between 1951 and 1977. Some of the artifacts are a depression where the overburden sank, and what the locals call “scoria,” a red brick like substance on the hilltops that was produced when the clay and earth on the surface was heated by the burning coal below (shown below). In this area we saw our only buffalo of the day, quietly grazing alongside the trail, and got Carol’s picture with the buffalo in the background (shown below).
In the afternoon we saw a 45 minute one-act play entitled “Bully.” This was a monologue by a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator who told stories that reflected Roosevelt’s philosophy and the highpoints of his adult life. It was an interesting way to get a mini-history lesson. Next we toured the Chateau De Mores, the summer house built by a French Marquis who came to Medora in what was ultimately an unsuccessful attempt to operate a slaughterhouse (shown below). Though the family returned to France after a few years, the family hired caretakers for the next 50 years, who maintained the property to some extent until it was gifted to the state in the 1930s and rehabilitated by the CCC.
Thursday was a repositioning day. We drove the 221 miles from Medora to Deadwood, gaining about 2500 feet of altitude in the process. Until we got near Deadwood, most of the drive was through high plains. At one point, US-85 ran due south in a straight line without a town for about 40 miles – and we could see distant hills on the road 10 miles away. After arriving in Deadwood we shopped, ran errands, and cleaned the RV.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Western Minnesota to Central North Dakota
This installment covers Saturday (August 4) through Sunday (August 12).
On Saturday we drove to Bemidji, Minnesota, which is a larger town than it sounds like. Saturday afternoon we caught up on some shopping, picked up mail at general delivery, and ran other errands. On Sunday, we drove to Lake Itasca State Park. This is the site of the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the largest white pine tree in Minnesota, and what was (until its top broke off earlier this year) one of the two largest red pine trees in the United States. Carol waded in the headwaters, while I took pictures. We returned to downtown Bemidji to get photos of the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues.
On Monday we left for a four night stay in Fargo, ND, the largest city in the state. En route we drove through rich farmland in the Red River valley along the Minnesota/North Dakota border – there are miles of wheat, corn, sugar beets and some sunflowers. On Monday afternoon we acquainted ourselves with the city, and visited Scheel’s, the largest all-sports store under one roof.
On Tuesday morning we spent about 2-1/2 hours at Bonanzaville, a collection of historic buildings and newer warehouses containing a large variety of artifacts. It was a surprisingly interesting museum. Each topical area was adopted by a relevant organization (e.g. the vintage barber shop was sponsored by a local barber’s professional association) and each had a resident caretaker. The exhibits included telephone equipment, vintage general stores, vintage medical offices, farm machinery, vintage automobiles, vintage carriages, an old railroad station, and the first house built in Fargo, among others. The museum is named after the bonanza farms of the 1800s, large scale wheat farming operations of 1000+ or 3000+ acres depending on whose cut-off point you use. In the afternoon we drove north about 40 miles to see the KLVY TV tower which, at 2063 feet, is the tallest structure in the world. Because the ground is flat for miles, and the tower is thin, you don’t get any real sort of feel for its height.
On Wednesday we visited a couple of antique stores and the small (and somewhat disappointing) Plains Art Museum in Fargo. We then went across the river to the sister city of Moorhead, MN and visited the Hjemkomst Interpretive Center. The center includes the Viking boat that was build in the late 1970s/early 1980s by a high school guidance counselor. After his death, his family and a crew of others in 1982 fulfilled his dream of sailing the boat from the U.S. to Norway. (The name “Hjemkomst” means “homecoming” in Norwegian). The center also had a “Stave Church” built out of white pine to reproduce a church from Norway. A stave church is supported by interior columns, or staves – the walls are non-load-bearing. The museum included exhibits on the Vikings, the area Indians, and the buffalo in America. There was also an art gallery (with better art than the Plains Museum) and a small museum by the local historical society. All-in-all it was an interesting center.
On Thursday we climbed into the CRV for a long sightseeing day. Our first stop was Ft. Abercrombie, located on the North Dakota side of the Red River. There is very little left of this 10-acre fort, which was active in the from the late 1850s until about 1870. The fort, which at the time was manned by volunteers while regular army units fought in the Civil War, was subject to a six week siege during the Indian uprising of 1862. Five men were killed and five wounded during this time before reinforcements arrived from Ft. Snelling (which we visited earlier in Minnesota). The palisades around the fort were not in place in 1862, but were added after the Indian attack. The fort had a nice museum consisting of a collection of period artifacts from about 1850 to about 1920. They included items brought from Norway by local settlers, items used in the area, and items purchased at auction from the fort when it closed in 1870.
Next we made a long side-trip through farming country to Ft. Sisseton in South Dakota. As we neared the fort, the landscape changed from flat farmland to hilly ranch and hay growing land, dotted with a number of small to medium sized lakes. The fort itself, which is built of stone, occupies high ground surrounded on three sides by lakes. This fort was built after the Indian uprising, and never saw any real action. In its early days it too was manned by volunteers. When the first company learned it was to be assigned here – the middle of nowhere in those days (and in these days) – they men voted unanimously not to go. They held another vote and decided to go after several hours of lectures by their captain and a colonel.
On the way back to Fargo, we stopped at Nicollet Tower, a 75-foot hilltop tower built in honor of an early surveyor. From the top of the tower you can see three states, North and South Dakota and Minnesota.
On Friday we drove the RV from Fargo to Bismarck. We did some sightseeing in between, but none of it was notable. We had a severe thunderstorm and some small hail about 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning.
On Saturday we visited the North Dakota Heritage Center near the Capitol complex in downtown Bismarck. This interesting museum concentrated on the history of North Dakota, from the prehistoric Indians through the Great Depression. The was also a small exhibit on the French gratitude train – a series of 48 boxcars (one for each state) given by the French people to the Americans after the end of the first world war. We then took a guided tour of the State Capitol. Our tour guide was a feisty 70-ish year old woman who made for an interesting tour. (The other couple on our tour has been on the road in an RV since January, and is planning to visit the 48 lower state capitols before returning to their home in California.) The North Dakota capitol has no dome, since a dome would imply a ceiling on the aspirations of the people. We got a good view from the top of the capitol, much like Tallahassee’s; saw the Senate and House chambers (the state has 47 senators and 97 representatives for a population of less than 700,000); and visited the smallish Supreme Court chamber.
We left the capitol and drove about 10 miles south of Mandan (the town just across the Missouri River) to the Fort Abraham Lincoln state park. There we took a tour of the house occupied around 1875 by General (actually Lt. Col.) and Mrs. George Custer. The fort was built in 1872 and occupied until 1892. There are two parts of the fort, the cavalry area and the infantry area. The infantry area occupies the high ground, and offers great views of the Missouri river, the flat farming area, and the distant hills. The state park also includes the On-a-Slant Indian Village, a Mandan village that was occupied from about 1575 until the smallpox epidemic of 1781 killed a majority of the tribe members. When Lewis and Clark wintered in Mandan in 1805, the village had been totally abandoned. At its height, the village had about 180 earthen lodges (owned by the women of the tribe) each occupied by an extended family that averaged about 12 members.
On Sunday we drove to Minot, ND, stopping en route at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan, a reconstruction of the small stockade that the expedition built as winter quarters in the winter of 1804-05. In Minot we visited the Scandinavian Heritage Center and saw our second stave church of the week.
On Saturday we drove to Bemidji, Minnesota, which is a larger town than it sounds like. Saturday afternoon we caught up on some shopping, picked up mail at general delivery, and ran other errands. On Sunday, we drove to Lake Itasca State Park. This is the site of the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the largest white pine tree in Minnesota, and what was (until its top broke off earlier this year) one of the two largest red pine trees in the United States. Carol waded in the headwaters, while I took pictures. We returned to downtown Bemidji to get photos of the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues.
On Monday we left for a four night stay in Fargo, ND, the largest city in the state. En route we drove through rich farmland in the Red River valley along the Minnesota/North Dakota border – there are miles of wheat, corn, sugar beets and some sunflowers. On Monday afternoon we acquainted ourselves with the city, and visited Scheel’s, the largest all-sports store under one roof.
On Tuesday morning we spent about 2-1/2 hours at Bonanzaville, a collection of historic buildings and newer warehouses containing a large variety of artifacts. It was a surprisingly interesting museum. Each topical area was adopted by a relevant organization (e.g. the vintage barber shop was sponsored by a local barber’s professional association) and each had a resident caretaker. The exhibits included telephone equipment, vintage general stores, vintage medical offices, farm machinery, vintage automobiles, vintage carriages, an old railroad station, and the first house built in Fargo, among others. The museum is named after the bonanza farms of the 1800s, large scale wheat farming operations of 1000+ or 3000+ acres depending on whose cut-off point you use. In the afternoon we drove north about 40 miles to see the KLVY TV tower which, at 2063 feet, is the tallest structure in the world. Because the ground is flat for miles, and the tower is thin, you don’t get any real sort of feel for its height.
On Wednesday we visited a couple of antique stores and the small (and somewhat disappointing) Plains Art Museum in Fargo. We then went across the river to the sister city of Moorhead, MN and visited the Hjemkomst Interpretive Center. The center includes the Viking boat that was build in the late 1970s/early 1980s by a high school guidance counselor. After his death, his family and a crew of others in 1982 fulfilled his dream of sailing the boat from the U.S. to Norway. (The name “Hjemkomst” means “homecoming” in Norwegian). The center also had a “Stave Church” built out of white pine to reproduce a church from Norway. A stave church is supported by interior columns, or staves – the walls are non-load-bearing. The museum included exhibits on the Vikings, the area Indians, and the buffalo in America. There was also an art gallery (with better art than the Plains Museum) and a small museum by the local historical society. All-in-all it was an interesting center.
On Thursday we climbed into the CRV for a long sightseeing day. Our first stop was Ft. Abercrombie, located on the North Dakota side of the Red River. There is very little left of this 10-acre fort, which was active in the from the late 1850s until about 1870. The fort, which at the time was manned by volunteers while regular army units fought in the Civil War, was subject to a six week siege during the Indian uprising of 1862. Five men were killed and five wounded during this time before reinforcements arrived from Ft. Snelling (which we visited earlier in Minnesota). The palisades around the fort were not in place in 1862, but were added after the Indian attack. The fort had a nice museum consisting of a collection of period artifacts from about 1850 to about 1920. They included items brought from Norway by local settlers, items used in the area, and items purchased at auction from the fort when it closed in 1870.
Next we made a long side-trip through farming country to Ft. Sisseton in South Dakota. As we neared the fort, the landscape changed from flat farmland to hilly ranch and hay growing land, dotted with a number of small to medium sized lakes. The fort itself, which is built of stone, occupies high ground surrounded on three sides by lakes. This fort was built after the Indian uprising, and never saw any real action. In its early days it too was manned by volunteers. When the first company learned it was to be assigned here – the middle of nowhere in those days (and in these days) – they men voted unanimously not to go. They held another vote and decided to go after several hours of lectures by their captain and a colonel.
On the way back to Fargo, we stopped at Nicollet Tower, a 75-foot hilltop tower built in honor of an early surveyor. From the top of the tower you can see three states, North and South Dakota and Minnesota.
On Friday we drove the RV from Fargo to Bismarck. We did some sightseeing in between, but none of it was notable. We had a severe thunderstorm and some small hail about 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning.
On Saturday we visited the North Dakota Heritage Center near the Capitol complex in downtown Bismarck. This interesting museum concentrated on the history of North Dakota, from the prehistoric Indians through the Great Depression. The was also a small exhibit on the French gratitude train – a series of 48 boxcars (one for each state) given by the French people to the Americans after the end of the first world war. We then took a guided tour of the State Capitol. Our tour guide was a feisty 70-ish year old woman who made for an interesting tour. (The other couple on our tour has been on the road in an RV since January, and is planning to visit the 48 lower state capitols before returning to their home in California.) The North Dakota capitol has no dome, since a dome would imply a ceiling on the aspirations of the people. We got a good view from the top of the capitol, much like Tallahassee’s; saw the Senate and House chambers (the state has 47 senators and 97 representatives for a population of less than 700,000); and visited the smallish Supreme Court chamber.
We left the capitol and drove about 10 miles south of Mandan (the town just across the Missouri River) to the Fort Abraham Lincoln state park. There we took a tour of the house occupied around 1875 by General (actually Lt. Col.) and Mrs. George Custer. The fort was built in 1872 and occupied until 1892. There are two parts of the fort, the cavalry area and the infantry area. The infantry area occupies the high ground, and offers great views of the Missouri river, the flat farming area, and the distant hills. The state park also includes the On-a-Slant Indian Village, a Mandan village that was occupied from about 1575 until the smallpox epidemic of 1781 killed a majority of the tribe members. When Lewis and Clark wintered in Mandan in 1805, the village had been totally abandoned. At its height, the village had about 180 earthen lodges (owned by the women of the tribe) each occupied by an extended family that averaged about 12 members.
On Sunday we drove to Minot, ND, stopping en route at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan, a reconstruction of the small stockade that the expedition built as winter quarters in the winter of 1804-05. In Minot we visited the Scandinavian Heritage Center and saw our second stave church of the week.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
North Shore and Iron Range
The first two pictures of the North Shore are from Monday. As the pictures show, some rocky portions of the coast are reminiscent of the Oregon coast.
The rest of this installment covers from Tuesday (July 31) through Friday (August 3).
On Tuesday we drove our car north to Grand Portage National Memorial, located just a few miles south of the Canadian border. This is the site of one of the main North West Fur Company trading posts in the United States. The company was active from the 1780s to the 1810s and exported millions of dollars of furs, making its senior partner the richest man in Canada. Between 1811 and 1821, the company was taken over by the Hudson Bay Company, whose hostile take-over tactics included starting rumors about North West, stealing its accounting books, and other mafia-like activities. That evening we had dinner as a group at the Naniboujou Lodge: most of us ordered Walleye, a popular fish which is the house specialty. The Lodge has brightly painted walls and ceilings with Ojibwa colors and symbols.
On Wednesday, we drove the Gunflint Trail which extends about 60 miles northwest from Grand Marais into the Boundary Lakes area – the large system of lakes that roughly follows the U.S. / Canadian border. We saw the results of a forest fire which burned in the area in May of this year. Otherwise the scenery was typical northern woods: nice, but nothing to write home about. We had lunch at the Gunflint Lodge, where we could look across the lake to Canada. That evening we had a final get together (wine and appetizers) before the members of our group go our separate ways.
On Thursday, we drove to our campground in Mountain Iron, a town in the middle of Minnesota’s Iron Range. We ran into an unexpected detour and spent about 45 minutes driving the RV on gravel Forest Service roads, an experience everyone should have. En route, we stopped at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, where we took a tour of the 27th (and last) level of the deepest iron mine in the world. The Soudan mine was closed in 1962, when its operations were no longer financially viable. The 27th level is about 2350 feet below ground and stays at a constant temperature of 52 degrees. We reached the mine reached by about a 3-minute ride in a steel elevator car that descends at about 10 mph.
Friday was a sightseeing day. On our way out of the campground this morning, a wolf crossed the road about 20 yards in front of us. Our first stop was the Iron Man statute in Chisholm. This statue, which commemorates iron miners, is the third largest free standing statue in the world. Next we visited the Minnesota Mine Museum. This little museum features a variety of household and office items from the early 1900s, and a host of mining trucks and other equipment. The size of some of this old equipment is amazing as shown by the pictures in which Carol serves as a benchmark.
Next we drove to neighboring Hibbing, where we toured the Greyhound Bus Museum. Greyhound was the ultimate outgrowth of the first bus service in the country, which was established to carry miners from the town of Hibbing to the nearby iron mine. The museum has buses of all vintages, including one 1946 model which had been converted to an RV by a subsequent owner. We also visited an overlook for the Hull Rust Mahoning Mine, the largest open pit mine in the world. This operational iron mine has a pit that is as much as 3.5 miles long, 1.5 miles wide, and 600 feet deep. The overlook area has some mining equipment, including a mine truck that holds 170 tons of iron ore. The larger trucks currently in use at the mine hold 240 tons.
Tomorrow we plan to make an early start for Bemidji, where we will visit Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
The rest of this installment covers from Tuesday (July 31) through Friday (August 3).
On Tuesday we drove our car north to Grand Portage National Memorial, located just a few miles south of the Canadian border. This is the site of one of the main North West Fur Company trading posts in the United States. The company was active from the 1780s to the 1810s and exported millions of dollars of furs, making its senior partner the richest man in Canada. Between 1811 and 1821, the company was taken over by the Hudson Bay Company, whose hostile take-over tactics included starting rumors about North West, stealing its accounting books, and other mafia-like activities. That evening we had dinner as a group at the Naniboujou Lodge: most of us ordered Walleye, a popular fish which is the house specialty. The Lodge has brightly painted walls and ceilings with Ojibwa colors and symbols.
On Wednesday, we drove the Gunflint Trail which extends about 60 miles northwest from Grand Marais into the Boundary Lakes area – the large system of lakes that roughly follows the U.S. / Canadian border. We saw the results of a forest fire which burned in the area in May of this year. Otherwise the scenery was typical northern woods: nice, but nothing to write home about. We had lunch at the Gunflint Lodge, where we could look across the lake to Canada. That evening we had a final get together (wine and appetizers) before the members of our group go our separate ways.
On Thursday, we drove to our campground in Mountain Iron, a town in the middle of Minnesota’s Iron Range. We ran into an unexpected detour and spent about 45 minutes driving the RV on gravel Forest Service roads, an experience everyone should have. En route, we stopped at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, where we took a tour of the 27th (and last) level of the deepest iron mine in the world. The Soudan mine was closed in 1962, when its operations were no longer financially viable. The 27th level is about 2350 feet below ground and stays at a constant temperature of 52 degrees. We reached the mine reached by about a 3-minute ride in a steel elevator car that descends at about 10 mph.
Friday was a sightseeing day. On our way out of the campground this morning, a wolf crossed the road about 20 yards in front of us. Our first stop was the Iron Man statute in Chisholm. This statue, which commemorates iron miners, is the third largest free standing statue in the world. Next we visited the Minnesota Mine Museum. This little museum features a variety of household and office items from the early 1900s, and a host of mining trucks and other equipment. The size of some of this old equipment is amazing as shown by the pictures in which Carol serves as a benchmark.
Next we drove to neighboring Hibbing, where we toured the Greyhound Bus Museum. Greyhound was the ultimate outgrowth of the first bus service in the country, which was established to carry miners from the town of Hibbing to the nearby iron mine. The museum has buses of all vintages, including one 1946 model which had been converted to an RV by a subsequent owner. We also visited an overlook for the Hull Rust Mahoning Mine, the largest open pit mine in the world. This operational iron mine has a pit that is as much as 3.5 miles long, 1.5 miles wide, and 600 feet deep. The overlook area has some mining equipment, including a mine truck that holds 170 tons of iron ore. The larger trucks currently in use at the mine hold 240 tons.
Tomorrow we plan to make an early start for Bemidji, where we will visit Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
