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Published: July 28th 2014
Blog 14 South Dakota & Wyoming - 8 to 12 June 2014 This is going to be a really long blog again as we seem to have done so much in such a short time but wanted to record it all but you need not read it all………. Our first stop in
South Dakota was going to be the Mammoth Museum near Hot Springs but with the bad weather the ‘world and his dog’ had also decided it would be a good place to go and there was a large crowd so we decided to continue our journey instead.
We headed into
Wind Cave National Park and had a delightful drive through the prairie, which offered ample opportunities for us to view some more wildlife including; Prairie Dogs, Antelope and Bison - we saw our first huge Bison just inside the entrance to
the park as we sat and had lunch - it just appeared out of nowhere and crossed right in front of us, a really close up view of this icon of the west. Continuing through the gentle rolling hills it was a extremely scenic drive as we headed into
Custer State Park. We stopped in the town of
Custer to pick up supplies before arriving at the
Stockade Lake Campground situated inside the state park. It was set in a pine forest and because it was still raining cat and dogs it was not that comfortable and we had a very cold and wet night. There were only pit toilets (no flushing) but at least they had a few showers. The campground was ideally located right next to the lake and with better weather would have been a great place to linger. We took an evening stroll along the lake edge and
saw many birds and lots of delightful chipmunks that were quite friendly.
Custer State Park is located in the
Black Hills of South Dakota. I think most people of our age group will remember the song, written for the musical film Calamity Jane, about the singer's desire to return to, the Black Hills of South Dakota … … …
CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT We did not intend to spend long at this monument, expecting just an unfinished mountain carving and a small
Native Indian Museum but in the end we stayed for half
a day and could have stayed for longer. We watched an orientation DVD and also spent time in the museum before going out to view the monument itself. There were many Native American artists and crafts people creating, displaying and selling their own artwork at the memorial - some of which was pretty impressive. There were also many fascinating stone, metal and wooden statues and carvings created by
Korczak Ziolkowski himself and a more intimate family museum with interesting information and paintings of him and his family.
Born in Boston of Polish descent,
Korczak Ziolkowski’s path to building the world’s largest mountain carving was hard. He was orphaned at age one and grew up in a series of foster homes. At age 16 he was on his own, working odd jobs and teaching himself
to work with plaster and clay, having never received any formal training in art, sculpture, architecture or engineering.
Despite his poor start Korczak became a brilliant inventor and in 1939 his life would change forever.
Moving from the East of the USA to the West he fulfilled a dream in assisting
Gutzon Borglum in carving the Mount Rushmore Memorial in South Dakota. The same year that he won first prize at the New York World’s Fair for his marble portrait, ’Paderewski’ - ‘Study of an Immortal.’ This image of the pianist and the politician caught the attention of Lakota (Sioux)
Chief Standing Bear, who wrote to Korczak to persuade him to create a lasting memorial to American Indians saying; ‘My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also.’ Korczak agreed to do this and dedicated the rest of his life to creating and carving a monument rivalling Mount Rushmore, featuring Crazy Horse, a Sioux warrior known for his bravery in battle and service to his people.
Crazy Horse led a war party at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn and was killed at Fort Robinson by an American soldier while under a flag of truce. He died on 6 September 1877 - ironically, Korczak was born 31 years later on that same day. Many American Indians consider that an omen that he was destined to carve Crazy Horse. Korczak stated in an interview that what kept him motivated in his work was what a wise
Indian had once said to him:
‘When the legends die, the dreams end. And when the dreams end, there is no more greatness.’ With a blast of explosives that shaved ten tons of rock off the mountain, the memorial was officially dedicated on June 3, 1948. Five of the nine living participants of the Battle of the Little Bighorn were present. When Korczak died in 1982, his parting words to his wife were, ‘You must work on the mountain — but go slowly so you do it right.’ His wife, Ruth died a couple of weeks before our visit but their ten children are continuing their parent's legacy.
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When completed the Crazy Horse Mountain Carving will be 641 feet long by 563 feet high. The already completed face of Crazy Horse’s itself is 87 feet 6 inches high - now forever carved into the Black Hills. The horse’s head, currently the focus of work on the mountain, is 219 feet high, or to put it into some sort of scale is equivalent to a 22 storeys high building. You can fit all of Mount Rushmore presidents monument into Crazy Horse's head alone and once finished the mountain will very nearly be a full 360 degree carving into the Black Hills.
The complex also had many other interesting displays and we particularly liked the large
Black Hills Nature Gate in front of the main building
Korczak had each of his ten children draw things associated
with nature from around the area where the monument was being built, he then had those drawings cut out in metal and turned into this massive
gate - quite a structure in itself and it looked stunning with the metal glistening in the sunlight. Nearby were the equally impressive bronze casts of two giant
Fighting Stallions as well as a poignant metal and stone memorial to those who died in the New York twin towers disaster.
Entrance fees and donations keep the project alive and it has just had a huge cash injection so work is currently moving at a faster pace, although it will be decades before it is finished - I’m sure it will be stunning when it is done though and wish we could have seen it finished - maybe out great great grandchildren will..............Crazy Horse represents the freedom of the Native American spirit, roaming the wilds of
the Great Plains and his monument is intended to immortalise and commemorate the soul of all native people, I think it does just that.
We thought Mount Rushmore Monument might be a let down after visiting Crazy Horse but it certainly was not - just 17 miles separates the two it did not take us long to arrive at this next great monument carved out of the Black Hills.
MOUNT RUSHMORE Getting the first glimpses of
George Washington as we drove down the hill prior to entering the memorial was a
good appetiser for what would be a lovely view of the other three presidents. The mountain itself is named after Charles Rushmore, a New York attorney who filed mining rights to the Black Hills area in 1885.
The monument was free but there was a parking fee and within minutes of getting out of our van we got a full close up view of the other three presidents. To get even closer you do the ‘walk of the states' and read the information on the flag poles for each state as you pass down the line of flagpoles - quite a inspiring entrance to the grand view. We hiked the
Presidential Trail for some more close up views which gave glimpses of the presidents faces and also had interesting information boards about each one as you followed the tree lined trail. Gutzon Borglum’s monument to America’s greatest of presidents was indeed impressive.
Firstly
George Washington the 1st US president,
Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd and author of the Declaration of Independence,
Abraham Lincoln the 16th president whose leadership ended slavery on US soil and finally the 26th president,
Theodore Roosevelt. All recognised as pillars in the birth, expansion, preservation and conservation of the United States.
At the bottom of the trail we visited
Borglum’s Studio and Workshop where photos and other artefacts were on show as well as a scale model of the monument. The scale model included torsos as per the original specifications, but as funds dried up, so too did Borglum’s plans - eventually only the heads were completed, with the exception of George Washington.
We also watched an interesting video on the building of the monument and visited a small museum before continuing our journey. We encountered many military personnel
visiting the monument. We must say we have been really impressed by the way that USA citizens honour and respect their military personnel - lots of places have free events and free entrance into parks etc for the military and their families. Lots of veterans wear service caps and we often here people say to them ‘thank you for your service’, a really nice touch.
CUSTER STATE PARK We travelled along
Iron Mountain Road which connects the Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore National Memorial - the route included some breathtaking scenery as we drove through three tunnels and three ‘pigtail’ bridges. Although today there were roadworks causing quite a delay as we were detoured along some very narrow lanes for a while, not much space to sort these roads out. We thought we had got lost again as we
travelled for miles further than we thought before we finally arrived at
Spokane Campsite and found that we had nearly a whole meadow just to ourselves. There was no barbecue though and we had just bought some massive beef burgers (not sure if I have mentioned this before but the Americans certainly know how to make burgers). Just when we were thinking how we were going to cook them without a bbq one of the staff of the campground came over in a buggy and said we could take our pick from one of the owners. He drove Paul off to an area which had a small selections of gas ones which we could borrow for our entire stay. So in the end we had a lovely dinner al fresco and sat listening to the nearby creek and the birds chirping in the trees - so peaceful after our busy day visiting the monuments of South Dakota.
The next day we travelled along what is known as the
Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park and it really was worth while with plenty of opportunities to see some amazing wildlife including
Pronghorn Antelope. We stopped in the Wildlife Station Visitor Centre which was small but interesting and actually got attacked by some nesting swallows………..… Minutes later back on the road we had seen so many
Bison as they crossed the park road right by us and waded through a river before starting to graze again on the other side. We were getting confused with, is it a Bison or is it a Buffalo. The animal that most Americans call a
buffalo is actually a
bison. Buffaloes are found in Africa (Cape Buffalo) and also South Asia (Water Buffalo), while bison roam in both North and South America.
As well as these large animals we were also delighted to spot the homes and families of a large group of
small Prairie Dogs - these burrowing rodents, native to the grasslands of North America so reminded us of African Meerkats - but not quite as cute!
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line-height: normal; font-family: Chalkboard]We also saw numerous birds including the
Western Meadowlark, a striking bird with a large black ‘V’ crossing its bright yellow breast. As well as some brilliant wildlife the area was also coated with lots of summer flowers and I particularly liked the large patches of purple flowers that looked like bluebells but were the wrong colour…..not sure what they were though.
So we finally left South Dakota and arrived back in Wyoming - we still seem to be criss crossing along these state boundaries but we are trying to follow a direct (ish) route around the national parks as well as the many state parks.
WYOMING [justify; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; font-family:
Chalkboard]We stopped overnight in
Buffalo (appropriate name for this area or should it be Bison …) before continuing our journey the next morning. It was yet another cold and wet night and we were glad to move on - we were getting a little fed up with the wet weather and were hoping that it would change soon, may as well be in the UK!!!!!!
We had a long journey ahead of us travelling over the the
Big Horn Mountains on the scenic 16 road and we hardly saw another vehicle as we headed west. As we reached the summit of the mountain we had to stop at
Powder Pass as it had started
snowing (probably why it is called Powder Pass) - cannot decide which is worse rain or snow……… We had to wait quite a while on the mountain edge road until we could finally see where we were going.
It was great once we could finally see and proceed down the other side of the mountain. Finally the weather improved a little as we got to a lower elevation and as we arrived in the small town of
Ten Sleeps we actually saw some sunshine. Nestled at the base of the Big Horn Mountains the town got its name as it was ‘ten sleeps’ (or nights) midway between the Sioux Camps on the Platte River from the south to an historical Sioux campsite to the north. The Indians measured distance by the number of sleeps they have - this one was ten between the two camps - so ten sleeps.
We stopped at a small cafe which was recommended by the information centre and enjoyed some excellent coffee and delicious cakes. I choose the
Coconut Scone with Lime Glaze it was simply delicious - wish I had the recipe … … …If anyone has it please forward it on to me … … Our onward journey took us through
several small towns, one notable town was called
Emblem which had a
Population of just 10 - who said USA was a big country… … …
CODY We arrived in
Cody and booked into the
Ponderosa Campsite, what a lovely welcome we received at this family owned campground. Cody was named after William F Cody (Buffalo Bill) and everywhere you go in the town he is well remembered to this day.
We spent several days in the area and on our first night visited the famous
Irma Hotel. In the early days, the Irma Hotel’s restaurant was once a bar room that featured billiards, booze and cards - not much different now……..… Buffalo Bill built the hotel in 1902 and named it after his daughter, Irma. T
he Cherry wood bar, made in France was given as a gift to Buffalo Bill by
Queen Victoria of England having it transported to New York by steamer before travelling by rail car to Montana. From here it travelled over mountains and rivers on a horse pulled by a freight wagon before it was finally delivered to Buffalo Bill in Cody. Quite an achievement in those days obviously before DHL! Queen Victoria was a friend and a big fan of Buffalo Bill. She valued and admired his charisma and generosity as he put on
Wild West shows free of charge for the orphans of Great Britain and France. His stunning and awe inspiring shows were quite the adventure of the day, drawing in massive crowds with his daring western stunts, Native American horse manoeuvres and gallant performances, the likes of which had never been seen before in Europe.
After our meal we wandered outside to watch our own free show, a
Street Gunfight - this was a re-enactment of a street gunfight
of old. They cordoned off a block of 12th Street, and actors in period attire fired blanks at each other in a noisy, smoky skit - free live street theatre. It was good fun and very entertaining being enacted on the very streets that years before had witnessed the ‘real’ thing!
My Tamron 18 - 275 mm camera lens which was perfect for what I needed decided to break and we had difficulty in finding any sort of camera shop in town for a replacement. However as a last resort we found that a Walmart Supermarket had ‘just one’ Canon 55 - 250 mm lens which although no good for wide angle shots at least I would be able to take some photographs.
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font-family: Chalkboard]The next day was full on and we spent a very busy morning visiting the
Buffalo Bill Centre of the West. This huge complex was actually five museums in one, as well as the
Buffalo Bill's Museum where you could watch actual early footage of his show filmed in London we also found the
Plains Indian Museum to be really interesting. At the time of our visit there were several of Buffalo Bills ancestors looking for family relics amongst the memorabilia and talking about their memories. Also at the complex was the
Whitney Western Art Museum, which had some really good artwork, the
Draper Natural History Museum and the
Cody Firearms Museum together with the Harold McCraken Research Library. You really need two full days at least to see it all but we had a great day, apart from Paul forgetting he had ‘my’ rucksack with our new camera lens, our passports, money etc - he just left it behind after we had coffee in the museum cafe … … … … A little while later when he realised we raced back to the cafe only to find it gone and then a mad scramble to the reception where
luckily we found the bag waiting for us!!!! I have not let him carry a bag since without checking on him!!!!
In the afternoon we visited
Old Trail Town located on the edge of Cody which preserves the lifestyle and history of the Frontier West through a rare collection of authentic structures and furnishings. From remote locations in Wyoming and Montana, 26 historic buildings from 1879 through 1901 have been carefully disassembled, moved and reassembled here. Also on the site were thousands of historical artefacts from the Old West and the grave sites of several notable Western figures. Among them was the grave of mountain man
John Johnson, who was portrayed by the actor Robert Redford in the 1972 motion picture ‘Jeremiah Johnson’. His grave was relocated to Old Town on June 8th 1974. During his life he had been a trapper, hunter, woodhawk, army scout, marshal and Ciivil War veteran. Over 2000 people attended the service included Robert Redford which was the largest burial service in the history of
Wyoming.
The cemetery was also the final resting place of Jim White (buffalo hunter), Jack Stilwell (frontiersman), Phillip Vetter (trapper killed by a grizzly), WA Gallagher and Blind Bill (cowboys both murdered) and Belle Drewry (women in blue also murdered). The graves looked out over a lovely green meadow full of spring flowers and each one had a dedication plaque describing their lives.
You could enter some of the wooden cabins which had been furnished with authentic equipment, clothing, pelts and artefacts. We found this really interesting, particularly the original cabins used by Old West outlaws
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We also
were able to visit a real saloon bar - River Saloon (1888) was frequented by Cassidy's ‘Hole-in-the-Wall Gang’ as well as cowboys, gold miners, outlaws and now Paul as well................ There were actual bullet holes in the walls and also many in the front door - such crazy times...........
Another log cabin was the home of ‘Curley’ a
Crow Indian army scout who helped guide Lt Col George Custer and the US 7th Cavalry in the battle of the
Little Big Horn in 1876. A
Museum of the Old West contained many artefacts of those 'cowboy' times like; arrowheads, carved stones, clothing, buffalo hides, stuffed animals, guns, portraits of famous people, old newspaper articles, trolleys, horse drawn hearse, Indian costumes, feather headdresses, beadwork and many ornaments but also had a few interesting prehistoric artefacts - you could spend a lot of hours here just browsing and only seeing a very small fraction. One exhibit had hundreds of old arrowheads which was really fascinating, the dedicated hours of chipping away at these flint stones, the people now long gone but their work left for us all to see ... ... ... The 'Old Town's' exhibits
put a real perspective on living during the late 1800’s and was so worth a visit.
On our last evening in Cody we decided that we would like to attend the local nightly
Rodeo to get into the spirit of things but decided against going on a horseback tour of the Outlaw Trail - the very same route used by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to evade the authorities. The rodeo was our first and we must admit that we thoroughly enjoyed our evening watching a variety of entertainments including; Barrel Racing, PeeWee Barrel Racing, Team Roping, Calf Roping, Breakaway Roping, Steer Riding, Open Bull Riding, Bareback Riding and Saddle Bronc Riding - we have never really seen anything like this before and it was thoroughly entertaining. During the show a couple of locals came round selling popcorn and drinks shouting out at the tops of their voices we wondered what was going on…………..
The next day it was time to leave
Cody and we set off early for what we hoped was going to be the highlight of our trip around the Western National Parks,
Yellowstone - see you there.
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GRACIELA
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ON MY LIST
I would like to visit those places. It will be on my next trip to the USA. Butch lived in Argentina, did you know??? I visited the hotel where he stayed some time in Chubut, in our Patagonia. Hugs from Argentina.