South Dakota and the Black Hills
And yes, we haven’t got to the main event – South Dakota and the monuments yet! But we’re nearly there. Our route out of Wyoming and into the Black Hills (yes there’s Doris Day with the song – “Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota…..”) was to take us right by the Jewel Cave National Monument. Sitting at the edge of the Black Hills this cave complex is reached by a 350ft deep lift and the hour long tour takes you down (and up) several hundred steps. Still being explored the caves are interesting (and inevitably the second longest in the US) but not the most spectacular we’ve ever seen.
And on to Custer. Located at the heart of the Black Hills, Custer (named for the historical general) makes a brilliant place to explore the entire area. We stayed at an idyllic spot – Jake’s B&B (Jake is the resident black and white cat). A little off the beaten track, we could watch the wildlife – chipmunks, herds of deer – as they went about their daily routine largely undisturbed by human life. Custer is also home to the Custer State Park complex. This vast unspoiled landscape remains so because of the vision of two men – President Theodore Rooseveldt who determined that tracts of the US needed to be protected from overdevelopment and 1920’s South Dakota Governor Peter Nordbeck, who plotted the trails and winding roads through the park so that people could enjoy the natural beauty of the scenery and wildlife.
We were recommended to take the Needles & Iron Mountain roads (part of the Peter Nordbeck Scenic Byway) as a long scenic route on our way to Mount Rushmore. The scenery along the way is breathtaking – giant rock formations heaved up out the earth billion of years ago, covered with pine forest, red patches of which show the ravages of the pine beetle killing so many magnificent trees (but making for an attractive colour contrast to the uninitiated eye). Along the way you pass round almost corkscrew turns and through narrow road tunnels, hewn from the rock to create these scenic routes. And then, in the distance, you see the Mount Rushmore monument, its figures proudly gazing across the landscape, and then coming closer seemingly with each turn in the road and at one point framed exactly as you exit one of the tunnels on Iron Mountain road.
Mount Rushmore
Everything we found in the Black Hills was good value and Mount Rushmore is no exception. A $10 parking charge (return visits free for 3 days) is all it takes to view one of the great modern monumental sculptures. I’d never troubled to consider who the four Presidents honoured were and what made them special – visiting the excellent information center changed that – 1st President George Washington who oversaw the creation of the U.S. is on the left (although Jefferson was originally intended to be further left than him) followed by Thomas Jefferson who masterminded the possibility of unification with the Louisiana purchase in the early 1800’s, Abraham Lincoln (far right) who fought to keep the union intact through the Civil War period and Theodore Rooseveldt who cemented the power and position of the U.S. with imaginative projects including the Panama Canal. The sheer scale of the work is awe-inspiring, the vision of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, a first-generation American of Polish extraction whose patriotism and vision guided the process of sculpture by dynamite through its tens of years of development.
If you return in the evening, the monument is lit, complete with patriotic flag-lowering ceremony, mass recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, singing of the National Anthem and recognition of forces veterans – all very well, but slightly uncomfortable for non-citizens!
The nearest town to Mount Rushmore is the hideously touristy Keystone (yes, probably where the Keystone cops idea originated). The entire raison d’être for modern-day Keystone is the pursuit of the tourist dollar. However, the 1880 train which puffs its way the fifteen miles from Keystone to Hill City using restored rolling stock typical of the period is worth it, a complete getaway from the modern tawdry town it leaves from.
Crazy Horse
And so on to another monumental sculpture, this time still a work in process. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that in most conventional histories of the development of America the native-American gets a raw deal. No longer portrayed as the Red Indians of the Western films, the inconvenient truths of the injustices heaped on the indigenous tribes are generally air-brushed or not so subtly swept under the carpet. Broken promises, treaties ignored, massacres are generally underplayed as unfortunate happenings. Not so at the Crazy Horse Monument. Crazy Horse was chosen as the symbol of the Native American by the elders of the tribes in the 1940’s. It was Crazy Horse who said of the white man – “They promised to take our lands – it was the only of their promises that they kept”. It was Crazy Horse who, alone of the tribal leaders of his time, never signed a treaty with those who invaded and plundered the native-American lands. His early death while at a US Army fort is described differently depending on whose version of history you read. But chosen he was to be an enduring symbol in a Monument to equal or surpass that placed at Mount Rushmore to honour the conquerors. Construction of the monument began in 1948 in the hands of another first generation of Polish extraction Korzcak Ziolkowski. It continues through the work led by seven of his children. It is not supported by Federal funds as Mount Rushmore was, not for want of offering, but for the determination of Korzcak and his family that this will remain a publicly subscribed venture funded only by donations and visitor subscriptions.
As a sight and experience this is one of few that can really deserve the moniker of monumental. The statistics are difficult to comprehend – many million tons of rock removed, so far, a figurehead with a height of 90 feet (large enough to hold all four of the Mount Rushmore heads), and an arm that will stretch 263 feet. We returned to the site twice - a planned 1000 tons blasting was postponed because of the risk of storms and that was an event we couldn’t miss. In the event, the 1000 tons only served to show how much work has been completed and how much will still be needed. When will it be finished – definitely on June 3rd – which year – who knows – not in my lifetime I’m sure – probably not in my children’s lifetime. Is bit worth it – unquestionably, as a sculpture, as an experience and as a lasting reminder of the injustices heaped on the tribes by those who saw them as an inconvenience to be eradicated (much as our exported peoples did to the Aborigines of Australia).
Deadwood
No trip to the Black Hills would be complete without a trip to Deadwood – yes, it’s Doris Day time again – “The Deadwood Stage is coming on down the track…..” We expected another Keystone – touristy and dreadful. But actually it isn’t – and why – well actually it’s all down to two things, one happened in the 1905 and one a whole lot more recently. In 1905 the town of Deadwood was destroyed by fire, but the riches of the surrounding goldmines enabled the town’s leaders to order it rebuilt in stone – and buildings of substance too. The gradual decline of the gold deposits led to a decline in the town also. But a change in South Dakota law enabled the establishment of casinos and yet again prospectors for riches flock to the town, with rather less chance of success. But the gambling profits have enabled the restoration of the historic areas of the town and it’s worth a side visit - we gathered the same cannot be said for the neighbouring town of Lead (pronounced Leed), where there is a gold mine museum and where there are plans to locate a scientific research centre below ground in the old mine workings.
Miscellaneous
If you collect useless information here’s one for you – I defy anyone to see car licence plates from more individual US states in a single area than here. We counted more than 30 states (and a good few Canadian provinces) from where people had driven, in some cases thousands of miles, in what is clearly an American pilgrimage to one of their national Monuments – we know why they do it too!
Lots of photos from the complete trip
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