Having explored Deadwood at night, we decided to get up and moving on the next morning. We did all choose a few places at home before we left to research and have printed and brought our research with us in a plastic sleeve display folder for reference. Deadwood underwent fires, decline, and financial stresses last century which spurred the “Deadwood Experiment” in which gambling was tested as a means of revitalising a city centre. The new revenues and developments it has brought are obvious from our little nighttime stroll.
Our goal today was Mount Rushmore, with a quick stop at a Crazy Horse Memorial we hadn’t previously researched. I expected it to be a small sculpture, but the whole site is on a massive scale. The monument currently being built to Crazy Horse (the American Indian who defeated Custer) is so big up high on the mountain that the four heads at Mt Rushmore would fit inside Crazy Horse’s head! There was a very informative movie showing the history of the site and the plans for the future, including the sculptor’s desire to fund the project through the free enterprise system rather than government grants that would come with conditions. (That made us far more willing to pay the $27 entry fee!) There were exhibits, information about Custer’s Last Stand, stalls where American Indians were selling their wares (such as musical instruments and jewellery), just so much to look at and learn about. There are also plans for a university campus for Native Americans on site once the memorial is completed. For a project which began in 1947, there was no talk of a finish date. It’s hard to predict when the big dream will be fulfilled.
From there we moved on to Mount Rushmore, which has always been a dream of mine to see. I have an interest in politics in general (which most don’t understand), and usually follow the American primaries each time and read about previous Presidents. So it has been on my Bucket List to go to Mount Rushmore. As excellent as it was to achieve this and see the monument, I haven’t so much ticked something off the bucket list as replaced it! I am hoping the Crazy Horse memorial is finished in my lifetime so I can return to see it!
We then drove another two hours through Rapid City (which offered such points of interest as a free taxidermy exhibit) to the town of Wall, just to see a set of shops called Wall Drug that Ross’ grandmother had talked about. This is an example of the American Dream. A pharmacist and his wife in the 1920s moved to the little town of Wall to run the local drugstore. They suffered poor sales and few passersby stopped, so to encourage customers they offered free iced water. The water is still free, the coffee is still 5c, but the growth of the business is astronomical. The site houses a restaurant, cafe, gift shops, bookshop, clothing stores, and all manner of souvenirs. We enjoyed our first chance to really shop!
From there we drove through the Badlands National Park. More amazing scenery, but different to previous National Parks we have seen this week. After a couple of stops at lookouts, we exited the Park but not where we expected, so had our first experience of getting, not lost, but out of our way. The time taken to get back on track was costly. We had planned to be in Denver Colorado tonight, but had to adjust our schedule when we found that was still 350miles away at 7pm! We decided to travel as far as Ross could drive and the kids could handle. We stopped in the town of Gordon, Nebraska at 9pm for dinner Grandma had cooked us, and decided to find an RV park in Nebraska for the night.
A couple of hours down the road we found an unmanned RV park called Eagle’s Rest and set up there for the night. After a big day, and knowing tomorrow will be a day of catch up driving, we felt quite exhausted – ironically, we were in bed at 11.30pm which is earlier than most other nights have been!