From Mt Rushmore with Four Presidents carved into the mountain…..to Crazy Horse – the World’s Largest Mountain Carving NOW in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-1982) was invited by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse (a hero of the Lakota Indian Tribe). Apparently he said “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also.”  Work was started on this monument in 1948. Korczak died in 1982, but his wife and children have carried on the project, which continues today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is a 1/34th scale model with the real mountain in the distance.  We aso visited the Cultural Centre and the Sculptor’s Studio-Home and Wokshop. What is amazing is how Korczak left detailed plans of the Sculpture, which a team of people are working on with great precision. Tourists can view blasting of the rock at various times throughout the year. The project is funded by people who visit the centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending an hour and a half there, we thought we better check into a campsite, then come back for the light show, “The Crazy Horse Memorial Legends in Lights”. This show was a laser-light storytelling on the world’s largest screen (the 563 ft high Crazy Horse Mountain Carving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True to our history of meeting lovely people in America, the laser show did not disappoint. We met a guy called Daniel, who was the car attendent for the show. He got talking to us (because of our Aussie accent) and we found him to be a wealth of knowledge and information about places we wanted to visit. As he worked and lived at the Centre, we even managed an early morning chat at our campsite (which was part of the Crazy Horse Memorial grounds.) We could have easily spent hours with Daniel…he is just one of those people who was interesting to be with.

 

Gold Fever has hit the Howitt Clan! We had arrived in Keystone (home of Mt Rushmore and rich in goldmining history). One of the attractions to this town was the Big Thunder Gold  Mine (originally discovered in 1892).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had given the kids a choice as to what they would ike to see as there were so many things to do around Keystone, Rapid City, Custer etc. (Certainly more than we thought!) So Flynn’s choice was to try our luck panning for gold and gems at the mine in the Black Hills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Placer mining is the retrieval of free-gold from the sand and gravel of the creeks. That is how the first gold was discovered in the Black Hills and when visiting the Big Thunder Gold Mine, tourists get to tour the mine and get individualised gold panning lessons next to Battle Creek (where gold was originally discovered during the 1880’s). Trev and some of the kids went on the Gold Mine Tour and he shares the story they were told whilst on the tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Story Behind the Big Thunder Gold Mine

Kit, Chayse, Amber, Jai and I were fortunate enough to go on an underground gold mine tour in the Black Mountains of South Dakota. The mine was an old one from the gold rush days in the area. It came with a fascinating story which I’ll try to retell.

Before getting into the story I’ll set the scene. This mine was basically a 150 metre tunnel that went into the side of a granite mountain. The tunnel was about two metres high and a little more than that wide.

Here goes with the story…

Two young rough neck Germans bought the claim for the mine and went about tunnelling through the granite rock by hand. When I say by hand, all they used was a drill bit on an iron bar and a sledge hammer. One guy holds the drill and the other guy wacks it. They do this all day using only a candle to see. Once they manage to drill half a dozen holes about 30 cm deep, they lay explosives in the holes and let rip. So the tunnel grows about 30 cms every month. Hard work!

Now these guys had no money and they worked there claim everyday for fifteen years. During all this time their tunnel only extended about 50 metres. What astounded me was that they only found one ounce of gold worth $25 in all those years.

These two didn’t give up. They knew there was gold to be found. They dug their way for another fifteen years and doubled the length of their mine. During this time they found almost no gold. They were expert at explosives and were hired by other mines to lay the charges. This is how they put food on their table. However, people didn’t trust them as they would pinch anything laying around for their own mine like expensive explosives.

Now the story gets interesting! They continued their tunnel for many more years. Another mine only a foot away from their tunnel, also deep in the mountain had hit the gold vein and was making a killing. The two Germans began digging towards this mine and hit the boundary to their claim. You don’t dare jump claims as it holds very severe penalties.

Still no gold. So they dug up and then dug to the right hoping to pick up on the vein. Going right was not really allowed as they didn’t have the claim for this area. They figured that no one would know and besides, once they find the gold vein they would simply buy the claim.

Jackpot! After forty odd years they hit gold. They took their first real pay check (about $900) and headed for the pub where they went about bragging about their gold. Now these guys had their enemies, and one such party took a bit of interest in their boasting. They worked out what the German miners were up to. In spite of the Germans, they bought the lease containing the area that the miners had encroached upon. This put an end to the German’s gold. The guys who bought the lease never mined it.

Eventually the two old buggers kicked the bucket. They had worked their whole lives digging the mine and had found a little over $900 worth of gold. The neighbouring lease was sold after their death and the new owners mined the claim and hit the vein which made them millions.

Why did the two persist with such a dangerous, hard life for so long that never made them any money?

Gold Fever! Mercury is used to gather the gold as they process the crushed rock. Mercury actually poisons first the mind then the body. It causes people to become obsessed, then they go mad. Mercury poisoning is commonly called Gold Fever.

Poor buggers!

 

We left North Dakota and travelled south into South Dakota. We did a fair bit of travelling and arrived at the Mt Rushmore KOA campground late afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided at the last minute to go and see Mt Rushmore at night as they have a special lighting ceremony. So we made up all the beds in the RV and the kids relaxed on the short journey to the mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mt Rushmore Monument was completed in 1941 (70 years ago). It is the top visitor attraction in the Black Hills and for those of you who don’t know, is an iconic sculpture of four famous American Presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The four Presidents chosen were those who the artist, Gutzon Borglum, thought influenced the American West.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lighting program we saw featured the National Anthem, a film about the four Presidents, a short talk and finally an ilumination of the memorial. We were standing at the top of an ampitheatre which can apparently seat 5000 people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On that particular night, there seemed to be a few hundred elderly people. At the end of the ceremony, any ex-service men or women were invited up on stage in recognition of their service to their country. One thing we have definitely noticed is how patriotic Amercians are. So, for a lot of people, the whole ceremony was quite moving.

The next day we managed to get another shot of Mt Rushmore which shows the craftmanship of the Sculptor/s who created this masterpiece. The project took 14 years to complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After viewing the Painted canyon (see previous blog), we were anticipating a wonderful sight when we arrived in the Theordore Roosevelt National Park. But first we had to travel through a little town called Menora….and it was absolutley gorgeous. Everything was set up like a Wild Western town, with even the playground following the same theme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate dinner in this gorgeous town, then made our way to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where Trev takes up the story…………

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theodore Roosevelt National Park… What a Beauty!

We didn’t know what to expect at the North Dakota Badlands. Arriving very late we entered the park and headed for the campground only to find it was almost full up. We managed to find a spot, and then we went for a night walk to get our bearings. We noticed lots of giant (and I mean giant) cow patties all over the place. It was a beautiful still warm night. We decided to hit the sack so that we could get up early to drive around the park and hopefully see some wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 5.30am the alarm went off. I hadn’t slept well as I was conscious of our early morning start and during the night we could hear coyotes howling off in the distance. The kids wouldn’t wake up so I drove off with them all in their beds. Out of the camp ground we crept around the first corner and low and behold, smack bang in the middle of the road, was a massive bull bison! The kids bounced out of bed all starry-eyed! The bull was huge and not afraid of us at all. He just stood there only a few feet from our RV.

 

Now there were signs everywhere saying don’t go near these buffalo as they can be dangerous. Our old boy looked very much at peace with the world and appeared to be very placid, however, we weren’t game to get out of the RV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On we went in eager anticipation of what lay ahead. And within minutes we pulled up as a family of Mule Deer appeared on the side of the road. They also weren’t the least bit frightened! They just trotted past as we clicked away on our camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The unique landscape was stunning to look at. The pictures don’t do it justice! It was like a moonscape with bizarre eroded grey clay hills scattered all about the place casting long shadows in the pre-dawn light. There were splatterings of trees and lots of bare ground or grassy areas. The park road wound its way around these hills for about 35km.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An animal spotting game was introduced in the RV, with points scored for the different species of animals. A coyote was worth ten points, a deer was worth three and a buffalo five. The game really got going with Amber hitting 45 points when she spotted a herd of wild horses. Jai, who was always keen to out do his sister, was spotting deer and buffalo everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then suddenly we hit upon a Prairie Dog Town and the kids went mad tallying up their scores as there were literally hundreds of little Prairie Dogs standing up on their hind legs sounding of their warning alarm calls. That ended the game!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to have our breakfast along the Prairie Dog Town as the sun poked its head up over the hills. Getting up early was well worth the effort as we saw many animals and were able to enjoy the park in its early morning glory before all the regular visitors arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our lovely early morning jaunt through Theodore National Park, we found another camping ground in Menora to catch up on washing of clothes and generally relaxing before heading into South Dakota.

 

 

From Bear country to Buffalo Country! We travelled out of Minnesota into North Dakota. Now, a lot of people we met on our travels suggested we bypass North Dakota as it is mainly prairie lands and apparently boring to travel through. So, torn between that advice and wanting to see the Dinosaur Museum in Dickinson, we decided to take a punt and go. And boy are we glad we did! Whilst North Dakota is mainly flattish prairie land (which are an attraction in themselves), we happened upon quite a few lovely little towns with a variety of attractions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One such place was Jamestown. Whilst the town itself wasn’t that pretty, it had the World’s Largest Buffalo Monument built in 1959. It was recently named Dakota Thunder at it’s 50th birthday celebrations. Apparently the buffalo commemorates the vast herds that once roamed the prairies.

Near this sculpture was a little village called the Frontier Village, which was obviously for tourists. It was very quaint and we enjoyed having a look around at what a village from that era would look like. Didn’t make much headway with travelling, so camped the night at a campsite in Jamestown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we were off. We’ve all had a bout of the flu, but Kaitlin seemed to get it worse than the rest. Probably good to travel as she could sleep on her bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Dickenson on the way to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Dinosaur Museum was closed, which turned out fine as we arrived at the Painted Canyon in time to see a beautiful view of North Dakoda’s Badlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next blog takes you into Theodore National Park (which really was gorgeous). See you then…………….