Top Photo: “Dignity of Earth and Sky,” by Dale Claude Lamphere, Chamberlain, South Dakota

Years ago I took a road trip with my friend Bill, on Interstate 90 from Detroit to Seattle. Our time was limited, and I combined vacation days with Memorial Day Weekend to make the most of it. Traveling through the American West, we stopped at the biggees: Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, and the Little Big Horn Battlefield In Montana.

I am currently traveling I-90 again, this time eastbound and down, on my way to The Midwest Extravaganza; I am meandering my way toward Wisconsin and beyondsin.

I love returning to an area I have visited before and seeking out those deep cuts. For example, I really enjoyed my first time in Butte, Montana on this trip. After overnighting at an Eagles Club in Billings, Montana, I drove right by Custer’s Last Stand, divan, and dresser, on the way to Deadwood, South Dakota.

Why Die?

I have always had a fascination with descansos – roadside death markers. In Montana, small white metal crosses are maintained by the American Legion, as they have done for over 50 years. (Photo: Billings Gazette)

Crossing into South Dakota, shit got real; those South Dakotans don’t get all spiritual and esoteric about their vehicle fatalities.

“X Marks The Spot,” one side of the sign declares. On the other, “Think! Why Die?” At first I thought they were underground cable signs, warning people about calling before digging. But they popped up more and more often, often clumped together. Sometimes they are right by the road, but others are wayyyy off, in fields and farmland, conjuring images of horrific accidents involving dramatic physics a la The Fatal Dukes of Hazard.

Deadwood

I was so damned excited to finally see the town of Deadwood. Over 10 years ago I watched the HBO series, and I have a fascination with Wild West Towns.

White folks flocked to Deadwood in 1876 for gold, even though a treaty with the Sioux gave the tribe exclusive rights to the area. Since the area was not part of a US territory, a lawlessness emerged which is the stuff of legend.

The biggest legend of all is Wild Bill Hickok, a mere visitor, shot in the back of the head while playing poker, holding a hand of aces and eights, forever known as a “Dead Man’s Hand.” I wonder if Deadwood would have faded into obscurity had Wild Bill not passed through camp and been murdered. Probably.

Wild Bill was killed at the Saloon Number 10, but not the Number 10 that exists today. The original site of the Number 10 is now the Wild Bill Bar.

Confused yet? Try to keep up.

Even though everyone knows the original Number 10 was in an alley by the creek, the current proprietors of Wild Bill’s will gladly take your $10 to show you the purported original location of the murder, downstairs, behind a velvet curtain. Above the bar’s door – the alleged chair in which he sat, back to the door, at the time of the dastardly deed. Yeah, sure.

Gunfights loosely based on fact are re-enacted on Main Street several times a day.

Six days a week they even portray the capture and trial of Wild Bill’s killer.

(The legal geek in me couldn’t help but be fascinated by that little piece of jurisprudence. Jack McCall was found not guilty in Deadwood. He was tried a second time in the Dakota Territory and was hanged. The court ruled Double Jeopardy did not apply because the first trial had no jurisdiction in lawless Deadwood.)

If it’s authenticity you’re seeking, the Adams Museum has cards from the original deck, the pistol of Wild Bill’s right-hand man, Charlie Utter, and Wild Bill’s straight razor and a lucky stone, both found in his boot.

Poor Wild Bill’s image and likeness are plastered all over town, together with Calamity Jane, another Wild West legend who asked to be buried next to Bill.

They are up at Mt. Moriah Cemetery,

together with Seth Bullock (portrayed by Timothy Olyphant in the HBO series).

(Seth’s and Martha’s graves are straight uphill, an 800-foot climb, and no tours go up there.) In town, the Bullock Hotel (1896) sits on the site of Bullock’s original hardware store with his partner Sol; when it burned down, they built the hotel.

At the opposite end of Main Street, the Franklin Hotel (1903) is another fine example of Victorian Old West architecture.

The Gem of Al Swearengen fame is bright, new and shiny.

There are no prostitutes, no monuments to Al. They ran him out of town on a rail.

A friend remarked when I said I was going to Deadwood, “Gambling ruined that town.” She was partially right. Gambling both saved and ruined Deadwood. Legalized gaming began there in 1989. Without it, the town would have surely shriveled up and died. Four percent of gambling profits are set aside for historic preservation, which totaled over $7 million last year. The old courthouse was recently restored.

New signs welcoming you to town are situated at every entrance.

A hefty historical price has been paid for those gaming profits. The lobbies of those beautiful hotels are full of slot machines, not period furniture and furnishings. The town is not unlike the tourist traps of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, or The Wisconsin Dells, except with gambling. Chainsaw carving, three for $10 tee shirts, and all you can eat buffets heavy on the meat and potatoes appeal to the masses.

Searching for meaning and historical significance in Deadwood, I visited the Adams Museum,

took a tour with Boot Hill Tours, and visited Tatanka – Story of the Bison.

Tatanka was a passion project of Kevin Costner, who filmed “Dances with Wolves” in the area.

He commissioned a local artist to portray the Lakota Sioux bison hunt in bronze statuary. On the day of my visit, there were only four other people there.

It’s clear Kevin has a special love for the Black Hills, but he is divesting himself of his holdings in Deadwood. His restaurant and casino on Main Street was shuttered in 2017 and has yet to be sold. Tatanka was sold to other investors.

Lead

The historic town of Lead is next door and up the hill from Deadwood. They weren’t mining lead there, as was my original guess. It is pronounced “leed,” which is the term for where a gold lode originates. The people of Lead were a bit more refined than in Deadwood. They even have an opera house. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Lead is the Sanford Underground Research Facility, located in the former Homestake Gold Mine, where scientists research neutrinos and dark matter 4,888 feet below ground – the deepest underground laboratory in the U.S. Fascinating!

Sturgis

The little town famous for its raucous motorcycle rally is only 12 miles from Deadwood. In my 20s and 30s I thought I wanted go to that rally, held every August. Now, not so much. I can participate in life’s hedonistic excesses from the comfort and safety of my own sofa.

A visit to Sturgis on a random Sunday proved rather dull without the bikers, but the Sturgis rally would be too much for me.

If you grow weary of the crass commercialism and excesses of Deadwood, a short drive will take you to some of the most iconic sites in the West. A little over an hour to the northwest is Sundance, Wyoming and Devil’s Tower. Southeast one hour is Mt. Rushmore. I drove through the Mount Rushmore area on my way to Custer State Park, chuckling at names of hotels like Rush No More, and Mt. Restmore.

Custer State Park

With national parks and monuments all around, how grand could a state park in South Dakota be? Really grand. I have been a bit road weary, and I almost did not venture to Custer State Park because the drive is an hour and a half each way from Deadwood. Boy, am I glad I went. Driving through rock formations,

the Needles Highway,

Sylvan Lake – all gorgeous.

The next time I plan to camp there and explore more.

Bison roam freely at Custer, and a whole herd congregated at the Wildlife Loop entrance as if on cue.

About 20 minutes later, rounding a curve, a driver passing the other way pointed behind him. I completed the curve, coming face-to-face with the largest buffalo I’ve ever seen. He was all by himself, ambling along, snorting, holding up the traffic going the other way, about four feet from the car. My window was down. I had the dogs with me, and Pinkie started barking at him! I yelled out “No!” He slowly lifted his head to see who was making all the ruckus and whether we were any kind of threat. I snapped that photo and got the hell out of there!

Rapid City

I stopped in Rapid City, population 60,000, on my way back from Custer State Park. It has a charming downtown with no empty storefronts, and bronze statues of the 44 presidents.

The kitsch factor was high at Dinosaur Park, a local favorite for decades.

Badlands National Park

You may recall that my luck with national parks has not been great lately. Wind Cave National Park is an hour and a half due south from Deadwood and was on my list, but the elevators were closed for maintenance!

As a general rule I do not go sightseeing on the days that I am driving the rig and towing the car. It’s just too much of a hassle, and there are rarely places to pull over or park. I made an exception for Badlands National Park, but I parked Nellie at the Ben Reifel Welcome Center, unhooked the car, and drove the loop.

It is certainly possible to do the loop in a motorhome, and many were doing it. There was ample parking at the lookouts for motorhomes. However, it is much easier for me to take photos while driving the car, and there is less to worry about mechanically. The park was visually stunning, morphing from bleached white mountains

to yellow and pink hills

to grasslands

to monoliths that looked like cities in the distance.

Frank Loyd Wright said of the Badlands, “I’ve been about the world a lot, and pretty much over our own country, but I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Badlands. … What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere – a distant architecture, ethereal … an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it.“

Mitchell

I write this from Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. I stopped there last time, so I didn’t even unhook the car from the rig at the campground last night to go see its current iteration. I’m leaving South Dakota behind today, with my sights on Wisconsin.

A Facebook friend commented last night, “This part of the US seems to be resonating with you.” It certainly is, even more than when I came through almost 20 years ago. There’s still so much more to see, including Sioux City, the capital – Pierre, and of course Wind Cave! I’ll be back.