More of the Black Hills: Deadwood, Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore

The thing that will stick most in our minds about Deadwood is the gaming machines - the "slots". To us, it seems that Deadwood is primarily a town for those interested in gambling - whether playing the slots or playing poker. It looked like more than 80% of the businesses on Main St had slot machines - including the cafes and burger places.

We took a guided tour of Deadwood in an open sided bus - in the rain. The town is historically important and many famous names from the American west were associated with Deadwood. The most famous is probably Wild Bill Hickok because it is here he was murdered - shot from behind while playing poker (it was the only time he had ever sat with his back to the door). Wild Bill is buried in Deadwood next to Calamity Jane. It is a strange story. Jane insisted on being buried next to Wild Bill even though the two had apparently only ever met once and had never had a relationship. Wyatt Earp even made some money in Deadwood before moving on to Tombstone, Arizona. He provided firewood for the gold miners making around $5000 in one year, more than most of the miners ever made.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is simply awesome - much more than we had expected. You can see a selection of photos for yourself but the very scale of this endeavour is amazing. It began in 1948 with the sculptor (whose name escapes us for now) who had worked on the Mt Rushmore project and who was already in his early 40's. He died in 1982 but the project is continued by his wife and seven of their 10 children. Millions of tons of granite have already been removed (mostly blasted) and the project looks to consume several more decades yet. While the model of this work is Crazy Horse, the work is actually a dedication to the American Indian. To give some idea of the scale of this sculpture, apparently all four presidents on Mt Rushmore will fit on Crazy Horse's head!

We continued riding the Black Hills via Wind Cave National Park and Custer National Park - including the Iron Mountain Highway. We came quite close to all sorts of wildlife including prairie dogs and buffalo; we were almost taken out by a couple of deer springing across the road in front of us and were held up by a flock of donkeys.

We did not know what to expect at Mt Rushmore and were a little fearful that perhaps it would be an anti climax after the Crazy Horse memorial. It wasn't. Mt Rushmore is a national memorial so there were quite a few people there though the parking lots were nowhere near full. What can we say? Mt Rushmore is all we expected - another awe-inspiring venture.