Road to Rushmore
As we leave Deadwood we pass through the residential part of town...and see the houses... library... church... courthouse...and more...of Deadwood's other side. Our bus driver becomes a tour guide and regals us with stories and historical facts about the places we are seeing on our journey. We learn that the...entire...town of Deadwood is a national historic landmark. In its beginnings...notables such as Wild Bill Hickock...Calamity Jane...and others...lived there...and are buried in the area cemetery. In the early 1900's Deadwood was home to a Chinese community second only to San Francisco. One of the amazing remnants of their stay in the area are the many underground tunnels...long impassible...which they built to travel throughout main street. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a peek at the entrance to one of these tunnels...under what is now a casino....touch its walls...and absorb a piece of history........
road to rushmore.....................................................©pralinanmi
On our way out of town we pass a large hill with no trees...a hill man made out of the material taken out of the mine it is built on...tailings...full of toxic chemicals...where grass does grow...but the dark trees will not. It is an erie sight... Remnants of charred trees dot the landscape...casualties of a massive fire several years ago which was sparked by power lines. The dense flames forced the evacuation of Deadwood...and shut down the gambling machines for the first time since 1989...when legalized gambling began.
Pactola waters....hiding a town...................................©pralinanmi
After a time we come upon a large lake...a strange aura seems to eminate from its still white frozenness. The driver tells us that it was built in response to the deadly Rapid City flood many years ago...the lake is a reservoir...and Rapid City's water supply. There is also...a town...under its waters. We did not get an elaboration of how this strangeness came to be...and even though the lake was starkly beautiful...the thought of it disturbed my mind. As we drove along...we were given more information...such as...the Black Hills are older than the Rocky Mountains and were once twice as high. The tallest peak now...Harney Peak...stands at about 7,000 ft. Its name...comes from the Black Hills Spruce... unique to these hills...trees so dense and close to each other that they look black...and their pine needles...which absorb the light. There is much visual evidence that fires...have not spared the Hills over the years...and physical evidence remains...that dinosaurs...once roamed these Hills....
Black Hills....'controlled' burn...................................©pralinanmi
We pass Sturgis...which holds a motorcycle fest every summer...drawing some 800,000 + participants...with their motorcycles. Looking at the scape of the land...feeling its sacredness...blood of the original ancestors mixed within its soil...I can only imagine what...that...must be like.
Our immediate destination is Mount Rushmore...a little more than an hour away.
rushmore preview......................................................©pralinanmi
Out of the bus window...I soak up the views passing before me...and snap a picture or two. All along the way...I think about...Mount Rushmore...what it's meant to the native inhabitants...to see those four faces...symbols of a domineering and genocidal society...blasted into their mountain... and looming large........until Crazy Horse came along that is.... But that story...remains for another time...............
presidential loomings............................................©pralinanmi
road to rushmore.....................................................©pralinanmi
On our way out of town we pass a large hill with no trees...a hill man made out of the material taken out of the mine it is built on...tailings...full of toxic chemicals...where grass does grow...but the dark trees will not. It is an erie sight... Remnants of charred trees dot the landscape...casualties of a massive fire several years ago which was sparked by power lines. The dense flames forced the evacuation of Deadwood...and shut down the gambling machines for the first time since 1989...when legalized gambling began.
Pactola waters....hiding a town...................................©pralinanmi
After a time we come upon a large lake...a strange aura seems to eminate from its still white frozenness. The driver tells us that it was built in response to the deadly Rapid City flood many years ago...the lake is a reservoir...and Rapid City's water supply. There is also...a town...under its waters. We did not get an elaboration of how this strangeness came to be...and even though the lake was starkly beautiful...the thought of it disturbed my mind. As we drove along...we were given more information...such as...the Black Hills are older than the Rocky Mountains and were once twice as high. The tallest peak now...Harney Peak...stands at about 7,000 ft. Its name...comes from the Black Hills Spruce... unique to these hills...trees so dense and close to each other that they look black...and their pine needles...which absorb the light. There is much visual evidence that fires...have not spared the Hills over the years...and physical evidence remains...that dinosaurs...once roamed these Hills....
Black Hills....'controlled' burn...................................©pralinanmi
We pass Sturgis...which holds a motorcycle fest every summer...drawing some 800,000 + participants...with their motorcycles. Looking at the scape of the land...feeling its sacredness...blood of the original ancestors mixed within its soil...I can only imagine what...that...must be like.
Our immediate destination is Mount Rushmore...a little more than an hour away.
rushmore preview......................................................©pralinanmi
Out of the bus window...I soak up the views passing before me...and snap a picture or two. All along the way...I think about...Mount Rushmore...what it's meant to the native inhabitants...to see those four faces...symbols of a domineering and genocidal society...blasted into their mountain... and looming large........until Crazy Horse came along that is.... But that story...remains for another time...............
presidential loomings............................................©pralinanmi
posted by pralinanmi | 3:35 AM
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