Woke up and drove back into Deadwood and four miles further along the road to te town of Lead to visit a laundromat to do some washing. There was a 24 hour laundromat that I found on the GPS and was able to wash and dry my dirty clothes.
From there I went to the Mt Moriah Cemetery which was Deadwood’s cemetery until 1949. It is on the hillside above the town and has a great view of the town. There is a $2 entry fee which helps to preserve the cemetery.
There is a map provided that shows the location of 23 of the graves in the cemetery. These are the more famous historical people of the town.
The two most famous being Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Calamity Jane had a wild life. She claimed to be a sweetheart of Wild Bill but nobody could prove that. She died in 1903 and he dying wish was to be buried next to him. This was granted and they are the two main draw cards to the cemetery.
I walked around a fair bit of the cemetery following the map and saw an area with a mass grave of 11 men who died in a fire that swept through a boarding house in 1883.
There is also a children section which according to records is filled with children that died of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. An estimated 350 children died between 1878 and 1880.
I then walked around to the overlook area which gives a vista of the town below. It is a famous photo opportunity in the USA that was first shown in newspapers across the country in the 1880’s.
I then left Deadwood and drove to the Crazy Horse Memorial in Black Hills. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a work in progress. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski was requested in a letter from by the Lokota Tribe’s Chief Henry Standing Bear to come to the Black Hills and carve a mountain “To show the White Man that the Red Man has great hero’s also”.
Ziokowski traveled to the Black Hills and met the Lokota people and after many discussions accepted the invitation and work commenced in 1948. Working firstly by himself then with his wife after they married. There is no government backing for the project and work was very slow.
Realizing this would take more than their lifetimes they founded with the Lokota a Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. This has developed into a dedicated Board of Directors and volunteer staff working with their descendants to widen the scope of the project to help create plans for a Indian University to be built at the site to go with the Cultural and Education centre already establshed.
You can see videos and listen to talks about the history and future of the works, go on a bus tour closer to the sculpture site, walk through an Indian Museum and Cultural Centre and even take away a rock from the blast site.
The face of Crazy Horse has been completed so far and they are now working on his arm and blasting away sections of the mountain that will be the head of his horse. It will be many years if not generations before this work is completed but it will be magnificent when finished.
In the viewing area of the centre there is a completed 1/34th scale model sculptured for everyone to se what the finished sculpture will look like.
From there I drove through the Black Hills and admired the scenery. The roads are quite winding and it is a slow drive. I stopped for lunch at a Subway store and used their Wi-Fi to upload yesterdays blog.
From there I drove to the Mt Rushmore National Museum in Keystone to check out the memorial. The parking fee included the ability to return and park for free any time before the end of this year. This is the only fee you pay at the park and it goes towards paying for the massive carpark and upkeep of the roadway.
Walking up from the parking structure you enter a open courtyard that has large columns at the front of the memorial. Past this is the Information Centre and then the Gift Shop and Cafes. From here you can walk up through an avenue of the 50 State flags of the USA then onto a viewing area of the 4 Presidents faces.
Beyond that is a large amphitheater and stage set into the valley in front of the memorial. It's at this point you can take the Presidential Trail which winds around the base of the cliff face in front of the sculptured faces. It is a relatively easy walk but a lot of stairs that with my bad knee took me a while to walk around. The closer up you get the more you can see the detail in the sculpture.
Not very well know is that there is a Vault built into the mountain side behind the faces that the sculptor Gutzon Borglum built into the mountain. It contains many artifacts but is not accessible to the public. You can read more about it by searching on the internet.
I went late in the day because I was told by several people that the lowering of the flag ceremony and the lighting of the mountain after dark are great to see. There is a Park Ranger who comes onto the amphitheater stage to give a short talk on the memorial and then a short film on the USA. Following this they lower the USA flag. Today it flew at half mast as a US Park Ranger was killed fighting bush fires this week.
Before lowering the flag the Ranger on stage asks for all current and former US military personnel to come to the stage. There were about 80 to 100 who came up on the stage.
He then gets one of them to lower the flag and a group of them fold the flag. Then they arrange all the people on stage to form into lines and the Ranger goes one by one to each of them and asked them to say their name, rank and section of the service they are or were in. Following this the US national anthem is sung by all present and finally the lights illuminating the President faces are turned on.
It is a great formal ceremony that was a pleasure to watch.
Following this I drove to Rapid Springs for the night and had dinner at a Perkins Family restaurant and went to the nearby Walmart and parked next to the other RV and campers before setting up the back of the van and going to sleep. This Walmart has free Wi-Fi for the customers so it was an added bonus.
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