The Ingalls Family and Black Hills Miscellany

Our goal was to get to Rapid City, SD, where we would stay, relax, and visit with some friends from once-upon-a-time. We drove straight there, with no stops.

 

However, there were places to stop, especially if you are travelling with children, so this blog is going to be about places we missed. If, by chance, we are ever back in this area again, we might even stop at a couple of the places... like... The Wind Cave.

 

THE WIND CAVE is about 2.5 hours from Alliance NE North, or 45 mins South of Crazy Horse. It is a sacred place for the Lakota Sioux, and has been known to them for centuries! It was found again by Jesse and Tom Bingham in 1881, when they heard the air whistling out of the cave. Apparently, the wind coming out of the cave blew Tom's hat off his head, and later, the wind switched directions and sucked his hat into the cave.

 

Wind Cave is one of the longest caves in the world (more than 100 miles/161 kms long) and the first cave to be designated a national park (in 1903, by Theodore Roosevelt, of course). The Limestone Cave is the 5th largest in the world, and made up of a variety of cave formations, including

• boxwork (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxwork)
• flowstone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowstone)
• frostwork (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostwork)
• popcorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_popcorn)

The Cave is still being explored, but you can take guided tours, even in the winter! There are a variety of tour options, with different levels of strenuity (strenuousness?) - depending on length, stairs, accessibility. Check their website for options and costs!  (http://www.nps.gov/wica/planyourvisit/index.htm)

 

The National Park website says the best times to visit are early mornings or weekends, and that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest...which...is weird, I think. I wonder why that is?

On the way to the Wind Cave (from Alliance NE), you will pass the MAMMOTH SITE, at Hot Springs. We actually did stop there (thanks to the sign on the road and the guise of "Big Ball of String" touring), and historically, scientifically, and paleontologically, I think THIS would be fascinating. But we were tired, and we wanted to get to Crazy Horse, etc., and visiting here was a last-minute idea... so when we got there, and it was a museum with guided tours, we just went in the front door into the lobby and into the gift shop, but not into the museum. http://www.mammothsite.com/

 

The Mammoth Site is the largest site in the world, and is still an active paleontological dig site (which you can tour). According to the website, they have found (to date) 60 mammoth remains (57 Columbian and 3 woolly)!

This mammoth grave yard was discovered by accident in 1974, when an earth-mover unburied a set of bones, trying to excavate for a housing development.

 

Since then, as mentioned, 60 mammoths have been uncovered, but also (the website confirms) a "giant short-faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf, fish, and numerous invertebrates."

 

You can take a 30 minute guided tour year round, but they suggest you budget at least an hour, so you can also visit the dig site area on your own (rules about staying on the sidewalk).

30 minutes NORTH of the Wind Cave, take a sharp left at Flintstone Bedrock City onto Hwy US 16), and continue another 20 minutes West to JEWEL CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT, which is the second longest cave in the word, about 160 miles (257 km) of mapped passageways.

 

Roosevelt made these caves a National Monument in 1908. It's open year round, and also has a variety of tours, including a spelunking tour!

 

THIS Cave's formations include:

• boxwork, flowstone, and frostwork,
  as well as
• calcite crystals
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcite)
• draperies (http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/drapery/drapery.html)
• hydromagnesite balloons
  (http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/balloons/balloon.html)
• stalactites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalactite)
• stalagmites. (http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/stalmite/stalmite.html)

For more information on visiting the Jewel Caves, visit the National Park's website at http://www.nps.gov/jeca/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm. Even more information can be found at http://www.blackhillsbadlands.com/home/thingstodo/parksmonuments/nationalparks/jewelcavenationalmonument

Back the way we came, to FLINTSTONE'S BEDROCK CITY!

Apparently, there is more than one "Bedrock City", but this particular one happens to be the oldest (opened in 1966). And, afterall, The Flintstones were a "modern stone age family". The "modern" Flintstones production was originally broadcast from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966... seems to be too coincidental, to be anything but true! Therefore, I'd surmise that THIS particular Bedrock City is the real Bedrock City! :D

 

While visiting Fred & Barney (who are there for meet-and-greets during the summertime), you can eat Brontoburgers & Dino Dogs at The Flintstones™ Bedrock City Drive-in/Cafeteria, ride in the Flintstone's Flintmobile, take the Iron Horse Train on a tour, and visit the little town of Bedrock City - see Fred & Wilma's house, Barney & Betty's house, the Jail House, the Hair Salon, and other sites around town!

 

I had hoped that the Camping Cabins were the Flintstone style house, but they are nice cedar cabins - sleeping cabins (has beds & mattresses, but you bring your own bedding; has heat & electricity but no water). There's also tenting areas and RV parking, with full hook-up.

 

For more information on rates, reservations and dates opened, please refer to
http://www.flintstonesbedrockcity.com/.

 

15 minutes north of Bedrock City is the Crazy Horse Memorial (discussed in my blog, December 8, 2012) and then another 1/2 hour northeast is Mount Rushmore National Memorial (discussed in my blog, December 11, 2012).

 

Just 10 minutes further is KEYSTONE. Keystone is a perfect little Western Town, and all I could remember from the first time through, was Ice Cream... wooden sidewalks. It was REALLY busy at the time, full of children, bikers (Sturgis is nearby - will discuss in an upcoming blog), and motorhomes.

 

It turns out that Keystone is more than just ice cream and wooden sidewalks! It's brimming with history! Brimming!

 

For one thing - did you know that Carrie Ingalls lived there as an adult? (OK, well...I didn't know who Carrie was right off the bat, either, but! it turns out she is the younger sister of Mary & Laura - who are, of course, the "Little House on the Prairie" girls... and in case you thought that was fiction, the story is actually based on Laura's childhood memories - an autobiographical memoir, presented as fiction. http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/)

 

Carrie was born in August, 1870, in Montgomery County, Kansas, and in 1879, the whole family moved to South Dakota. She moved to Keystone and had a career in the newspaper business, working at The Keystone Recorder and The Hill City Star. In 1912, she married David N. Swanzey, who had two children, Mary and Harold. (David was a widower).

 

 

To bring my blogs full-circle: when Charles Rushmore (mentioned in my Dec. 11th blog) was on the expedition to choose a mountain to carve, and asked what the name of "that" mountain was, in my blog, I said "to be shmoozy, they told him that since the mountain didn't have a name, they'd call it Mount Rushmore"... One of the men in that expedition was David Swanzey... and later, his son, Harold, would be one of the carvers of the Mountain.

 

Carrie died June 2, 1946, of complications from diabetes, in Keystone. She was 75.

 

By wonderful coincidence and surprise! Little House on the Prairie is on TV right now! An episode called "Remember Me" (1975). Look at that! We do remember! Awwwww.

...

 

I had more to say about the Keystone area, but I now I have to watch Little House on the Prairie. If you want to know more - there's also a cave called Rushmore Cave, a Reptile Garden, and some waterslides, near Rapid City! There's more, too - just those are the things I wanted to talk about.

 

Wednesday, we'll be talking about Sturgis - the Motorcycle  Capital of the World.

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Once Upon a Time, there was a mountain that looked like this:

and it was called "Six Grandfathers" by the Lakota Sioux.

In 1885, it was renamed "Mount Rushmore" after a lawyer, from New York- Charles Rushmore. Mr. Rushmore was in the Blackhills area, helping people with their mining claims. When he asked what the name of this mountain was, to be schmoozy*, they told him that since it didn't have a name, they'd call it Mount Rushmore.

 

(*Since I don't know how "schmoozy" translates, the dictionary says "To converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.")

 

The giant sculpture was an idea dreamed up by Doan Robinson, who was a South Dakota State Historian. He originally wanted to have something sculptured into the section of the mountains called the Needles, but when he invited the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, out to examine the possibilities, Borglum determined that the granite of the Needles was of poor quality and that the spires weren't strong enough (too thin) to support the sculptures, which were going to be of famous people, "parade of Indian leaders and American explorers who shaped the frontier." However, Borglum the four Presidents, to "elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national cause". (http://www.travelsd.com/Attractions/Mount-Rushmore/History)

 

Construction began in August, 1927, and ended October 31, 1941. Although I can't tell, I guess if you are "in the know", it's obvious that the carving is not finished.

 

Anyway, a couple things happened: 1) Mr. Borglum passed away on March 6, 1941, and 2) World War II started and the government funding stopped. Lincoln Borglum (Gutzon's son) and crew continued working on the sculpture, until the money rand out, October 31. At that time, Lincoln ended the project, and there it continues till today. (That is, other than it's erosion rate of approximately 1 inch every 10,000 years.)

 

The Presidents are, from left to right: George Washington (1st president of the United States, commander of the Revolutionary War), Thomas Jefferson (3rd president, author of the Declaration of Independence ), Theodore Roosevelt (26th president, signed legislation to establish National Parks & Monuments, supported of the completion of the Panama Canal, and personal friend of Borglum's), and Abraham Lincoln (16th president, and previously discussed in my blog on November 17, 2012, "Springfield IL and Abraham Lincoln").

Some interesting facts about Mount Rushmore:

• 5,725 feet (1,745m) high in elevation
• each head is about 60 feet (18 meters) high (approximately the height of a 6-story building - or to compare, The Great Sphinx in Egypt is just over 66 feet tall
• the eyes are 11 feet wide each, and the pupil of each eye is a 12 inch shaft, giving the illusion of a sparkle
• the noses are 20 feet long (except Washington's, whose nose is 21 feet)
• the mouth is 18 feet wide.
• Lincoln's mole is 16 inches across (almost the size of a basketball hoop's diameter)

Additional details about the Presidents' accomplishments include:

 

 

Washington:

* Ironically, he's the only president who didn't live in Washington D.C.;

* that's his real hair! he never wore a powdered wig;

* when he was born, the Julian calendar was being used, so his birthdate was February 11, 1731 - however, in 1752, the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and he opted to acknowledge his birthdate as the equivalent date of February 22, 1732 (and why wouldn't he? that made him a year younger!);

* he raised and loved hound dogs, some of which he named True Love, Sweet Lips, Vulcan, Madame Moose, and Drunkard;

* he supposedly once owned of the largest whiskey distiller in Virginia;

* he joined the British Royal Navy when he was 14 years old...

 

Jefferson:
* He was known for the Louisiana Purchase, which pretty much doubled the land size of the United States;

* he commissioned the Lewis & Clark Expedition (topics for future discussions);
* he wrote his own epitaph for his tombstone, and didn't include that he'd been President;
* from France, he brought back a recipe for vanilla ice cream, which is now in the Library of Congress (here, supposedly, is the recipe)...

Roosevelt:* He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for helping negotiate a peace treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War;

* he officially named the President's House, "the White House" in 1901;

* he was the first President to ever fly in an airplane - in 1910, he flew in one of the Wright Brothers' planes, for 4 minutes;

* rumor has it that he skinny-dipped in the Potomac River (apparently this discussion is in his Autobiography, in which he states, "If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes.") He isn't the first President to do so, either;

* even though he hated being called "Teddy", he lent his name to a toy bear, thus the Teddy Bear was born!

 

 Lincoln:
* He was the tallest President at 6'4 (7 feet tall with his stovepipe hat on - which, by the way, he apparently used as a filing cabinet);

* an 11 year old girl wrote him a letter, recommending that he grow a beard - he did, becoming the first President with a beard;

* he was the first President photographed at his inauguration (John Wilkes Booth is actually in the background of the picture;

* a man named Edwin Booth once saved his son Robert's life, by pulling him to safety after he'd fallen - Edwin was John Wilkes Booth's older brother;

* he's the only President that holds a patent - he invented a device for keeping boats buoyant in shallow water;

* he only had about 18 months of formal education - the rest was self-taught;

* he had a pet turkey named Jack

 

I had the privilege of meeting a man named Don "Nick" Clifford while at Mount Rushmore. He was one of the workers on Mount Rushmore from 1938-1940.

 

 

 

Nick was born in 1921 and grew up in the little town of Keystone. He and his 4 siblings started working at an early age to help their mother support their family. Starting at age 7, he delivered the local paper, chopped firewood, and milked cows. By age 14, he managed the local pool hall - cleaning, running errands, selling concessions, and racking pool balls. When he was 17 years old, he was recruited by Lincoln Borglum in 1938, to come to work at Mount Rushmore, primarily because Lincoln wanted him on their company baseball team ~ and the rest is history!

Sunday, we'll be en route to Rapid City, SD.