South Dakota Here We Come

On Day Three we drove from Dickinson, North Dakota, into Belle Fourche, South Dakota. The name is derived from French for Beautiful (Belle) Fork (Fourchette) in the river). We stopped here to see the geographical center of the United States (all 50 states included.)

Here's Dad standing on the spot...on a granite compass with all of the state flags in the background.

OOld classy tractor at the Visitor's Center.

Then it was on to an afternoon of geocaching (we found 3) in the famous and fun old mining and gambling town of Deadwood. Not as many motorcycles this time...the Sturgis gathering was still a week away.

We walked through part of Mt. Moriah Cemetery, known as Boot Hill, to see the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

There were geocaches behind both of the Deadwood signs.

We ended the day by driving into Keystone and going out to Mt. Rushmore to tour the Visitor's Center, see a 15-minute film about the making of Mt. Rushmore and attend the impressive 1/2-hour evening program. It included a video on a giant screen and finished with "the lighting" of the giant sculpted faces. As you remember, the sculptor was Gutzon Borglum, born is St. Charles...there is monument to him just half a block south of Dad's house.

Photo of Gutzon. I'll post photos of the massive granite faces in the next blog.