Day 20

I really needed this day off.  I was really tired.  We went out for a few beers at the Firehouse Pub last night.  I was in by 10:30 and slept until 6:30, a real luxury.

Mike, George, Chacko, Sue, and I rented a car to visit some of the sites around Rapid City.  There is much to see.  Within 60 miles of here you have Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Deadwood, and Sturgis.  If you venture out even farther you can easily visit Devil's Tower from here.

We went to Mt. Rushmore first.  I've been here before, but it's always impressive.  The granite carving was initiated in 1927 and took 14 years to complete.  Each head is about 60 feet tall.

Next we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial just west of Mt. Rushmore.  It is also a rock carving, but on a much grander scale.  This carving is in construction.  It will eventually be in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.

They complex at the construction site is a huge tourist trap.  The monument itself is controversial among native Americans.  In a 1972 autobiography, Lame Deer, a Lakota medicine man, said: "The whole idea of making a beautiful wild mountain into a statue of him is a pollution of the landscape. It is against the spirit of Crazy Horse."  The operators of the site appear in no hurry to finish it.  It is unlikely to be completed in my lifetime.

We finished the day with a late lunch in Deadwood.  Deadwood looks nothing like the HBO special.  It, like Montana, is full of casinos and tourist traps. 

We saw the end of a shootout reenactment downtown and shot our picture with the participants.  Wild Bill Hickok and his friends were in fine form, but I missed seeing Calamity Jane.