Exploring the Black Hills

Today we take in the rest of Deadwood and head down to Keystone, just an hour away.  So this is an off day where we get to sleep in and take it easy.  Keystone will be our home for the next three nights as we explore the Black Hills.  Keystone is the closest location to Mt. Rushmore.  These are some of the sites we hope to see over the next couple of days.

The sculptures of the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore are 60 feet tall and were sculpted from 1927 to 1941 as a way to promote tourism in the area.  The four presidents are Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln.  The granite here is so hard that the rock only erodes one inch every 10,000 years so these sculptures are going to be around awhile.  What few people know is that the sculptor built a Hall of Records behind the heads to hold America's key documents like the Declaration of Independence.  These documents of porcelain enamel were not added until the 1990s.

About 17 miles from Mt. Rushmore, Chief Standing bear commissioned a sculpture of Crazy Horse to show that the Indians had great heroes too.  Work on this sculpture began in 1948 and is still on going. They accept no government money and the family of the original sculptor, Korczak Ziowkowski, continues the work.  The face was completed in 1998 and is the only completed piece.  When done it will be the world's largest sculpture.

Custer State Park is a wildlife preserve that also contains a couple of scenic highways such as the Peter Norbeck.  In 1927 this was the summer White House of Calvin Coolidge who announced he was not running for another term from here.

Also nearby are two other National Parks, Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument.  In addition there is the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.  We'll see what we can fit in.  We have to leave time for Ida to buy some of that Black Hills gold.