Today, we spent a relaxing day in Keystone, South Dakota (population 311). Gold was found in Keystone in 1883 and a handful of mines opened in the area. The largest producer was
Holy Terror Mine. The mine was located by accident by the daughter of a prospector. His wife had a habit of pulling him out of saloons and he would remark Ain't she a Holy Terror" so when it came time to name the mine he decided to name it after his wife. Mining was not allowed during World War II so this mine has filled with water.
Keystone is 2 miles from Mount Rushmore, so after the mines died out, many workers moved over to the Mt. Rushmore project and once it was completed it became popular as a tourist town. Keystone is where the great scenes in
North by Northwest were filmed. Also, it was home to Carrie Inglis, one of the girls from Little House on the Prairie.
Our first stop was to the
National Presidential Wax Museum. All of the presidents as well as some local scenes were depicted in the museum.
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| Barack Obama |
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| JFK with John Jr. |
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| Some oldies, can you name 'em |
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| Johnson being sworn in |
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We visited the
Big Thunder Gold Mine and took a tour which was just the two of us and a guy from Germany. The mining work here was done mostly by hand by two German prospectors, on a part time basis after their regular jobs over a 32 year period. The mine was downstream from the Lucky Boy Mine so these two prospectors decided they would try to tap into the same source as the Lucky Boy. It took them about 25 years to hit it, but the vein was smaller and did not have too much gold. About 2 years later, they began extending the mine to get to try to hit the vein of another mine, but again when they got there there was very little gold. Thirty two years with very little to show for it.
We donned hard hats and traveled the full 680 feet of the mine. It was a good thing we had hard hats because I turned my head and smacked right into a beam. Our guide was a great story teller and taught us how to pan for gold. That skill might come in handy some day. The pictures are of us using a detonator.
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| Keystone's Boardwalk |
After lunch we played miniature golf at the Holy Terror Golf course and then took a dip in the hotel pool.
Our first stop was to the National Presidential Wax Museum. All of the presidents as well as some local scenes were depicted in the museum. 
We visited the Big Thunder Gold Mine and took a tour which was just the two of us and a guy from Germany. The mining work here was done mostly by hand by two German prospectors, on a part time basis after their regular jobs over a 32 year period. The mine was downstream from the Lucky Boy Mine so these two prospectors decided they would try to tap into the same source as the Lucky Boy. It took them about 25 years to hit it, but the vein was smaller and did not have too much gold. About 2 years later, they began extending the mine to get to try to hit the vein of another mine, but again when they got there there was very little gold. Thirty two years with very little to show for it.
We donned hard hats and traveled the full 680 feet of the mine. It was a good thing we had hard hats because I turned my head and smacked right into a beam. Our guide was a great story teller and taught us how to pan for gold. That skill might come in handy some day. The pictures are of us using a detonator.
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