South Dakota: Great faces in great places

STURGIS, S.D. — Even in the off-season, when summer is over and the streets of Sturgis are empty of motorcycles, there remains what drew the first settlers to this corner of South Dakota and continues to draw thousands of tourists each year — the land and all its resources.

Southwest South Dakota is a land of hills and prairies, where wild horses and buffalo roam free on vast national park lands. It is a land that draws the hungry in search of game and once drew a migration of Easterners seeking wealth in a western gold rush.

While most mineral and gold mines are inactive today, the draw of the land remains intact in the beauty of the Badlands and the Black Hills, unusual rock formations like nearby Devils Tower in Wyoming and the Needles near Spearfish Canyon.

The land is both sacred and mesmerizing, preserved as the home of the Plains Indian tribes like the Lakota and the Cheyenne. Gorges where the Indians drove buffalo to their deaths are still evident. The American Indian presence shaped the history of the area, as Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s infamous “Last Stand” occurred nearby.

This topography is as interesting as the region’s characters are entertaining. For this is an area where history blends with legend and comes alive in the historical figures of Custer, Sitting Bull, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Crazy Horse, Kit Carson and Lewis and Clark.

Here are some highlights of the area:

Sturgis is a town of less than 7,000 people with a population that swells to slightly less than the state population during the seven days of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, held the first week of August.

With attendance around 500,000, many locals get out of town during the annual rally, renting their homes out for several thousand dollars. Those who stay, rent out their yards to tent campers. While there are numerous RV parks in the area, some are only open in the summer. Some, like Shade Valley, are quiet. Others, like Glencoe, are party places where nudity is common.

Just outside of Sturgis is Bear Butte, a rock formation that is sacred to many Indian tribes. Mato Paha, or Bear Mountain, is a state park with buffalo, hiking and horseback riding. It is visible from Sturgis.

The Badlands is a must-see for all tourists. The southwestern part of the state was once home to a great salt water sea that was pushed upward by volcanic activity. Twenty-five million years ago the water dried up, and many prehistoric animals were caught in the marshes and fossilized.

The Badlands formed from these marshes over millions of years by way of erosion. Rivers cut into the salt water deposits, and wind, rain and snow further carried off the soil. Its vastness reminds visitors of the Grand Canyon. Different minerals, salt, sand and gravel are clearly visible in the white, brown and red layers of The Badlands.

The land does not support plant life, but game is abundant on the Great Plains. The White River Badlands covers more than 244,000 acres.

Mount Rushmore is a massive stone carving of the faces of four American presidents. The 60-foot granite carved faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln began in 1927 and was completed in 1941 by Gutzon Borglum. The memorial attracts more than 2 million people a year.

The original plan to carve the presidents down to their waists was abandoned due to a lack of funding. The entire carving cost just under $1 million.

Crazy Horse Memorial is near Mount Rushmore, but unlike that monument, this one is being built with private funds. The sculpture, when complete, will depict the Lakota warrior on horseback, pointing to a distant spot in the Black Hills.

The memorial is at Thunderhead Mountain in an area that is sacred to the Plains Indians. The sculpture began in 1948 but is 90 percent incomplete. Only the 87-foot head is finished; the outline of Crazy Horse’s outstretched arm is visible. When completed, the 641-feet-by-563-feet sculpture will be the world’s largest.

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski turned down $10 million in federal assistance to finish the project because he wanted private control over the site, as an educational and cultural memorial. Since his death in 1982, his family has taken over the project.

Deadwood is a historic gambling town where cards are still played and more than 80 businesses have casino-style gaming. Those walking these brick streets feel the Old West. The entire city is a National Historic Landmark.

Among its most famous citizens, now residing at Mt. Moriah Cemetery, are Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. A scout, frontiersman, lawman, gunfighter and gambler, Hickok was shot in the head as he played poker in Saloon No. 10 in downtown Deadwood by Jack McCall. Some say McCall killed Hickok over a card game; others say it was because Hickok killed McCall’s brother.

Jane was also an Indian scout and expert marksman who often passed herself off as man in order to secure work. She was infatuated with Hickok and later told people the two were married, which was never substantiated. It was Calamity Jane’s dying wish in 1903 to be buried next to Wild Bill.

Wall Drug is a city-block long drug store in downtown Wall, about 60 miles east of Sturgis. Wall Drug built its business in the 1930s by giving away ice water.

Ted Hustead graduated pharmacy school in 1929 and purchased the drug store in 1931. In those days, business was bad until Ted’s wife, Dorothy, came up with the idea to put billboards on the highway to lure travelers to the drug store for free water.

The drug store has evolved into a hodge-podge of individual shops, including a restaurant that seats over 500. When patrons pass through the door they are offered a map to guide them. Inside there is a Western clothing store, a toy shop, a Black Hills gold jewelry store, a soda fountain, a leather shop, an outfitters store and more.