I am writing this at midnight from a hotel room in Spokane Washington. Everyone else is alseep, including the dogs, Ramya the pom on the bed, and Lance the ever loyal German Shepherd at my feet.
I'll get to today, well, yesterday, um tomorrow.. But here was yesterday yesterday, or our day in Deadwood.
Deadwood of course, gained infamy as the town where Wild Bill Hickock was shot, Calamity Jane raised caine, and madames ruled the west. It was a gold mining town, a mile away from Lead, where Homestake mine still sits. It has shafts up to 8000 feet deep! There it's 137 degrees. Hopefully they have Slurpee Machines!
Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, buried next to each other.
We started out after a not so restful nights sleep (hotel mixup, a big thunderstorm), by a trip to Walmart (always get a hotel room next to Walmart) and then off to town. We started with a tour of the cemetery and old buildings in Deadwood. We learned all sorts of things, like that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, only met once, no great love affair there. We also learned the last brothel was shut down in Deadwood in 1980. Yup. 1980. For tax evasion.
The last brothel was the blue building - look closely, there are still some girls inside!
After that, it was time for lunch at Diamond Lil's which is in a building Kevin Costner redid. You eat surrounded by his movie artifacts, and the service is great, food is fairly good too.
Then we headed up the road to Tatanka. A museum which shows the Native American's relationship with the bison. There are bronze sculptures out back, which Costner commissioned by Peggy Detmers, a South Dakota native artist. Absolutely gorgeous, and well done.
Bronze sculptures - these were gorgeous!
More bronze
Tatanka
After ice cream, we headed up the road to Mad Man's 4 wheeler rental. Which happens to be owned by my cousins. We had a great time visiting, and the kids and dogs ran all over. There was also some 4 wheeling action. Totally cool :). It was great to see everyone, and a lovely visit complete with awesome pizza from Mad Man's pizza (also family owned of course!)
Devin "Maximum acceleration!
Quote of the day: "I put it at maximum acceleration" (Devin who figured out how to work the throttle despite an adult's hands blocking it while he 'drove') and: "hello, I need to rent a 4 wheeler and a driver please" yelled into the empty rental building by guess who?
I'll get to today, well, yesterday, um tomorrow.. But here was yesterday yesterday, or our day in Deadwood.
Deadwood of course, gained infamy as the town where Wild Bill Hickock was shot, Calamity Jane raised caine, and madames ruled the west. It was a gold mining town, a mile away from Lead, where Homestake mine still sits. It has shafts up to 8000 feet deep! There it's 137 degrees. Hopefully they have Slurpee Machines!
Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, buried next to each other.
We started out after a not so restful nights sleep (hotel mixup, a big thunderstorm), by a trip to Walmart (always get a hotel room next to Walmart) and then off to town. We started with a tour of the cemetery and old buildings in Deadwood. We learned all sorts of things, like that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, only met once, no great love affair there. We also learned the last brothel was shut down in Deadwood in 1980. Yup. 1980. For tax evasion.
The last brothel was the blue building - look closely, there are still some girls inside!
After that, it was time for lunch at Diamond Lil's which is in a building Kevin Costner redid. You eat surrounded by his movie artifacts, and the service is great, food is fairly good too.
Then we headed up the road to Tatanka. A museum which shows the Native American's relationship with the bison. There are bronze sculptures out back, which Costner commissioned by Peggy Detmers, a South Dakota native artist. Absolutely gorgeous, and well done.
Bronze sculptures - these were gorgeous!
More bronze
Tatanka
After ice cream, we headed up the road to Mad Man's 4 wheeler rental. Which happens to be owned by my cousins. We had a great time visiting, and the kids and dogs ran all over. There was also some 4 wheeling action. Totally cool :). It was great to see everyone, and a lovely visit complete with awesome pizza from Mad Man's pizza (also family owned of course!)
Devin "Maximum acceleration!
Quote of the day: "I put it at maximum acceleration" (Devin who figured out how to work the throttle despite an adult's hands blocking it while he 'drove') and: "hello, I need to rent a 4 wheeler and a driver please" yelled into the empty rental building by guess who?
Thank you for your kind remarks of the sculptures I created.
ReplyDeletePeggy Detmers
Thank you for sharing your art in such a beautiful meaningful way! We hope to get back to Tatanka and spend more time there :)
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