In western
Montana, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument memorializes one of the
last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral
way of life.
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| White markers are where a 7th Cavalry member fell - GA Custer is on right closest to us |
Here in the valley of the Little Bighorn River on two hot June
days in 1876, more than 260 soldiers and attached personnel of the US Army, met
defeat and death at the hands of more than two thousand Lakota and Cheyenne Warriors.
Among the dead were Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and every member of his
immediate command.
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| "Last Stand" Hill |
The Indians lost
about 100, (warriors, women and children). Although the Indians won the battle,
they were never going to win the war against 30 million Americans and a
Government that broke every treaty when it suited them.
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| In recent times a number of markers have been erected to mark the Indian dead |
With the buffalo gone,(which
they relied on for everything), almost all Indians were on reservations within
the year.
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| Indian memorial |
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| Indian memorial detail |
Devil’s
Tower is sacred to the Indians of the area and the tribes have legends
explaining the site. One tells of two Sioux boys, far from their village, who
were chased by a giant bear with claws as big as teepee poles. Wakan Tanka, the
creator, helped them rise up onto the rock. The bear tried to get them from
every side leaving the huge scratch marks that we see today.
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| Devil's Tower |
Scientists
originally thought it was the core of an ancient volcano but recent data
suggests it is instead an igneous intrusion, left after surrounding soils
eroded and it is now over 1200 feet above surrounding terrain.
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| G&J at Devil's Tower |
Nearby Belle
Fourche claims to be the geographical centre of USA- that’s including Hawaii
and Alaska.
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| Geographic "centre" of the USA |
Mt Rushmore
has to be the main tourist drawcard to the Black Hills of Nth Dakota. The
Americans draw inspiration from these patriotic symbols and many come for a
week’s holiday to the area.
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| Mt Rushmore avenue of flags |
Between 1927 and 1941 Gutzon Borglum and 400
workers, sculptured the faces of US presidents, George Washington (first
president, “father of the country” and the War of Independence from England),
Thomas Jefferson (drafted the Declaration of Independence, giving the nation a
plan for sovereignty and freedom),
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| Mt Rushmore detail - note Roosevelt's spectacles |
Theodore Roosevelt (Conservationist and
Statesman, realised Columbus’ dream of linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans
– Panama Canal) and Abraham Lincoln (emancipationist, Civil War leader and preserver of the Union),
representing the first 150 years of
democracy that is America.
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| Mt Rushmore |
It was spectacular and the visitors’ centre and
museum was well presented and interesting.
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| The sculptor's model |
To fill in the rest of the tourists’
week here, is every conceivable ride, chair lift, museum, theme park or show, to
entertain and part you from your money. There are also many horse trail rides
throughout the area and lots of ranches and stables for accommodation. It must
be a fun way to see the National Park riding through the forests and
grasslands.
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| The brown areas is damage caused by the pine beetle |
Oglala Sioux
Chief, Standing Bear approached renowned sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, asking
him to consider carving a giant sculpture dedicated to the American Indian
saying, “we would like the white man to know, the red man has great heroes
also”.
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| Crazy Horse Indian memorial |
Ziolkowski loved the challenge and was inspired to dedicate the rest of
his life to the creation.
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| Crazy Horse model |
The Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, who was born in the
Black Hills and is partially credited with Custer’s sensational defeat at the
Battle of the Bighorn, was chosen.
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| Future work to be done |
There was no known likeness of him so the
sculpture was modelled on memories of five elders who were at the battle. When
Ziolkowski died his family continue to oversee the building of the memorial
which is funded solely by private donations and admission fees.
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| A great Ziolkowski sculpture |
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| Some great "crazy horses" at Crazy Horse |
Wind Cave
National Park has over 135 miles of explored caverns in the Black Hills (they’re
more than hills at 6000ft!) It is a dry cave site with passageways of boxwork
(looks a bit like large uneven honeycomb), and popcorn crystals.
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| Wind Cave National Park |
The very
strong wind was the reason the cave was first discovered at the natural small
entrance. The tour starts with a 50 metre trip down an elevator and a walk
through caves on paths and stairs.
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| A fool on a rock |
Nearby we shared the quiet, grassy,
peaceful, National Park campground with about a dozen others and saw prong horned antelope, squeaking prairie dogs and bison.
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| More buffalo (bison) |
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| Prong horned antelope |
Just south
was Hot Springs, which is the fascinating ice-age mammoth site. In 1974 a bulldozer driver was preparing a
site for a new development when he unearthed some tusks.
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| Mammoth site on-going dig |
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| A palaeontologist at work |
It was the site of a
spring–fed sinkhole over 26,000 years old. The palaeontologists have found more
than 120 tusks and skeletons of Columbian and Woolly mammoths, believed to have
fallen in when the gravel edges gave way under their weight.
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| Wooly mammoth for dinner with a Columbian mammoth in the background |
The defined dig
site has left most of the bones (in situ) as found, and is housed inside a huge
building. Many other extinct animal skeletons have been found here too. A
palaeontologists dream!!!
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| A great covered site |
Sturgis is a
quiet little town (about 7000 population) on the north side of the Black Hills
that is until August, when hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists arrive for
the world famous rally. And when did we land there? Towards the end of that
week!
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| Sturgis Week bikers |
We couldn’t believe how many bikes were on every road we travelled in the
area – all well behaved, but very few with helmets.
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| Bikes everywhere during Sturgis Week |
The first
Sturgis rally known as the Black Hills Classic was held on 14th August 1938.
There have been many changes over the years and this year celebrating the 73rd
Rally over ten days with over 500,000 in attendance and NO vacancies at any RV
park.
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| Part of the crowd at last year's rally |
So we drove to Rapid City and found a site at Keystone, closer to Mt
Rushmore.
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| Road to Deadwood |
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| Bikers on the road after a hail storm |
We returned
to Sturgis five days later and hardly a motorcycle in sight with most of the
vendors packing up or gone.
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| Sturgis the week after the rally |
The numerous RV Parks were almost empty and we
found one for $25. We asked how much they charged last week -
$150 a night – neat little taking for a week with 200 sites.
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| Sturgis RV Park as it is 50 weeks of the year - nice and quiet |
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| Thunderstorms ahead |
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| South Dakota valley |
So now we
have the big trip of 900 miles to Chicago across the flat fertile lands of South
Dakota, Minnesota Iowa and Illinois.
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| Wouldn't like to meet this guy on a narrow road |
We think there must be at least as many corn
plants here, as there are pine trees in Canada – well maybe! The fields were
huge and with some occasional variety such as sorghum, corn, soy beans, corn, sunflowers,
corn, cattle corn and more corn!
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| Soy beans |
Billboards
from 50 miles before had suggested everyone should visit Wall Drug Store –
supposed to be the world’s biggest.
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| Wall Drug - largest in the world |
So we did. It was just another tourist trap
with all types of stores selling souvenirs, jewellery cowboy gear and T shirts
etc. We did however enjoy a Lakota Sioux presentation and were aghast and
saddened by the Wounded Knee Massacre Museum.
We had refreshingly
cool weather for August crossing the Interstate through South Dakota. We still
wore shorts and didn’t complain when we were told last year was very hot and
dry.
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| Heading into rain and hail |
The
elevation dropped from the Black Hills which were about 6000 ft to Rapid City
3500ft and we continued east down to 1600 feet when we crossed the Missouri at
Chamberlain.
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| Bridge over the Missouri |
We’ve had a bit of a fascination with the Lewis and Clark’s two
year expedition having been to many places with references to them.
President
Jefferson’s theory was that the 3000ft mountains on the east side of the
continent had to be balanced by similar mountains in the west. – well he got
that wrong, but sent them on their way out of St Louis in 1804 with
instructions to find the source of this great river and a route to the Pacific
Ocean. The info centre had a really interesting exhibit about both the
stopovers here in 1804 and 1806.
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| Corn dolly |
Now
travelling SE across Iowa we just so happened to be there when the Iowa State
Fair was on in Des Moines (the state capital). So we camped about 20 miles from
the city and headed to the fairground in the morning.
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| Good healthy tucker at the Iowa State Fair |
It was a warm sunny day
and we had a great time. The exhibits were very similar to The Royal Easter
Show in Sydney with the showing of animals, horses, cattle hogs and sheep,
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| Suffolk sheep judging |
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| The full beauty treatment |
and
displays of crafts, (sewing, knitting, patchwork etc.), paintings, photography
and woodwork. One popular craft was doll house making – just exquisite.
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| Beautiful doll's house |
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| Champion quilt |
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| Ribbon embroidery |
In the cake
making one of the kid’s sections was the “ugliest” cake, with lots of entries.
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| Road kill skunk |
Sample bags,
ring events and wood chopping weren’t on the agenda but there were plenty of
rides and people trying to sell you jacuzzis, vacuum cleaners and Tupperware.
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| Packed pavilion |
The Mississippi is the border between Iowa and Illinois and just west of the river is a huge truck stop, in fact the biggest in the world, and the Interstate 80 Trucking Museum was in this huge shed.
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| Iowa 80 Trucking Museum |
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| The mail must get through |
We thought it was well presented and had amazing trucks of all sorts, many beautifully restored.
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| Some great old trucks |
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| Some great even older trucks |
About 40
miles from Chicago we had arranged to meet up in the camp with another Aussie couple
who were traveling in the opposite direction.
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| Brian, Tamayo, Jen and Garry at Joliet, Chicago |
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| 5th wheeler towing a boat - might be difficult to back? |
From the camp we were able to
catch a train for a day in Chicago. We visited Oak Park and did a tour of the
architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home and studio.
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| Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio |
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| Frank Lloyd Wright home library |
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| Lead light window details |
On the way back to the
station we saw two other homes he’d designed and were also able to go into the
Unity Temple.
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| Unity Temple Oak Park |
In 1905 the original church was struck by lightning and burned to
the ground. Eight architects submitted plans for a new church and meeting hall,
and Wright’s plan was selected. He used reinforced concrete slabs and was one
of the first to build with “poured in place” concrete.
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| Unity Temple interior |
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| Unity Temple detail |
The congregation desired
no overt religious symbols and had a limited budget. Wright’s plan expressed
the powerful simplicity of an ancient temple and so it was named a temple
rather than a church.
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| Unity Temple meeting hall |
Sitting in the pews you could see so many of his
traditional themes: earth colours and wood; light through windows and skylights
with geometric patterns in the glasswork; symmetry in the doorways; simple
elegant lights and a feeling of open space.
We really enjoyed being there.
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| Oak Park houses |
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| Not a German village - Oak Park main street |
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| Drive up banking |
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| The freight trains go on forever |
So
back into the city to see Cloud Gate (nicknamed the "Bean") – a large polished steel
sculpture in Millennium Park, very cleverly reflecting the city.
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| Cloud Gate - The "bean" |
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| A beautiful smooth polished surface - couldn't find any joins |
It was based
on a drop of mercury by the Indian born British sculptor, Anish Kapoor.
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| City park sound shell |
We have a
couple of quiet days to catch up, do the washing and pack a bag, as we are
joining five other Rotarians from Canberra, Berry and Cooma this Friday and
spending the next fortnight meeting Rotarians from three other clubs of
Northern Indiana as part of a Rotary Friendship Exchange. We will be billeted
and they have a busy agenda planned.
We have
decided to sell the RV so will think about advertising and hopefully sell it
before we leave mid October. Not sure when the next newsletter will get done.
