Rushmore Borglum Story- Keystone, South Dakota

Again, I have really enjoyed reading up on Gutzon Borglum recently.

We had to visit the "Rushmore Borglum Story" Museum while we were in Keystone.

They do an audio tour, where you go through and see relics relating to the creator of Mt. Rusmore.  There are some very impressive pieces.

Unfortunately, they do not allow photography in the museum, but you can take pictures inside of the lobby.

Still, it is a great way to see some Borglum pieces up close.

Stone Mountain, 16 Miles from Atlanta

"Stone Mountain is located 16 miles from the city of Atlanta and is the largest body of solid granite in the world.  It is 8,000 feet long, seven miles in circumference and ascent up the sloping side is a mile long.  Is part of the ancient Laurentian Rock, the oldest geological stratum in the world."

I assume this postcard is from the 1910s to early 1920s, as there are no carvings mentioned or shown.

"Gutzon Borglum: The Man Who Carved a Mountain" by Willadene Price

I bought this easy to read book some time ago in Tennessee, and have had it in my "on deck" pile of books to read for some time.  Reading it before our trip to South Dakota seemed like an appropriate thing to do!

"Gutzon Borglum:  The Man Who Carved a Mountain" by Willadene Price was initially put out in the early 60s I believe, and it reminded me of the type of book I would have read in elementary school.  This is the sort of book I probably would have bought in my young years at a school book fair.

It was an easy to read one that clocks in at a little over 200 pages.  It reads like a very nice story of the artist's life.  It covers his two marriages, his children, personal friendships, etc.

I enjoyed reading about the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore rubbing elbows with Presidents and other BIG name artists!

I also enjoyed reading abut his various projects and how they evolved.  He obsessed over many projects, to the point of being very late on delivering them...  and even redoing parts of them when others found them perfect.  Some pieces have been lost.  One statue was melted down by the Nazis for ammunition!

Borglum's name will always be tied to one project that he started and never finished.  He actually destroyed some of his own art relating to it.

Anyway, this was a very nice, easy to read book on the man!

Bear Country USA- Rapid City, South Dakota

Jack and Linda, who we had talked to on our bus trip, highly recommended that we visit Bear Country USA while we were in the Rapid City area.  This was good advice.

We went through and drove around.  There are different animals here and there, roaming around.  You can literally drive right by them.

This was a very exciting drive and we had a lot of fun.  There is some incredible access.  In the bear area, there are a ton of bears all over the place!  There are some great photo ops.

There is an area, at the end of the drive you can actually walk through.  More animals are viewable here in seperate areas.  There were some adorable younger bears that we got to see!

The gift shop is kind of a lodge type place.  There are rocking chairs on the porch, so you can relax a bit after your visit!

Again, this was an unplanned stop and we were really glad that we added it to our trip!

Fort Hayes Dinner Show- South Dakota

After our great, all day long bus tour through the Black Hills, we arrived back at the Fort Hayes starting point for dinner and a show!

This was a very cool bonus to the bus tour.  And, just for the record, you can buy a ticket for the bus tour that does not include the dinner and a show, or you can buy a ticket JUST for the show and a meal.

We had maybe an hour or so to explore the shops and village area again after the bus brought us back.  This was a nice time to stroll around again and check things out one last time.

We did line up to go in for the show.  We were seated at picnic style seats once inside.

We were then able to go through the line for our meal.  They explained that our baked potato would be slapped down (kinda hard) onto our tin plates.  This was to keep it from rolling around.  We also had meat, applesauce, a piece of spice cake, and a roll.

This was not the best meal I have ever had, but it was satisfying, and it did have a cowboy feel, which seemed right for the day's adventure.  The meal was..  efficient but very enjoyable.

After a bit the band came out and started their set.  They did a LOT of songs, and I think I recognized everyone.  They actually did mainly the chorus parts to songs you would know.  There was a lot of classic rock, country, and a few traditional songs.

There were jokes, and even some skits.  Most of the 5 musicians each sang, and they swapped up instruments at times.  This was a fun music show with talented musicians.

The fiddle/violin player really rocked out at one point on some classical songs.  Later in the show, she toyed with doing some more classical tunes.  A band mate immediately shot down each composer she mentioned....  but then she threw out the name Charlie Daniels.  Her band mates instantly went into a great, "Devil Went Down to Georgia" which was appreciated by all.

After the show, you could buy a DVD of a previous show for $20.  AND, they were throwing in another CD of one of the other band members for that price.

I got the DVD which is a really nice souvenir from the show, and I also got Stringbean's (one of the band members) CD- the CD has a very folky experimental gospel feel and I have really been enjoying it.

This was a fun show, and a nice dinner adding to the value of our bus trip experience.

More pictures from our bus tour in South Dakota

We had a great time on the bus, working our way through Custer State Park and the surrounding areas.

We actually met some very interesting people on the ride too!  There was a very sweet solo traveler from West Virginia named Brandy.  She was just friendly to everyone, and was happy to be there.  There was a couple from New Jersey that we talked to a lot named Jack and Linda.  They had been married for 50 years (but they sure didn't look it).  Jack was from Lexington and Linda from Austin Texas!  She and her family had crossed paths with LBJ and one of my favorite hotels, the Driskill!  AND, they were planning to be at the Twin Towers on 9/11 but their plans changed.  I hoped to talk to them more about their great stories, but I wasn't able to.

Anyway, we did see some great critters on the tour, including some bison.

AND, bus driver Reverend Bill kept driving the bus through progressively smaller tunnels on the Needles Highway.

He played it up too.  As we went through the last tunnel, with literally just a couple of inches on either side.....  People were hanging out at the other end to take pictures.

Bill put his hazards on, faked passing out, he fell on the horn (in efforts to fake something bad happening).  Everything was fine though.  As Bill drove out of the tunnel, he put a "Student Driver" sign in his window.  I guess it was a "you had to be there" moment, but it was hysterical.  I laughed so hard I cried.

We had lunch at the State Game Lodge.  I had been pretty excited about this, as it served as the summer White House at different times, for Eisenhower and Coolidge.  We had prepurchased buffet lunch tickets on our trip.  The food was fine, but the Lodge seemed a bit unprepared for our bus tour.  The seating and paying situation was a bit confusing.  Still, it was cool stopping by.  Our visit was brief though, and I ended up not really getting the photos I would have liked to.  Next time in the area, I would want to spend more time here.

Still, this was a great way to see a LOT of the area in a short amount of time.  If I only had a day or two in the area....  this would be the perfect way to get a lot in!

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota

We visited Crazy Horse Memorial again on this trip through South Dakota.  We again had a nice, brief visit as part of our bus tour.

I will say that this is a fun area to hang out for a while.  Last time, we REALLY spent a good amount of time here.  I remember we had a very nice lunch, saw a lot, and talked to a lot of nice people.

We did have time to do a nice, edited visit on this day.

There was a Native American lady doing some traditional dances.  She did a q&a later.  Some asked her about the movie, "Dances with Wolves".  The girl said that when the actors were taught Lakota, they actually taught star Kevin Costner the feminine version of the language, as a bit of a gag.  He was saying things only a female would say.

the dancer also played some modern Native American music, which I Shazamed.  The band she played is Northern Cree, and I have since added some of their music to my ipod.

We later talked to a very sweet lady in the gift shop.  She said she actually moved to the area just to work at the Crazy Horse Memorial.

It was great seeing the Memorial again....  though work is progressing slowly still.

As a side note...  after our last visit, I sent a note to Ruth Ziolkowski telling her how much we enjoyed our visit.  Ruth was married to the Memorials designer Korczak.  She also was leading the work on the monument for years.  She very kindly autographed a could of postcards for me.  I am so honored to have those postcards, as she passed away in 2014.

Custer, South Dakota

On our bus tour, we passed through Custer South Dakota!  It looked really cool and I hope to stop here next time in the state!

Here are a few photos.

Mount Rushmore South Dakota

This was a bit of an edited down visit to Mt. Rushmore, compared to our visit 7 years earlier.  We were at the actual park site for maybe an hour, as we were cramming things into our day long bus trip.  That was actually an appropriate amount of time, as they are working on some of the paths at the park....  and you really can't walk around as much as you usually can.

Still, we made the most of our time....  We went in and got our pictures, went to the visitor centers, etc.

The Fort Hayes people did provide a profession photographer at Mt. Rushmore.  For $20, she took a pic and we got an 8x10 and a 5x7.  She did a great job with the photos, finding the perfect spot and making sure no one was behind us.  Our picture would almost make you think we were the only people at the park!

At the gift shop, we were thrilled to see Nick Clifford- who was a driller on the sculpture!  We saw him last time and bought his signed book.  I bought another copy again this time.  it will be a gift for a friend.  He includes a signed baseball card of him with the book too!  I LOVE when the parks have people with direct links to the parks available!  Unfortunately, Nick passed away shortly after our visit.

After leaving the park, our bus driver, Reverend Bill, said that we had a little extra time so he took us all to see the profile of Washington.  There is a great place to pull over and see POTUS #1's side view.  It was pretty cool!

THEN, Bill started the mostly uphill drive, showing us
 all of the great views of Mt. Rushmore through the tunnels along the way.  We actually got out of the bus and took pictures in the first tunnel.  There was room for us and the cars and motorcycles through.  The tunnels would get MUCH smaller as we drove up the hill though!

Morning Breakfast at Fort Hayes and Mt. Rushmore Tours in Rapid City SD

So......  we bought tickets for the Fort Hayes bus tour through South Dakota.  We actually thought about doing this on our trip through the area in 2012...  but we decided to do our own driving, and explore on our own.

We reconsidered for this trip.  We still wanted to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, but we thought doing it on a bus with a tour company might be a fun experience....  and it was!

So, for just a tad over a hundred bucks each, we spent over 12 hours hanging out with the guys at Fort Hayes and on their bus.

When you add up the fees you would have to pay on your own....  admission fees to Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park....  add in gas, plus breakfast and dinner, plus the cool music at the dinner show...  Well, we were happy with the dollar value of the whole thing!

We arrived at Fort Hayes around 7:30 in the morning.  There is a very nice cowboy breakfast.  You get a tin plate and then you get some food (I had biscuits, gravy and sausage...  my wife had pancakes).  It was VERY cowboyish.  Especially with the black coffee in a tin cup.  It wasn't Cracker Barrel but it was satisfying and good.  We enjoyed it!

Oh, there was a GREAT fellow playing patriotic and other songs on the piano!  He was right out of an old western!

After Breakfast, we explored the shops and things to see at Fort Hayes.  Fort Hayes has a very strong connection to the film, Dances with Wolves.  Props are here, and a building where some major scenes were filmed is here.  It was pretty cool.

We walked around the shops, fake jail, blacksmith, etc.  They had a couple of very cool gift shops.  There was a guy making metal medallions you could buy as souvenirs for $5 (yes, I had to buy one).  Also, you know those fun smashing penny machines at tourist sites?  Well, here they have a more primitive version of that.  You can still buy a smashed penny, BUT you have to buy it from a fellow who feeds the penny in with pliers!  WATCH YOUR FINGERS!

There are some fun photo ops here and there (the previously mentioned fake jail, some buffalo statues, and an old western wooden coffin).

After our breakfast and walking around the western village, announcements were made that the bus would be loading.  We all got ready and started to get on the bus.

Our bus driver, the Reverend Bill Martin (much more on him later) introduced himself and discussed our agenda for the day.  He told jokes, and was an incredible guide.  Again, I will tell more later, but Reverend Bill literally gave me the best laugh I have had in months!

Postcard: Alex Johnson Hotel, Rapid City, South Dakota

This postcard, probably from the 60s, notes on the back-

This fine building is the largest and most modern hotel in the Black Hills Region, serving the many thousands visitors of the world famous Big Bad Lands, and Black Hills, South Dakota.
The hotel is centrally located in the city and many tourists can make their headquarters here for interesting trips to the Bad Lands and in the Black Hills."