Bix in the Black Hills

Bix enjoyed his stay in the Black Hills too.

The Crazy Horse Memorial

Just 8 miles from Mt. Rushmore, another monumental sculpture, The Crazy Horse Memorial, is taking shape. Designed and started in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziółkowski, the statue of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior riding a horse, will be the largest in the world when (or if) it is finished.

The face was finished in 1998, but the sculpture is a long way from being finished.

Ziółkowski died in 1982. The work is now being supervised by his wife Ruth. Jill took this picture of Ruth (in blue) in the visitor center’s restaurant.

Glenn and Ziółkowski’s first air compressor. Ziółkowski referred to it as the “Buda” but the compressor was actually made by Gardner Denver, a company still making air compressors. The engine was made by the Buda Engine Co.

The compressor was many years old when Ziółkowski acquired it. Stories were told about the engine stopping after Ziółkowski had climbed up the mountain only to have to climb back down to restart it.

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

The initial view of the Mt. Rushmore Memorial from the parking garage was impressive.

Ok, well maybe not that impressive

The actual memorial was more impressive.

Custer State Park

Located in the Black Hills, Custer State Park is South Dakota’s largest and first state park. The Black Hills are an isolated area of mountains, not part of the main body of the Rocky Mountains. It is a very pretty area of small mountains and trees, surrounded by the plains.

The Black Hills really are black.

Well, not all of the rocks are black.

The park’s “Begging Burros” are not native to the area but are descendents of animals brought here in the 1920s.

Sylvan Lake

This is one of several tunnels along the Iron Mountain Road that were built to line up with Mt. Rushmore.

The French Creek Natural Area was an area within the park accessible only by driving over 10 miles of single-lane, unpaved roads.

Custer State Park is home to a herd of 1500 free roaming bison. Here are a few of them.

Some bison keep to themselves and did not hang with the herd.

This animal is sometimes called a pronghorn antelope. But they are not antelopes. Their scientific name is "antilocapra americana." But you can just call them pronghorn.

This guy is a “Least Chipmunk,” smallest member of the chipmunk genus.

Custer, South Dakota

Only about 100 miles west of the Badlands are South Dakota’s Black Hills. We stayed in the town of Custer, just west of Custer State Park.

The town and the park are both named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer who camped here in 1874, just two years before his run-in with Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Bison can be seen all over the town.

KILI Radio 90.1 FM

100 KW, KILI “The Voice of the Lakota Nation -- on top of the mesa -- in Porcupine, South Dakota.” On the air since 1983, it claims to be "the very first Indian-controlled, Indian-owned and Indian-run radio station in the U.S." Now wind-powered.

Wounded Knee, South Dakota

The Wounded Knee Massacre was not one of the great moments in U.S. history. On December 29, 1890 500 U.S. Army cavalry troops had surrounded an encampment of Lakota (Sioux) Indians. They were the last Indians still at war with the U.S., but had finally agreed to stop fighting. During their disarmament, confusion with a deaf tribesman lead to chaos and mayhem.

When it was all over, about 300 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed. 25 US troops were dead, some probably killed by “friendly fire.” 150 Indians were thought to have fled, but many of them later died of hypothermia.

Inexplicably, the United States Army awarded the massacre’s participants the most “Medals of Honor” that have ever been awarded in a single engagement.

The bodies were unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave. Not until 1903 was a monument placed on the site by surviving relatives. The site, located in the “Pine Ridge Indian Reservation” (not a name used much by its residents) in southern South Dakota, has been declared a National Historic Landmark.

Though it is the eighth-largest reservation in the United States, larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, most of the land comprising the reservation lies within Shannon County and Jackson County, two of the poorest counties in the United States.

Badlands National Park

They might call them the Badlands, but they sure looked good to us.

From "Sheep Mountain Table." We drove many miles up a dirt road to get here.

The 'Yellow Mounds."

A resident of "Roberts Prarie Dog Town."

A visitor from Atlanta!

While we were in Madison, Glenn got an email from Colin, one of his former employees in Atlanta, that he would be in Sioux Falls for business., So we drove the 50 miles down to the Sioux Falls airport to meet him up with him.

Jill got this great picture of the plane he flew in on (a 50-seat Bombardier Canadair CRJ-200ER), but we were so busy eating and talking that we forgot to get a picture of the three of us at dinner.

So instead, here’s a picture of Colin. It was taken during the 2003 IBC in Amsterdam. He’s sitting outside the Leidseplein Theater, home of Boom Chicago.

As falls Sue, so falls Sioux Falls

There really are falls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They’re the “Falls of the Big Sioux River” and they have been the focus of the area since long before white men settled in the region.

The falls were a source of power and the area was more industrial than scenic. By the 1970s the area was pretty run down and in need of more than just a face lift. It was redeveloped into Falls Park.

The 1908 Sioux Falls Light and Power Company hydroelectric plant is now a cafe.

And the remains of the Queen Bee Mill, closed in 1883, and destroyed by a fire in 1956 have been preserved. During the summer there is a nightly sound and light show.

EROS

EROS is the Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science. Located 14 miles northeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, it is the nation’s archive of all “remotely sensed” imagery of the earth’s surface including civilian satellite, aircraft and now even declassified military imagery.

The entire staff was in the weekly Thursday meeting, so the control room was empty.

Glenn with a “Landsat” satellite.

At EROS, photography was allowed inside but not outside.

The Madison Public Library

The Madison Public Library was originally built in 1906. It was one of over 2,500 “Carnegie Libraries” that were built worldwide between 1883 and 1929 including 1,689 in the United States.

It has since been enlarged, but the addition was very nicely done and in no way detracts from the building’s original appearance. While we were there, Jill and Glenn both got library cards.

Lake Herman State Park

Although we had been to Madison before, our coach had not.

We stayed at Lake Herman State Park just west of town.

Although the place was completely booked up for the weekend and we had to leave on Friday, during the week we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Glenn had a great evening of ham radio operations here. He hade a "pile-up" and worked 25 contacts in a little over an hour. Most of these were folks who needed a contact in South Dakota for their "Worked All States" Award.

These "prairie skyscrapers" are located just west of town between the town and the park. They are fairly new and they are very big.

Home to Madison, South Dakota

At Life on Wheels, we attended a seminar on choosing a home base state. South Dakota was the top choice and we met a couple who recommended My Dakota Address in Madison as a forwarding agent. We used them to register our coach in South Dakota. But we had to appear in person to get drivers' licenses and to register to vote.

Originally, we had wanted to drive the coach to Madison. But with winter coming, and because October 20 was the last day to register to vote in the presidential election, we realized we had run out of time. So on Monday, October 13, we flew to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and drove the 50 miles to our adopted hometown.

Madison is a wonderful little town with a population of 6,540 (in the 2000 census) and a thriving main street. It is the home of Dakota State University, which was founded in 1881 as the first teachers' college in the Dakota Territory. Today it continues that proud tradition, and is also renowned for its leading edge computer/information systems degrees, and several other disciplines. There is a large ethanol plant east of Madison, and a huge grain elevator on the west side of town. The surrounding area is mostly agricultural.

There are many glacial lakes in the Madison area, providing great natural beauty and abundant recreational opportunities. Madison is located in the eastern prairie lands of South Dakota, with which you are already familiar if you have seen "Little House on the Prairie" or "Dances With Wolves." Mount Rushmore, and the stunning "Badlands," are located in the western half of the state, and we look forward to visiting those areas the next time we go home.

Dakota State University

110 East Center Street

Looking south on Egan Avenue, the main street.

Lake County Court House

We registered to vote at the Lake County Court House on Tuesday and were able to vote on Wednesday. Glenn joined the local VFW Post and Jill joined the VFW Auxiliary. We put some money in a local bank and got a lawyer to prepare South Dakota wills for us.

Everyone we met welcomed us and made us feel right at home. But our concerns about winter were not without cause – Tuesday night eastern South Dakota (“East River”) experienced the first hard freeze of the season.

Halloween is coming!

Lake County is mostly agricultural.



Less than five miles outside of town!

Moon over Lake Madison.