Thursday, June 26, 2014 Overnight we had a burst of wind come through and rock the camper. In an instant, it was gone. Later, it rained and woke me up again. Not a rest-filled night, but we woke up to 65 degree temps. Bob poked his head out of the door and declared, “We’re not in the mountains anymore!” The skies were blue and the high today was forecast to be 88. We hung out in the morning, doing some business, and then packed up for a day in Deadwood. The ride from Sturgis to Deadwood is through a beautiful canyon that follows Butte Creek.
It was very scenic as we climbed up and over the hills into Deadwood.
We parked the car at the base of the hill and walked up one side of the street and down the other.
There were many historic old buildings in town. We walked into Saloon Number 10 where Wild Bill Hickok was shot.
Bullock Hotel was an awesome building built in 1805.
This cool saloon had sawdust on the floor and lots of antiques on the walls.
This saddle seat called out my name as I “rode” next to this buffalo.
The Franklin Hotel had a lot of visitors checking it out.
Goldberg’s was the site of the capture of of Jack McCall who shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back.
This is how Deadwood looked in 1876 during the Gold Rush.
This is how it looks today. There is a lot of history here.
The Stockade Saloon had an interesting entrance designed with wagon wheels. The saloon had live music.
I got Bob to try one of those chairs out front–his choice. Ha!
Three old signs are represented here—Wild Bill’s Bar, The 1876 Theater, and the Nugget Saloon.
We decided to have lunch at the Silverado Franklin Buffet—advertised as “the best buffet in town”.
It was good and fairly inexpensive , but we ate too much! We won’t need to eat dinner tonight! We relaxed there until 1:15 when we left to go to the Four Aces to see the Calamity Jane Show, where she talks about her life (an autobiographical presentation).
Following that, Main Street was blocked off for the re-enactment of the Varnes/Storms Shootout.
After the show, Bob asked Calamity Jane to stand with him for a picture and she agreed.
She was quite a character and told me I could borrow her gun if Bob got outta line. I’ll keep that in mind! HA! Before heading back to the car, I stopped to have my picture taken with Wild Bill Hickok. This statue was sculpted by the son and daughter of the men who sculpted Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.
From there, we drove up to Mt. Moriah Cemetery–historic “Boot Hill”. It was up at the top of the steepest hill we’ve ever driven on….even in San Francisco!
Here we found the final resting places of Deadwood’s most famous residents—Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Calamity Jane’s last request was to be buried next to Wild Bill and she was.
Some people left little trinkets as remembrances at the Hickok gravesite–bullets, dice, a deck of cards, and coins.
From the top of Boot Hill, you could see the town. It was a very steep drive and then climb to the top.
We made a stop in Sturgis for groceries, since we wouldn’t be near a decent grocery store for the next ten days. We could see this storm approaching from the parking lot. It looked pretty ominous.
We had lightning and thunder on the drive back, but no rain. Later, we had a severe thunderstorm warning that was going to last until Friday. It seems to be a common occurance around here. We took it easy for the rest of the night, but the storm front arrived at 7:30. I was walking Auggie and the sky looked pretty scary. Bob yelled for us to return to the camper. He was watching the radar and it looked nasty.
The strong gusty winds shook the trailer. The lightning, thunder, and rain arrived, but by then the storm was starting to fall apart. The worst was past us…or was it? Tomorrow we’re on the road again. Our destination—Devil’s Tower!
