For those who've been following my mid west America trip, in my last post I mentioned it was at freezing point at night. I really wasn't lying, when I woke up the next morning, snow had covered everywhere as we drove to the Black Hills. This is a mountain range that straddles South Dakota and our next destination state - Wyoming.
Deadwood
A couple hours later we arrived at our first stop Deadwood. Our vehicle was covered in snow from our journey. Compared to the local vehicles it looked like we had come from another country.
Deadwood is a cowboy town in the Black Hills. When it was founded in 1876 it was a notorious lawless thriving gold rush city. Murder, prostitution, gambling other sleazy business.. a truly wild west city. Many either lost their lives or made crazy riches. After the gold rush finished, the town went downhill. In 1988, gambling was legalised here (the third in America after Nevada and Atlantic City) and gambling tax was used to preserve and regenerate the city to turn itself into a tourist location. The casinos here are nowhere on the scale like Las Vegas. I went into a couple, it was mainly slot machines, nothing too exciting, but then I went on Friday morning, not sure how much difference weekend evenings will make tbh.
Adam Museum
With such a rich history, there are various museums in Deadwood for visitors to learn more about the town's history. There's even a prostitution museum located inside a centuty old brothel that sounded very interesting. But $15 entrance to see a few rooms sounded a little steep, plus I didn't think it was appropriate for little girls like Snowpea. I went to the Adams Museum instead. That provided a good all rounded history about Deadwood.
In the wild west world, exaggerated claims or fake news as we would call it today, was common in the Black Hills. I found some if these claims so amusing. I guess during the gold rush where you can quite easily find gold, you'd believe any news no matter how absurd it may sound. It sounds like the crypto world, when some things are just too good to be true.
In as far back as 1893, a professor Orlando Ferguson, "inspired by a phrase in the opening sentence of Revelations 7: “four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds” source stated that the world is square and stationery and did many talks to spread his theory. I wonder what the flatliners would have to say about this 🤔😁
Devils Tower
In the afternoon we crossed the state border to Wyoming and stopped at Devils Tower. This gigantic geological structure is over 5000ft above sea level and can be seen miles away even before we were near it. It is believed to have formed some 50 million years ago, but there are different theories on how. If you're interested to read more about it, this is a very good link.
Devils Tower is the first US National Monument created by President Roosevelt in 1906. It's 867 ft tall from base to summit and has many hexagon columns on the surface. This makes it very tempting for climbers and each year hundreds attempt the climb that takes around 6 to 8 hours. In fact when I was there, I saw two climbers. They were so tiny in comparison to Devils Tower.
The butte is so massive that you really can't appreciate it's size until you're standing at the base. Human vs nature, nature wins again.
