We headed into Deadwood after breakfast and to the Back to
76 Museum. The town was started in 1876 during the gold rush. The museum is
devoted to their “back to 76” celebration that seems to be an annual event.
Sounds fun. They have a rodeo and re-enactments of all the notable events, like
the shooting of Wild Bill Hickock outside one of the saloons. In the basement
they had a large collection of wagons and stagecoaches (over 130) that they use
in the parade.
Leaving Deadwood, we drove to Lead (pronounced LEED) to look
at the formerly most productive gold mine in the world. It shut when the bottom
fell out of the gold market after operating for 125 years continuously as a
combo of open cut and shaft mining. The shafts go down to 8000ft. We took pics
of the open cut hole – it’s pretty deep!
Not much else happening in either
Deadwood or Lead, but apparently they come to life after Memorial Day (in May?).
It’s still a bit snowy here.
Leaving Lead we drove about 70ks to the Geographical Centre
of the USA. Nothing actually there (the monument is in the nearest town) but we
stopped and took a pic anyway.
We thought there might be a flagpole or
something, but no…. Given there was stuff all to do…we had lunch on the side of
the road. The plains are flat for as far as the eye can see.
We then made tracks for Rapid City and an RV resort just out
of town and close to Mt Rushmore. Heading there tomorrow!
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