Vacation Day 6 (Spearfish, SD to Mount Rushmore, SD)

Sunday (July 28) Trip Day 6 (Spearfish, SD to Mount Rushmore, SD) – Today being Sunday we started the day out by going to church at the nearest LDS congregation we could find – in Belle Fourche – as they had a 9 AM sacrament meeting.  We got there 5 minutes early and there were about 10 people there but they operate on MST (Mormon Standard Time) and by 10 minutes into the meeting there were maybe 60 there.  This being a small town I wasn't surprised by the small congregation.  We didn't see it but there is a monument in Belle Fourche commemorating the fact that it is the geographic center of the 50 States.   We went back to the motel in Spearfish to change.  By the way – first time I have ever found a Tornado Warning plan in a motel/hotel book in your room.  I guess this IS tornado country.  
Bear carving in front of our motel in Spearfish.

 We drove the 10 or so miles south to Deadwood and Lead – old mining towns in the Black Hills. Since it was Sunday some of the things I would have liked to do were closed.  We also apparently missed a couple of attractions too.  So we ended up in Lead at the Homestake Mine Visitor’s Center.   The mine does go down to 8000 feet  below the surface but at the surface it resembles an open pit mine like the Bingham one in Salt Lake.  Since my grandfather was a gold miner I wanted to see what I could learn.  The weather was threatening thunder and lightning but we only got a few big drops in town. 
 This is the open pit part of the mine.  Lead (the community) had to be moved when the started this open pit.

 We next went down the street to the Black Hills Mining Museum where I did learn a lot.  We took a tour into a replica of a mine and had a chance to see gold mining from the 1870’s to near the present explained and shown through exhibits.  It was very well done.  The museum part of the building was good with many historical artifacts. 
 

This is the dress of a typical miner before the turn of the century.  No hard hat for him!  Everything was done by candle power so the hat had a device to place a candle on to illuminate things.  We he got to his work area the candle was place in the holder driven into the rock - above his head.

 Everything was done by one man power.  Here the miner is boring out a hole to place dynamite in to blast out the rock.

 Each hole would have a stick of dynamite and the fuses would be set to different lengths so they would go off in a pattern - with the center first and then the outside area.  I doubt my grandfather made all these - probably just a few at a time.  He died in a mine blast when he had to go back into the mine after a set of these charges didn't all go off.  His job as foreman was to "muck" out the unexploded charge - but it blew up when he was right next to it - killing him immediately.

 After the charges loosened the rock the miners would fill up their buckets with the debris - which would be processed for gold.  A typical bucket could hold a ton of rock.  Miners were expected to fill at least 16 per shift - hence the 16 Tons song.

 Placer miners did their work with a pan or other device working the loose sands.  Barbara tried this out at the museum and did quite well - she panned over 10 grains from her pan.  I am thinking of shipping her to Alaska with a pan next summer to augment our income with some prospecting!  (Joking)

We then drove south through the beautiful Black Hills, through off and on rain showers to Mount Rushmore.  We are actually staying in Keystone – two miles from the monument.  After a nice dinner in town we drove back to Mount Rushmore.  It is free to everyone but to get in you need to park your car – and it is $11(for a year pass).  The local Indians have the concession so you have to pay your money.  What can I say – sixty foot tall heads carved into granite over the period of 17 years..  Spectacular is a good word to describe it.  We stayed for the night lighting of the monument but I wasn’t able to figure out the right setting for my camera – but the day time pictures are better in my estimation anyway.

This evening picture is OK but not as crisp as a daytime one would be - I'll try tomorrow.