9/3/2011 - Daycation Heading To North Dakota

Midway between Newcastle and Four Corners http://www.ultimatewyoming.com/sectionpages/sec3/extras/cambriasaltmine.html

An old abandoned town seen alongside the highway...

We made it to South Dakota...

The town of Deadwood, South Dakota...

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 set off one of the last great gold rushes in the country. In 1876, miners moved into the northern Black Hills. That’s where they came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold…and Deadwood was born.


Practically overnight, the tiny gold camp boomed into a town that played by its own rules that attracted outlaws, gamblers and gunslingers along with the gold seekers. Wild Bill Hickok was one of those men who came looking for fortune. But just a few short weeks after arriving, he was gunned down while holding a poker hand of aces and eights – forever after known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

Calamity Jane also made a name for herself in these parts and is buried next to Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery. Other legends, like Potato Creek Johnny, Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen, created their legends and legacies in this tiny Black Hills town.

After some quick exploring, we had us a picnic lunch at one of the local downtown parks.  We have got to go back and explore Deadwood a lot more.  What a fascinating place.

Next it was on to Belle Fouche http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Fourche,_South_Dakota

Joe standing at the geographical center of the United States!  In 1959, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey officially designated a point 20 miles north of Belle Fourche as the geographic center of the United States. It is the center of the nation because the admission of Alaska and Hawaii  to the United States moved the location of the official center of the nation.

Then it was onward and upward heading to North Dakota along some of the most monotonous and boring road I've ever been on!