View from Inside Spearfish Canyon Lodge

One of Deadwood's Local Miscreants

Deadwood, SD: Another beautiful morning. Washed out a couple of tops and hung them out to dry. Made some smoothies. We leave today for Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Should be a fairly easy 100 mile drive. We’re at the campground in the national park for 2 nights—no hook-ups. We plan to hike around the base of the tower. Hope the weather holds.

Spearfish Canyon

Spearfish Canyon Lodge

Bridal Veil Falls

Deadwood, SD: A beautiful morning—sunny and warm. We had breakfast at the Iron Horse Inn in Deadwood and then headed out to drive the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. This was the most spectacular drive. The road followed Spearfish Creek at the bottom (thank God) of this beautiful canyon with spectacular granite bluffs on both sides of the road. Passed some spectacular log homes on this road right on the creek. Stopped at Roughlock Falls and took some pictures. Also at Bridal Veil Falls. The town of Spearfish is really nice—not as much history and character as Deadwood, but would be a great place to live—at least in the summer. In fact Kevin Costner’s parents bought a home and retired here. We had originally planned on making a loop by taking the highway back to Deadwood, but it was such a spectacular drive we decided to go back through the canyon again. We stopped for something to eat at the Spearfish Chop House and Whiskey Bar and then continued on. About halfway back we took a dirt road that went up a beautiful side canyon, which is where they filmed the last scene in “Dances With Wolves”. Also stopped at the Spearfish Lodge which is a huge log structure in the middle of the canyon with spectacular views. Reminded me of some of the huge lodges in some of the national parks and also in the Adirondacks. Finished the drive and then stopped back in Deadwood for some more slots. Mike did well again. Me not so good. Had pizza at the Ugly Horse Pub and then back to the campground. It hit 86 degrees today. That’s more like it!

Wild Bill's Gravesite

20s or 30s Era Filling Station

Deadwood, SD: Back into Deadwood this morning. Had breakfast at the Iron Horse and then checked out the Adams Museum. After that we went from one casino to another and gambled away. I lost some. Mike was up about $40. Not too bad. Back to Costner’s place for a late lunch. On the third floor of his place is a fine dine restaurant—Jake’s. We went up there to check it out before we left. A beautiful, really fancy dining room with a huge skylight and a great view of Main Street Deadwood Started out sunny and clear this morning but most of the afternoon it was cloudy and cool. Stayed in the casinos most of the time anyway.

Old ad on an old building...

Deadwood Courthouse

Kevin Costner's Place--Diamond Lil's

Thu, 6/19:

Deadwood, SD: At about 3:00 a.m. we had another thunder storm with hail. Some of the thunder is quite impressive as it bounces off all the mountains and canyons. And when the sun came up it was a clear, sunny day. At least for a while. We had a fire last night but Mike had a hard time with it because the wood had gotten wet. The girl from the site across from us was out walking their puppy with her two kids and they stopped by for a while. After the fire we played rummy and then read for a while. I’m reading “Brother Odd” by Dean Koontz and Mike is reading the “Water for Elephants” book. We left our campground in the Black Hills at around 11:00 and arrived in Deadwood at about 12:00 noon. We’re at a KOA with water, electric, sewer, cable, and wi-fi for only about $33 a night. And we have a great site.

After we got set up we headed into Deadwood. The whole town is on the list of historic places. And of course there are a lot of casinos now. But when they came in they did a wonderful job of restoring these old buildings. And because of the casinos they were able to invest $6 million in the historic cemetery. It must have been in pretty bad shape. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are both buried there. Wild Bill was shot in the back of the head while playing poker in the #10 saloon. He was holding all black aces and eights—called the dead man’s hand to this day. I didn’t realize that the gold mine here was the biggest in North America and second biggest in the world. The shaft goes down 8900 feet! And to get all the equipment down there they had to disassemble it and take it down the shaft and then weld it together at the bottom. In the 1980s they closed down the mine because the price of gold at that time was less than it cost to take it out of the ground. The EPA made them disassemble all the equipment and take it out. Cost around $100 million. It’s still closed and there’s still a lot of gold down there.

We went on a little tour of the area and then went to Kevin Costner’s place—Diamond Lil’s—for dinner. What a nice place this is. The whole casino and restaurant are filled with costumes from all his movies and pictures depicting some scenes from the various movies. Played some slots. Then back to the campground. Will probably watch TV until we’re comatose.