Jeremiah Murphy captured these photos from the 2011 He Sapa Wacipi na Oskate (Black Hills Pow wow) in Rapid City held October 7-9. The wacipi also featured the Miss He Sapa Win contest, hand game, style show, archery contest, art show and Healing Conference. The Youth Day Symposium was held on Friday and featured musician Jackie Bird, hip-hop performer Andrew Orozco, and live art performer Bunky Echo-Hawk. View more of Murphy’s photos at Tumblr.
Lisa Duncan shared these photos of fall foliage throughout the Black Hills. You can see more of her photos at lisaduncan.smugmug.com.
The seven prehistoric creatures at Dinosaur Park have stood above the Rapid City skyline since 1936, but even the meat-eating Tyrannosaurus rex hasn’t caused a lick of trouble.
Rapid Citians are accustomed to them, but one grouchy tourist showed up, took a look, and grumbled,”They’re fakes!” Thank goodness for that, because if they were real, we’d have to build a very tall fence.
Kids are delighted by these sturdy concrete and steel fakes, which were designed by Emmett Sullivan as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Nobody cares if you climb on the back of the stegosaurus or balance on the tail of the Apatosaurus.
The Rapid City dinosaurs were concrete gray until 1960, when they were painted green with white bellies. Last Saturday, Circulation Director Jana Lane visited Dinosaur Park and saw the 75-year-old beasts get a touch-up courtesy of volunteers from South Canyon Baptist Church of Rapid City. Photos by Jana Lane.
Of the millions of summers the Black Hills have seen, the summer of 1927 was surely the most eventful — and perhaps cemented the region’s status as the popular tourist attraction that it is today.
Much of the credit goes to President Calvin Coolidge, who arrived in the Hills for a three-week vacation in June 1927 and liked the cool mountain air, trout-filled streams and forested hills so much he stayed three months. And wherever the president went, the media followed, so newspaper readers around the country read stories that summer filed from western South Dakota, a faraway place still unknown to many.
Coolidge’s presence also helped kick start Mount Rushmore. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum had toiled on the monument for two years and had already held a dedication ceremony. But he took advantage of having the president in his backyard and staged a second, more widely publicized dedication in August. That turned the nation’s attention to the project and won the approval of Coolidge, who later supported legislation funding the project.
Unfortunately Coolidge’s relationship with the eccentric artist later turned sour. After the president’s retirement, he asked a visitor to his New England home how far he thought they were from the Black Hills.”About 1,500 miles,” the man responded.
“Well,” the reticent Coolidge retorted,”that’s about as close to Mr. Borglum as I care to be.”
The Coolidges stayed at the Game Lodge in Custer State Park, and the president used offices at Rapid City High School. Mrs. Coolidge knitted on the lodge porch and enjoyed nature walks, though she once got lost briefly, causing the president to scold the First Lady’s security agent. A creek running through the park was later named for her. Photographs showed the president enjoying great success trout fishing, though it was later revealed that Black Hills boosters stocked the streams, virtually guaranteeing Coolidge a fresh catch every time out.
Though Coolidge didn’t attend the groundbreaking ceremony, construction of the Hotel Alex Johnson also began during the summer of 1927. The stately Alex Johnson was designed to honor two groups: German immigrants through its German Tudor architectural style, and Native Americans. Alex Carlton Johnson, vice president of the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad and the hotel’s namesake, deeply appreciated Native culture. The hotel’s lobby is filled with Native relics and symbols, including a chandelier made of war spears. It’s become a popular destination for Black Hills travelers and dignitaries.
To help Coolidge remember his summer in the Hills, locals gave him a pair of boots and a 10-gallon hat, which he sported on a much-publicized horseback ride up Mount Rushmore. A modern-day homage to the president is his bronze statue at the southwest corner of Fifth and Main streets in downtown Rapid City, part of the City of Presidents project. Coolidge is beaming, holding his hat and standing next to a saddle, a reminder of one of his happiest summers and one that significantly shaped the Black Hills that we know today.
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Hairpin curves, low tunnels and the narrow roadway cause local travelers to avoid the Needles Highway, leaving it to bicyclists and other sightseers. |
Mountains and bicycling don’t always go hand-in-hand. Many mountain ranges are too steep, too cold, too hot, too wild or too isolated for two-wheeling.
Black Hills biking is another story. Oh, you should give wide berth to the buffalo bulls in Custer State Park. Prickly pear cactus needles can puncture a tube. And you’ll want to watch for rattlesnakes in lower elevations. But those are rare occurrences. Bicyclists who have experience elsewhere seem to agree that the Black Hills may be the best kept secret in the pedaling world.
Joey Bonds and her husband, Eddie, came to Hill City six years ago so Joey could work as a summer tattoo artist. Most of her clients ride motorized bikes, but she and her husband love to explore the Black Hills on their mountain bikes. They did the same in Arizona, where Eddie ran a bicycle shop in the small city of Parker.
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| Inquisitive and snack-happy burros welcome bicyclists to the wildlife loop in Custer State Park. The burros are harmless, but cyclists should give wide berth to the speedy buffalo. |
“The scenery is awesome and the hills are so accessible,” she says.”Plus you can bike almost all year around. In Arizona it got too hot in the summer. My friends who bike here say there are usually a few days a month even in the middle of winter when you can go biking in the Black Hills.”
She says bicycling is safe on most public roads, but mountain bikers can also explore thousands of miles of trails — everything from maintained routes to old logging roads and fire trails.
The Bonds like the Black Hills so well that they opened a shop, Rabbit Bike, within a stone’s throw of the 110-mile Mickelson Trail in Hill City. They sell, repair and rent bicycles, and also provide guide services and shuttles for bikers. They’ve been splitting their time between Arizona and South Dakota, but they’ve sold the Parker bike shop and now plan to live and bike here year-around.
Their business success is part of an emerging biking culture in the Black Hills. Other bike shops are also opening, along with clubs and events that bring like-minded bikers together. The Black Hills Fat Tire Festival features spirited races for athletic mountain bikers every May. On the calmer side of the road, Black Hills Bicycling organizes group rides on paved roads that sometimes conclude with potluck dinners.
Jim and Glenna Books have started a”bicycle vacation company” called Dakota Bike Tours that arranges three, four and six-day excursions through the Black Hills — complete with shuttle service on steep inclines, overnights at campsites or bed & breakfasts, and the camaraderie of fellow biking enthusiasts. Some of their rides are ranked”easy to moderate,” while others — like the Iron Mountain Loop where bikers climb 700 feet in three miles — are quite challenging.
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| The Black Hills’ network of low-traffic highways and off-road trails makes it friendly terrain for bicyclists. |
Many weekend bikers can’t imagine pedaling up mountains, but Books says most inclines can be avoided.”Talk to the locals or use the Google elevation maps,” he advises.”We recently made a 42-mile trip and while we climbed about 1,600 feet in elevation, we dropped 3,550 feet in all.”
Books says he’s witnessing”an explosion” of the biking culture in western South Dakota. National tours are showing up, and local people are also discovering the joys of pedaling on-road and off. The Centennial Trail and the Mickelson Trail are off-road dream trips for bicyclists. Both are slightly more than 100 miles long and are maintained, mapped and equipped with trailheads and other amenities.
Books’ tours are often arranged around the Mickelson Trail that runs from Edgemont to Deadwood. His trips also include a”monuments” tour, a fall foliage ride, a Badlands loop and other scenic adventures on local roadways.
Experienced bikers offer these suggestions for flatlanders who hope to pedal through the Black Hills:
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is revised from the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order this back issue or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.
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| Prairie Berry Winery relocated from Mobridge to Hill City in 2004. Larger tanks let Sandi Vojta experiment with wines and begin the fusion label, which blends two fermentations into another style of wine. |
Sandi Vojta became a fifth-generation winemaker at the age of four when she experimented with yeast and fermentation. Her dad would take her out to pick chokecherries for wine, tying a piece of twine with a pail attached around her waist so she could pick berries with both hands.”But my favorite part was, and still is, getting the fermentations started; getting the first smell of the fruit’s potential.”
“It has been a way of life. It’s just who I am,” she says. Neither she nor her father has copied a recipe for the family wines.”Instead, we used a taste of the wine that he grew up with. When he made his wine he was trying to replicate that taste, so that is what I tried to do with my wine,” she says.
The winery won a double gold medal at the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for its Brianna wine in the white hybrid category. The Brianna grapes are grown at Lewis and Clark Vineyard in Yankton. Their wines have been winning awards at prestigious wine shows for years.”It’s awesome because people are paying attention to the state of South Dakota, and it’s great for our entire state’s wine industry,” Sandi says.
Prairie Berry currently makes about 30 varieties of wine — including the popular, funky Red Ass Rhubarb. The Hill City winemakers are branching out into new tastes, including a fermentation made from West River prickly pear to be released this fall. Vojta has a flavor vision of what she wants to accomplish with each new wine.”Sometimes I feel like I nail it the first time around. For others, I feel like I’m just getting closer to the vision with each release. I’m always trying to make things better. I’m never content.”
Sandi Vojta’s parents taught her how to make wine and how to cook.”We grew up eating a lot of chili, and mom often followed it with steamed apple dumplings,” she says. This dumpling recipe is her mom’s, and the chili is”pretty close to what she used to make.” Vojta chose these recipes as perfect pairings for her Buffaloberry Fusion, Gold Digger and Crab Apple wines.
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| Pair Vojta’s chili with Prairie Berry’s Buffaloberry Fusion wine. |
Serves 2 – 4
Paired with Prairie Berry’s Buffaloberry Fusion wine
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup no-salt added crushed tomatoes (not drained)
4 tablespoons canned chopped green salsa
1 cup water
1 cup canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
Juice from 1/2 lime
SautÈ onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, and cumin in oil over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, green salsa, water and beans, and bring to boil. (If desired, add 2 ounces cooked ground turkey or diced chicken breast.) Simmer 10 minutes, and serve with lime juice on top.
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| Try Prairie Berry’s Gold Digger or Crab Apple wine with these apple dumplings. |
Serves 6 – 8
Paired with Prairie Berry’s Gold Digger or Crab Apple wine
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3/4 cup milk
1 quart boiling sweetened apple sauce
Bring the applesauce to a boil in a non-stick Dutch oven. Sift together the dry ingredients, rub in the shortening with fingertips keeping the mixture coarse. Moisten with the milk, mix, turn onto a floured board and pat to one-half inch thickness. Shape with a biscuit cutter and place in the boiling apple sauce.
Cover tightly and boil 20 minutes. Additional sugar and cinnamon may be added to the boiling applesauce if desired.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is revised from the May/June 2011 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order this back issue or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.
Mount Moriah houses about 3,600 graves, including some colorful old West characters. Photos by Katie Hunhoff.
