Thanks to the current hip-hop Broadway musical, American founding father Alexander Hamilton enjoys celebrity status 212 years after dying in a duel with Aaron Burr. But there was intense interest in Hamilton in Spearfish during the late 1800s, and the town is the site of a memorial to him … Read More
An attribute common to all Black Hills communities are busy athletic fields, often in settings with alpine vistas. But they’re more than pretty. Some are etched deeply into the memories of big-time pro athletes. Considering its relatively small population, the Black Hills area produces a surprisingly big number of sports … Read More
Accidental Tourist: What state is this again? Local: South Dakota. Accidental Tourist: How far across? Local: Four hundred miles. Accidental Tourist: That’s huge! Local: Yep. Right up there with Montana. Accidental Tourist: Are there service stations? Local: Now and then. Accidental Tourist: I know it snows in the Dakotas. There’s … Read More
There have been Black Hills vacationers so moved by their experience that they’ve decided to make an instant life change. They’ve called or texted their employer back home to say, as Johnny Paycheck did, “Take this job and shove it, I ain’t workin’ here no more!” Or words to that … Read More
The Black Hills have always inspired music. Two 20th century hits that stood the test of time, still recognized anywhere in the world, are Doris Day’s Take Me Back to the Black Hills, and the Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon. You can get into an argument in South Dakota about who best … Read More
The most unexpected museum item in the Black Hills is an ancient receipt for a dead animal. We’re talking really ancient, like 4,350 years old. It’s found in an unlikely spot, on the Black Hills State University campus, on the first floor of the library, right next to the Einstein … Read More
Nothing lasts forever except maybe Black Hills granite, some of the planet’s hardest rock. But everything else disappears eventually, including some Black Hills summer attractions you may recall from your youth. Remember summer nights spent watching greyhounds run at the dog track between Rapid City and Black Hawk? Yes, you … Read More
This is Sylvan Lake, a movie setting fans will recognize from National Treasure II a few years ago. Since the 1920s, when Hollywood discovered Russ Madison’s ranch in the heart of the Black Hills, the region has been a favorite on-location site for movie shoots. Major films shot here include … Read More
If you grew up in Iowa or Minnesota in the 1960s, and your next door neighbors took a Black Hills vacation, you maybe didn’t recognize their car when it returned. The car would be plastered with bright bumper stickers from every cave, gravity house, and curio shop the neighbors visited. … Read More
The restrooms at Deadwood’s iconic Saloon #10 were – to put it kindly – rustic. Maybe not outdoors like a proper outhouse, but they had that kind of ambiance. We’d post a YouTube video but you wouldn’t want to watch it, and no one thought to make that kind of … Read More