Visiting the Rosebud Indian Reservation

Image via WikipediaThe Sicangu Oyate or Burnt-Thigh people are one of the bands of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) that comprise the Tetuwan Oyate, Lakota or Great Sioux Nation. The name supposedly comes from a time when the band had to run through a fire on the prairie which left many tribal members with burns.

Lewis and Clark called them the Teton of the Burnt Woods in their journals of 1804, and said they "rove on both sides of the Missouri, White, and Teton rivers." The French trappers and traders thereafter called them the Upper Brule.

Want to learn more? Read on here

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Our Favorite Displays at Storybook Island

Image via WikipediaHave you ever been to Pooh's house? I have! If you visit Storybook Island in Rapid City, South Dakota, you can visit Pooh's house too, along with numerous other displays from some of the world's best-loved storybooks. Come join me as we take a stroll through some of my family's favorite displays at Storybook Island.

And here is Pooh's treehouse! You can enter from the front, or through a tunnel in back. On the ground you'll find Pooh (in a tree stump) and his friends.

Reach the treehouse by climbing directly up, or from the bridge that winds around to the side. The first floor is accessible to nearly every one, the second floor is a bit tougher to reach and the third floor is a climb straight up through a narrow trap door.

Want to learn more? Read on here

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Visiting D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery

The D.C. Booth hatchery was in commercial operation from 1896 until 1983, providing trout stock for lakes in the Black Hills and throughout the country.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took over the property in 1989 and has since turned the property into a living history museum to interpret the rich history of our national fish hatcheries and fish culture.

Today, anyone can visit this historic site, which is still in operation as a hatchery. The D.C. Booth National Historic Fish Hatchery still provides trout to stock Black Hills lakes for fishers.

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Old MacDonalds Petting Farm: Family Fun in the Black Hills

Image via WikipediaOld MacDonalds petting farm is a fun spot to bring your kids when you're visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota.

On the farm you'll find animal displays (some of which you can enter), watch eggs incubate, hold baby chicks, and bottle feed baby animals in the nursery and bottle-baby pens.

You'll also find a centrally-located playground, where adults can relax in the shade while their kids play, a fish pond, barrel train and pony rides.

Want to learn who is on Old MacDonald's farm? Read on here

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Storybook Island Family Fun Park

Image via WikipediaStorybook Island theme park opened its doors in 1959 and has remained a family favorite attraction ever since.

Maintained by the Rotary Club, the city of Rapid City and hundreds of volunteers, Storybook Island is the place to take your kids in Rapid City.

Storybook Island is home to dozens of play sets and displays from children's books and nursery rhymes. Some favorites are The Hundred Acre Woods, complete with a three story tree-house and tunnel, the pirate ship, full-size train engine, Snow White's castle, Cat in the Hat, Santa's workshop, the maze, castle gates, Cinderella's pumpkin carriage and Jack's beanstalk to name just a few of the many attractions this park has to offer.

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Skyline Drive: A Scenic View of Rapid City

Image via WikipediaRapid City, South Dakota is a mountain town located on the edge of the Black Hills. Its original name was Hay Camp, as the open grasslands along Rapid Creek provided hay for miners in the Black Hills gold rush towns.

Rapid City is split in two halves by a hogback ridge. The road that traverses this ridge is known as Skyline Drive, one of the most scenic spots in all of Rapid City.

Skyline Drive is the home of Skyline Drive Wilderness Park, Dinosaur Hill Park, and several TV and radio stations. It is also the location of "Hangman's Tree", a site that features prominently in the story of an 1877 lynch mob-style hanging.

A drive over Skyline is breathtaking, and sometimes harrowing as you make your way around sharp turns from which you can look down a steep mountain ridge in both directions. If you visit Rapid City, don't miss this one!

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Best Places to See Bison in South Dakota

Image via WikipediaIf you have never visited South Dakota, you're in for a surprise. The state is split in two by the Missouri River. The land east of the Missouri is called "East River", the land to the west is "West River".

When people think of South Dakota, many picture the flat farmlands of east river. West river is completely different - the prairie starts to roll, the sky opens up to fill the horizon in every direction until you finally reach the Badlands and Black Hills region on the western edge of the state.

This is bison country, the home of the Lakota Sioux people who were the original hunters of the majestic American Bison. In the late 1800s these animals were hunted nearly to extinction by settlers who would kill an animal and take only the tongue to sell as gourmet food to easterners, leaving the corpses to rot under the prairie sky.

American bison were reintroduced to western South Dakota in the early part of the 20th century. Bison are making a comeback today with free-roaming herds such as you can see at Custer Sate Park or Wind Cave National Park or on private ranches such as 777 Ranch or privately and tribally owned herds of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations.

Want to learn more? Read on here

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Visiting Bear Butte

Image via WikipediaMato Paha (Bear Butte) is perhaps the most well known sacred site in South Dakota. It is a prayer site for over 30 American Indian tribes, many of whom perform yearly ceremonies here.

By walking just a few feet along the trail to Mato Paha, you'll begin seeing colorful swatches of fabric tied here, there and everywhere on tree branches, bushes and even stumps. These are tobacco ties, and they represent the prayers of the faithful pilgrims to this beautiful mountain.

Mato Paha is designated as a National Historic Landmark (#73001746)

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Visiting Badlands National Park: Tips for Travelers

Image via WikipediaOf all the places we get to visit in our western South Dakota "backyard", Badlands National Park is one of our favorites. There is so much to see and do, from the majestic buttes and eroded spires, to the big horn sheep nimbly making their way up impossible looking cliff faces.

This site was once the location of a warm inland sea. Limestone and sandstone formed during that time, which over the eons has eroded into the fantastic buttes and spires we know as the South Dakota Badlands.

The Conata Basin, part of the protected wilderness area of the park, is the site where the black-footed ferret, once the most endangered animal in North America, has been re-introduced after a lengthy but ultimately successful breeding program that began after only four surviving members of the species were found.

At Badlands National Park you can find places to camp, hike, take in a movie, eat a bison burger, or watch the bison - from a safe distance of course!

Badlands National Park has kept us coming back for more season after season, year after year. We are not alone! Each year the park hosts over one million visitors from all over the world. If you're never seen Badlands National Park, you're missing out on a truly unique treasure.

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Visiting Mato Tipila (Devils Tower)

Image via WikipediaScience fiction fans may recognize this site from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" . To the Lakota and other tribes that make the northern plains their home, this is a sacred site; the site where the Seven Sisters became the Pleiades.

You may know it as Devils Tower, but to the Lakota, this place is the Bear's Lodge, as a giant bear plays a big part in the story of the Seven Sisters.

If you are traveling to Mato Tipila, keep in mind that it is the equivalent of a church, mosque or synagogue. Ceremonies may occur year-round, but are especially frequent during summer months.

If you do come across someone in prayer or ceremony, please be respectful; don't gawk, stare, point, start asking questions, giggle, take pictures or otherwise interrupt.

If you plan to climb Mato Tipila, please also be respectful of the voluntary ban on climbing during the month of June, the height of the ceremonial season at Mato Tipila. By working together and being respectful of each other, we can do our part to ensure that Mato Tipila remains open for people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Want to learn more? Read on here

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Dinosaur Hill Park: Scenic View of Rapid City, South Dakota

Image via WikipediaWant a nearly 360 degree view of Rapid City and the Black Hills? Take a ride up Skyline Drive, a scenic road that winds its way up the hogback ridge that divides Rapid City in half.

Near the top of the hill, you'll find historic Dinosaur Hill Park, a great place for all ages!

From the head of the 28 foot tall Brontosaurus to the tail of Triceratops, kids will enjoy playing on the five giant displays in the park and parents will love the view.

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Sandstone Buildings of Hot Springs

Image by bradleygee via FlickrOriginally called Mni Kahta (warm water) by the Lakota who used the spring-fed waters here as a healing tool, the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota became famous by sharing its mineral waters with the world.

Hot Springs, founded in 1879, was widely promoted as a resort destination beginning in the 1890s. With the building of an enormous mineral pool at Evan's Plunge and a railroad line through the center of town, Hot Springs was on its way to prosperity.

The health spa business was booming, and a building boom came soon after. Beautiful sandstone buildings quarried from local rock began springing up all over town and Hot Springs came into full flower.

By the mid-20th century, the health spa business was a bust. That didn't effect Hot Springs, however, as it was still booming as the city nearest the Black Hills Army Depot and Igloo, South Dakota and the mining operations in nearby Edgemont, South Dakota.

After the Army Depot shut down and the mining operations ceased, Hot Springs came to a standstill. Today, there are only about 4,000 people left in the once-thriving city. Many of the beautiful and historic sandstone buildings in town fell into disrepair.

Today, with the rebirth of interest in the health spa industry, many of these buildings have been restored to their original glory, and some are even being used in the same way they were used over a hundred years ago.

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Reptile Gardens: Exotic Black Hills Attraction

Image via WikipediaReptile Gardens, located in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, is one of the area's most unique attractions. With over 225 reptile specimens, Reptile Gardens has the largest collection of cold-blooded animals in the world.

The centerpiece of Reptile's Gardens is the Sky Dome, a three-story glass dome housing the majority of the reptile collection, including snakes, lizards, crocodiles, alligators, Komodo dragons and tortoises, as well as a collection of bugs that simultaneously scare and delight.

The center of the dome contains an enormous collection of exotic plants and birds, as well as turtles and smaller lizards. Entering through the plain wooden door is like opening the door to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory as one's senses are immediately overflowing with the sights, scents and sounds of a tropical paradise.

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Our Favorite Things to See and Do at Reptile Gardens

Reptile Gardens in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota has many interesting and exotic residents. It was hard to narrow the list down to our favorite things to see and do at this unique park, but here are my family's choices.

Cheyenne the bald eagle is a rescue bird. She was found with a mangled and broken wing. The bird specialists at Reptile Gardens rehabilitated her, but it was determined that she was too disabled to return to the world.

Cheyenne now makes her home at Reptile Gardens with her own enclosure. During the summer months, she's the star of the Bird Show.

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Visiting Crazy Horse Memorial: Tips for Travelers

Image by jimbowen0306 via FlickrWhile Mount Rushmore National Memorial is impressive, it's not the largest carved mountain in the world. That honor belongs to the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills, just down the road from Mount Rushmore.

Korczak Ziolkowski started out as a sculptor at Mount Rushmore; his work there began in 1939, after winning a prize for his sculpture "PADEREWSKI, Study of an Immortal," at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

A fateful encounter with Chief Standing Bear caused Ziolkowski to change gears and begin his own mountain carving, one dedicated to a hero of the Lakota people whose homeland this is.

Ziolkowski began work on Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948 and continued working there until his death in 1982. Crazy Horse Memorial receives no public funding, and as such it as still a work in progress even after all these decades. Ziolkowski's children and others continue the work on the Memorial.

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He Sapa Wacipi: The Black Hills Powwow

There is No Columbus Day in South Dakota

 

South Dakota doesn't celebrate Columbus Day - instead, we celebrate Native American Day! While the rest of the country commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his three ships, people all over South Dakota honor the indigenous peoples that were here long before Columbus and his ships left port.

The Black Hills Powwow, or He Sapa Wacipi (pronounced heh sah-pah wah-chee-pee) as it is known in the Lakota language, is one of the biggest celebrations, coinciding each year with the weekend before Native American Day. 

 

It is a competition powwow held at the Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. Besides dance and drum competitions, there is also an archery shoot, arts contests, fashion shows and hand games contests.

The He Sapa Wacipi draws observers and participants from several hundred miles of the western high plains country for a weekend of fun, friendship, and contests.

 

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Devils Bathtub: A Spearfish Hike Way Off the Beaten Path

Image via Wikipedia

The Devil's Bathtub is one of those special places we locals like to keep to ourselves. Thousands of travelers, tourists and day hikers pass this little known spot each year without even realizing it's there. It's so stunning though, I feel that this is one secret I have to share.

Please keep in mind that the Devil's Bathtub is on private land. The owners allow day hikers, but will only continue to do so if hikers are respectful - so please tread lightly here!

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Scenic, South Dakota: Badlands Frontier Town

Image by Yawapi via FlickrScenic, South Dakota is the real deal - an old west town on the western edge of Badlands National Park. In the early 1900s, Scenic was a siding - a railroad stop on the way to Rapid City and the Black Hills. Adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the town grew up as a watering hole and meeting place for cowboys and Indians alike.

In its heyday, Scenic was a thriving frontier town with a church, bank, post office, grocery stores, hotel and even a high school. The town began to decline in the 1930s with the end of the Black Hills gold rush and the beginning of the Great Depression. There was not enough jobs to go around and families began leaving, first in a trickle, then in droves. The closing of the railroad line to Rapid City set Scenic on the road to becoming a ghost town.

Today, only eight residents remain in Scenic. There are a couple businesses on the main street through town - a curio store called the Tatanka Trading Post, a museum, the Longhorn Fuel and Convenience Store and the Longhorn Saloon. As of this writing, only the Tatanka Trading Post remains open.

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Visiting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation: Tips for Travelers

Image via Wikipedia

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the home of the Oglala Lakota or Sioux tribe, a band of the Oceti Sakowin (the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation). The word Oglala means "they scatter their own" in the Lakota language.

In past times, the Oglala were generally the band that camped at the outer perimeter during gatherings of the Nation, serving as the protectors. Some famous Oglala leaders from the past include Chief Red Cloud and Crazy Horse.

From modern times, you may recognize the names of Russell Means and the White Plume family, well-known Oglala leaders and activists. Have you ever eaten a Tanka bar? They were developed right here at Thunder Valley.

And don't forget Olympic medalist Billy Mills, who grew up in Pine Ridge village.

 

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Pte Tali Yapa: Visiting the Buffalo Gap

 

Pte Tali Yapa (tay tah-lee yah-pah) is the Lakota name for the unique entry into the Black Hills that we now know as Buffalo Gap. The Gap in question can be entered by turning onto the 7-11 Road (named for a ranch, there are no 7-11 stores anywhere near here) from Highway 79.

As you wind your way along this road you'll notice several interesting things. First, it's absolutely beautiful with the rich red earth known local as the red racetrack of Lakota stories or the Spearfish Formation to geologists.

There are a couple small ranches along the road, and not much else created by humans, other than some very interesting "junk art" sculptures such as a cowboy lassoing a dragon made from old car and farm machinery parts.

If you look west from the Gap, you'll see the southern Black Hills, look east and there's the wide open prairie, with the Badlands not far beyond. From the end of 7-11 Road you can turn left and head into the town of Hot Springs (with its famous minerals baths and spas) or right to Wind Cave National Park.

You can also still see the buffalo as you drive along the road through buffalo gap. Look behind the high buffalo fencing and if you're lucky you'll catch a glimpse of the bison herd that lives on the restored prairie of Wind Cave National Park.

 

Want to learn more? Read more here

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