Tom and Kristen's Great RV Adventure: August 25 - September 2, 2017 - South Dakota - Part 1

South Dakota is really a beautiful state, from stem to stern.

With the simplicity of the Eastern Plains to the western hills, and mountains, the state has all kinds of appeal.

Black Hill Peak – at 7242’, it is the highest peak in the United States East of the Rockies.

The geological formations, the clean air, cowboy culture, gold mining history and the animals are all draws for us.

For the blog, we’re going to break up the South Dakota blog posts into :
·         Misc
·         Badlands and Caves
·         Custer
·         Monuments
·         Animals and Floral
·         Gold Mining

Today’s post is about miscellaneous and funky sites we visited and other sightings

Air turbines – We see fields of wind turbines that at first look, appear to be ugly intrusions into a beautiful landscape, but when you get acclimated to them, they start looking like flower shaped kinetic sculptures.

Minuteman missile site Three minuteman missile fields (including this one in South Dakota) were shut down as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991. In 1999, the Minuteman Missile National Historic site was established. It is a very interesting tour, with many memories of ‘duck and cover’ drills.

Corn Palace

This Moorish Revival building is a multipurpose arena decorated with crop art (corn, corn stalks, other grains) with a new design is constructed every year. The original purpose of the building, constructed in 1892, was to showcase the rich soil of South Dakota.

It’s really a goofball attraction, but right off the highway and a briefly worthy stop, because of it’s curiosity.

The interior columns are shaped like ears of corn.

When Kris took the cross country trip with the kids in 1991, they all stopped at the palace. To the left is the picture from that year.

Prairie Homestead

Just outside the east entrance to the Badland National Park, there is a rustic sod and log dwelling built by the Browns, who homesteaded here in 1909. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places because it is one of the few original sod homes remaining in the country.

The interior beams and the log front are original, built using local cottonwood trees.

The sod walls are original, built using buffalo grass sod plowed from his homestead acres. The home was warm in winter and cool in summer.

The Browns took up their homestead when they were in their 50’s, bringing one son with them. They filed a claim on 160 acres, for an $18.00 registration fee. If they farmed the land successfully for 5 years, it would be theirs to own, or after 1 ½ years they could purchase it for $ .50 an acre. That is what they did. They loved the land and their life there.

Wall Drug

Wall Drug is one of those strange tourist attractions that has grown and morphed over the years to become it’s own phenomena.

Wall Drug might be one of the few places where shoppers must duck around mounted heads to buy shampoo.

In December 1931, the Husteads bought a drug store in the town of Wall, SD, population 326, all poor farmers. After several years, business remained so poor they nearly decided to close the doors. One hot summer evening, they were kept awake by the parade of cars heading west. They thought that the travelers might need a good drink of water … free water. So, they started putting up signs on the highway for free water, attracting customers to their business. One thing led to another, they built a soda fountain, sold souvenirs, added a restaurant, an animated dinosaur, etc.

It is now a gargantuan business, filling 76,000 square feet of space.

Only because we visited on our wedding anniversary (44th) could I get Tom to hop up onto the rabbit.

He looked in on a poker game, but no invitation was extended.

The shopping opportunities were exhausting, so he commiserated with another soul on the husband bench.

Highway signage stretches for hundreds of miles in every direction. At the very least, the signage gives drivers something to read while sailing down the road. After a while, you start looking for the next sign.