Day 5

Day 5 was a day packed with what can best be described as unusual sightseeing all within the state of South Dakota. The morning was spent in 1880 Town, a recreation of a western town from that time. I really liked this but I got around it pretty quick. The venue also has a museum dedicated to the film Dances with Wolves so I was able to spend more time in here.

From there we headed west to the town of Wall, synonymous for it's rather ridiculous advertising campaign; this would be our base for lunch. If you've ever seen a sign for "Wall Drug" then it's this place that is being advertised. The signs are all over the US and there are a number in countries around the world too.

In the afternoon we'd head back east to the Minuteman Missile National Historic site where we'd learn about one of the more interesting defence initiatives that the US had in place. A number of silos in which teams of military people would spend days underground waiting for a call that they'd hope would never come; to launch their missiles as part of an nuclear war. The majority of sites had been decommissioned as part of a nuclear disarmament agreement between the East and West, but this site had been converted into the museum to tell that story. It was interesting for sure, particularly in light of where the current president appears to be sending the country, and this was reflected in some of the comments in the guest book, which was where I spent quite a lot of my time.

From the site we'd continue west again to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. For the non-nationals we knew that we did not have the right access to enter the US Airforce Base next door which is part of the tour so we would have to make do with just the outdoors exhibit of aircraft. 

Our day would end at the town of Deadwood in the heart of the Black Hills, an amazing location for a town that grew from the mining industry that grew here. We'd have the evening for dinner and a quick explore. They also filmed a TV show here called...Deadwood.

This was one of the favourite photos that I took on the trip. It was taken around the back of the hotel following a little morning stroll.

The 1880 Town is a reconstruction of buildings that existed in these parts between 1880 and 1920. It's a great way to see and interact with the buildings that would usually exist on channels like Movies for Men.

The main hall that you pass through to get into the town contains a bunch of pieces from the time and tucked in one corner there's a museum to a rodeo rider called Casey Tibbs. An actor/rodeo rider who was born in the area and who went on to be inducted into the rodeo hall of fame, so I guess someone to be proud of if you lived here. I didn't even know there was a rodeo hall of fame, let alone who Casey Tibbs was!

The town contained around 30 different buildings, most of which were populated with furnishing also from the period. You can't fully explore some of the more cluttered interiors for obvious reasons but they're impressive although I can't vouch for the accuracy ;)

The saloon is a cool space where I bought one of the best cream sodas I've ever had. If cosplay is your thing you can dress up in period costume as one of the group did.

At the back of the site is a farm and church. The latter reminded me of Guns & Roses "November Rain" video. 

The Dances with Wolves museum was a large display of sets and props from the film and behind the scenes commentary. It was alright but easily missed as it's upstairs in one of the buildings.

There were some interesting photos of tribal chiefs and whilst I recognised "Sitting Bull" I couldn't help but giggle at the one with the unfortunate name of "Comes Again"

A rather lovely farewell message on the way out. It was a nice place to visit but I wonder if we'd seen everything. With the exception of the barman there didn't appear to be any live actors which would be great in a place like this. You can't have a western without a shoot out so a stunt show would be perfect.

The train outside has been converted into a diner. With no air con it was very hot in it.

How do you like your Snickers?

Leaving the 1880 Town we passed a lot of the Wall Drug signs that increased in frequency as we got nearer and nearer the town of Wall. 

Our planned itinerary would have us spending some time at the Museum on the battle of Wounded Knee, a battle that took place here where the Lakota Indians and the 7th Cavalry regiment got into a bit of a fracas which led into a massacre of the Lakota using machine guns. This has subsequently been recognised as wrong. However the museum appears to have changed location and we were left outside of a Mexican themed restaurant. Some of the group chose to go and visit the museum at it's new location. I chose to explore Wall.

The main part of Wall consists of a huge indoor array of shops and restaurants and it's a huge tourist attraction and should be treated as such. But it's a great place to explore.

Lunch was odd. I'm not sure how you eat a sandwich when they put the gravy over it. The cherry pie was good but not as good as the one I had at the Double R restaurant ;) 

I've not seen these since I was a kid. Funny that there's still a market here for them, or maybe there isn't.

Some of the smaller corridors in the complex have been turned into galleries and museums. I was enamoured with some of the portraits of the Indian chiefs and soldiers and not just because some of them had amusing names, not that I'd have ever said it to their faces if I met them. Curley in particular was noted as one of the few survivors of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Elsewhere there are all sorts of souvenirs, some more useful than others.

Another gallery contains some of the Wall Drug signs from around the world. The London one is clearly from a long time ago as we don't have those routemasters anymore.

There are a number of strange animals indigenous to this part of the US. Firstly the jackelope, the horned hare which apparently is abundant in this part of the country. The second is a one-off but they have captured a T-Rex and it's located in the rear of the park where a few times a day it'll roar at anyone who happens to be passing by.

A reconstruction of the time a man in a hat cheated at cards and was called out.

Across from the main complex I found a museum of stuffed animals that all looked too placid to have been hunted. The Fur Bearing Walleye must be another animal unique to this area; I'd never seen this before.

The perfect gift for the one you love.

The main attraction for Wall Drug was that they would offer every guest a free Ice Water, something that they continue to do today...if you can find the cup.

Some more jackelopes, these time stuff and mounted. I wonder what kind of a fight they put up before they're shot.

Having had our fill of Wall we headed to the next destination, the Minuteman Missile National Historic site.

This was a brief stop but enough to give us an overview of both the Minuteman program that led to the construction and the SMART program that decommissioned them. The staff here were responsible for manning the silos in the event of war and they're basically waiting for a call they hope should never arise. I would go mental in that role, how boring must it be to be based underground for weeks on end? 

The plaque outside the centre sums up the importance of these silos beautifully.

The guest book was my favourite part of the visit here. Some of the comments in the book were hilarious and it's very clear there's a sizeable contingent not happy with the President. I wonder if the comments find their way to him? I suspect not.

Proof that it's never good to confuse your test environments with your live ones. The museum does have a section that details some of the near-misses both on the US and Russian side that were averted by the staff being super attentive.

The final stop was the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. This served as an extension to the minuteman site as the site tour includes a visit to a still present silo that you can walk around. I couldn't unfortunately as I'm not a US citizen so I got to explore the planes outside of the centre with the other foreigners in the group.

This is one of the missiles that would have been fired out of the minuteman site.

There's a great selection of planes and choppers outside the centre and it was cool to be able to walk around and in amongst them, however it would have been nice to have had more information on each plane, something that I understand has been addressed after our visit.

The Titan 1 missile is the latest attraction to the site, so new it didn't appear in the leaflet that explained all the planes. 

We caught site of an AWACS plane which was doing a number of take off and landings from the Air Force base next door.

This was an OK stop but whilst it was unfortunate I couldn't be trusted on the airbase I still managed to pass the time with the planes outside. From there we decided to call it a day and headed west to Deadwood through the biker town of Sturgis, which I hope to get to one day on a motorbike (bucket list territory).

Our hotel looked amazing and whilst the majority of the ground floor was given to a casino it was still worth walking around for the art on display. The Gibson-themed motorbike was cool.

The city has a great old town vibe, and it seemed to be a popular stopping point for people making their way through the Black Hills. That cool art deco diner suffered from Karaoke so I had to find another place to eat.

There are a number of casinos on the main street, one of which is owned by Kevin Costner called The Midnight Star and I thought I'd pop a quick look into each one. I have to say the props in this particular casino (it's not the Kevin one) were terrible and these were the best ones that I'd photographed. I was in hysterics as I made way around the displays.

In their defence they did have a nice little selection of vehicles in the back consisting of a Bumblebee from Transformers, one of Evil Knievel's bikes and the best one, a Herbie VW Beetle.

This car outside was cool too.

I wasted too much time playing with a model railway that I found in the basement of one of the shops. I love checking out the detail in these things and whilst I don't like the trains so much I do like looking for the strangest thing I can within the theming.

There seemed to be a number of places along the street that claimed to be the location where Wild Bill Hickok was shot.

For dinner I met up with some of the group and we ended up in a rather nice Italian restaurant called the Deadwood Social Club set in what used to be a bordello. I'd completely missed this place so I was appreciative of the knowledge of others in the group.

Back at the hotel for another sight-packed day tomorrow.

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