One of the attractions of the Black Hills, is, no matter where you drive, the scenery is outstanding. Due to the many thunder storms during the summer, (one last night), the hills are always green. The name black hills was given to this area by Native Americans, because from a distance, the dominate tree, the ponderosa pine looks more black than green.
We drove the back way to Deadwood, passing by a lot of familiar scenery that hasn't changed much in the last 16 years, since I last drove these back roads on my Harley. Deadwood however, has changed a lot, due to the legalization of gambling several years ago. It was a famous, old west, frontier town, best know for it's lawlessness, and the place where "Wild Bill Hickok" was murdered in one of the town's saloons. The town's most recent notoriety is based on HBO's series entitled Deadwood. We drove around town, but didn't get out, other than to take this one picture of main street. There's lots of tourist type shops, and gambling, but neither appealed much to us, so, we drove to the nearby town of Lead, (pronounced LEED), where the Homestake Gold Mine was the site of a gold discovery that started the gold rush to the black hills in the early 1870's. There is an enormous deep pit that the picture doesn't do justice, and they are still doing underground, hard rock mining at about 8,000 feet under the surface.
Today is our last full day here in southwestern South Dakota. Tomorrow, we'll start a dash across SD, IA, IL, and spend a few days in northern Indiana.
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