Black Hills Country September 12 – 13

The Quilt says it all

Patsy and Dede in Deadwood

We’re in the Black Hills a pleasant respite from the Great Plains. Pine forested hills with rocky out croppings and cliff faces. Clear streams and mountain lakes. This is the land that Custer prospected for gold and that Congress stole from the Lakota. We entered at Spearfish and took the scenic drive to Deadwood.


All of you who watch HBO and followed the Deadwood series know what went on here, besides the vulgarities, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane met their demise here in 1876. It was a gold mining town and as usually happens the gold ran out and the town has to figure out some other way to survive. Actually Deadwood looks to be pretty prosperous compared to say Virginia City. Its main street is mostly stone and brick buildings which look to have been well maintained. Of course they are all bars/casinos, t-shirt shops, ice cream parlors or restaurants. Just about every popular TV or movie cowboy/girl has a bar here, Miss Kitty, Butch Cassidy and Sun Dance kid, they are all here. There are tours to Boot Hill where we can pay our respects to Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. We indulged in two giant ice cream cones which we thought better of about half way through eating them.

We moved on south to Hill City where they were having a quilt show. The quilts were displayed all along Main St for about four blocks. We decided to stay in a nice RV park near town and reviewed the quilter’s handiwork.