Finne's Follies: Our Week in Sturgis

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Our Week in Sturgis

All the motorcycles are gone now, and Sturgis is back to being a quiet little town. We booked a week at the Sturgis RV Park, which is situated at the north end of town up against the hillside. It is an easy walk into town if you don't mind the uphill walk back. We opted for the car.

The motorcycles were gone, but we arrived in time for the Mustang Rally. Mark discovered it while he was out on an errand. Sadly, he forgot his phone, so we don't have any pictures for you except this stock photo he found online...

While we were in Sturgis, we took a couple of excursions to surrounding towns.

First we went north to the little towns of Spearfish and Belle Fourche. There was not much to see in Spearfish (no offense to Spearfish), but Belle Fourche's claim to fame is the Geographic Center of the United States. There's a nice granite marker on the spot, surrounded by flags from the fifty states, a mini-museum, and a tiny cabin.

The next day we drove to Deadwood and Lead, which are close to each other and about a half hour's drive from Sturgis. Deadwood is a typical tourist town - lots of places to eat and buy trinkets and mementos...and of course jewelry. All these places seem to love selling gold and precious gems, though neither will be in our budget again this side of Glory. (I don't even go in any more.) It was still fun to walk up and down the main street and window shop.

In Lead, we found two very interesting attractions. Lead is all about mining. It has been called "the richest 100 square miles on earth," and for good reason. Over forty million ounces of gold have been pulled from it over the past 125 or so years. Our first stop was the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, site of one of the country's biggest open cut mines as well as a system of tunnels that reach as deep as 8,000 feet below ground. The mine closed in 2002 because of the high cost of production and was donated to the state of South Dakota. Now those tunnels are used for science experiments by Sanford Lab.

Next we went to the Black Hills Mining Museum, which was also quite interesting.

Hilarious "danger" sign. (Enlarge this and read the small print.)

Seen this fellow?

And to top off our week, we were treated to a visit by the local wildlife. I just love deer. I think they're one of God's most beautiful animals. The day was overcast and the deer came out to graze in the middle of the day. In all, we counted about a dozen does and fawns -- no bucks.

We hit the road for parts west on Saturday and arrived in Wallace, Idaho, today. But that is a post for another day. I'll leave you with a few more pictures and best wishes for safe travels wherever you are!