Made our way half way to Yellowstone
National Park today and spending the night in Sheridan, WY. On the
way today we stopped off in Deadwood and Lead, SD and left the Black
Hills by way of the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway and then visited
the Devil's Tower, made famous by the movie “Close Encounters of
the Third Kind”.
Our first stop today was the town of
Deadwood, SD which was the town where Wild Bill Hitchcock met his
demise. Deadwood was one of the first gold rush towns in the Black
Hills and though it has been destroyed many times by flood and fire
it has been revived through the taxes placed on gaming which is now
legal in Deadwood. The neighboring town of Lead became more important
as a mining location and Deadwood became the town where the miners
had fun!
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| The Homestake Mine Open Cut |
We left the Black Hills via the
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, a spectacular drive down the length of
the Spearfish Creek. A wonderful way to say goodbye to the Black
Hills, which are well worth a visit for the scenery as well as the
interesting towns.
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| Spearfish Creek |
Our next stop was the Devil's Tower
that rises almost 1300 ft above the Belle Fourche River plain. The
rock tower was made famous in the movie, “Close Encounters of the
Third Kind”.
Then over a very desolate landscape to
our final destination today in Sheridan, WY. En route we passed
through Gillette, WY were we saw a massive open cast coal mining
operation. The coal seam looked to be at least 100 ft thick and was
only a few feet below the surface. This mine delivers 20 million tons
of coal a year to the Asian markets. I presume that it is low grade
coal that cannot be burned in the USA, but it's OK to sell to someone
else to burn to ruin the planet!
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