We left Wendy and Troy on the 23 of August and headed to South Dakota and arrived in Lead/Deadwood on the 24th, where we met up with friends from NH, Bob and Jeanne Cooper and had a great time with them. Lead/Deadwood has a lot of history about gold mines, the wild west and today with gambling. What we found out about these 2 towns is that there is always something going on. This week was "Kool Deadwood Nights" with a classic car show and auction with over 700 classic cars on display and many up for sale, this activity was put on by the Chamber of Commerce. We will have more on the "Kool Deadwood Nights" on our next update.
During the week we traveled around the area checking out the tourist items of interest. We drove about 25 miles to a town of Belle Fourche, SD which is known as the "Geographical Center of the Nation". Prior to Alaska and Hawaii becoming states the center was located in Kansas and later moved here. In town there is a visitor center with a "Tourist ceremonial center of the nation" with a walkway of state flags and their "Center of the Nation" display. The actual Center of the Nation is located about 20 miles outside Belle Fourche along a dirt road in the pasture. An American Flag flies at the location. When we found out where the actual site was we were told to watch out for rattle snakes, and in reality our biggest concern walking was the cow patties laying all over the place. When we got to the site at the base of the flag pole was a US Survey Marker #1 dated 1962. There was not much decoration or fanfare for this site. Of course we had to take pictures of ourselves being at the center. This whole area offers a lot in history and site seeing. Wish we had planned ahead to see more. We traveled over to Rapid City then to Keystone and then back to Mt Rushmore. It is still one of our favorite sites to see.
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