mount rushmore / buffalo jump

Warning: Pun-agraph

After the evening spent in Deadwood, SD, we jumped in the Explorer and headed down Highway 385 past Pactola Reservoir to Mount Rushmore. As we made our southernly approach, Mount Rushmore suddenly appeared in the cliffs ahead.

Although I had previously been warned by my friend Dave that Mount Rushmore was perhaps not worth seeing, I can honestly say that I was quite impressed. Although the four presidents don't perform any tricks, they look quite impressive up there. And while it's not as large as I had expected (though it's by no means small), it was interesting to know that the original plans for Mount Rushmore included full busts of all the presidents. It was only after work began that Gutzon Borglum abandoned those plans, which explains why the carving of Washington has lapels*. Another not so well publicized detail of Mount Rushmore is that the presidents have quite a view to look at, as you can see in the second picture.

After walking the trail around Rushmore we decided to pass up the Crazy Horse Memorial and make our way to Devil's Tower. It crossed my mind that perhaps it didn't make a lot of sense to carve a giant figure in the cliffs just 30 or so minutes from the most was is probably the most famous giant figures in the world, though I understand part of the reasoning for the location is that Crazy Horse is located on sacred land. In any case, I thought that Crazy Horse was a treat better left for my next trip out west.

Before we left Deadwood we had a conversation with a very enthusiastic bike shop owner, who helped us plot out a route and suggested checking out the Vore Buffalo Jump. The buffalo jump is basically a large hole in the ground that plains Indian groups used to capture and slaughter large groups of buffalo. By running the buffalo over the edge of the sinkhole, the Indians were able to easily (comparatively, anyway) provide food and other materials for use in everyday life. The jump was discovered by workers when construction of interstate 90 began; Due to the huge amounts of bone material, they suspected they had found something a lot more sinister. The interstate was slightly rerouted and the land was donated from the Vore family to the University of Wyoming in 1989.

The day we visited we were greeted by a pleasant young lady at the mouth of the jump. She explained that she was a volunteer and then went into the history of the site. After a brief explanation she sent us down a path to the dig site at the bottom of the hole, where a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable man explained how archaeologists use what they find at the site to determine who used it and what types of tools they used. The amount of bone material found in just the 20 by 5 foot dig was quite impressive.

If you ever find your way on the road to Yellowstone, don't pass up the Vore Buffalo Jump. Although it just looks like a hole in the ground, there's quite a history there, and the folks at the site are very informative. Perhaps we repaid the karmic duty that we brought onto ourselves by skipping Crazy Horse.

Of course it wouldn't be long until we stomped all over that again, because our next stop was Bear Lodge (otherwise known as Devil's Tower). Until next post...

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*This information came from Dave Youngman, and if it is incorrect, then perhaps I am a poor listener. Or perhaps he's a poor teacher.