CRAZY HORSE, 1880 BLACK HILLS RR TRAIN and THUNDER GOLD MINE

                 

   CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

 Loaming large off the South Dakota Highway #16/385 between Custer and Hill City is large granite mountain. There you can see the finely chiseled face of Ogala Lakota native warrior Crazy Horse. The Crazy Horse memorial was commissioned by Ogala Lakota Elder Henry Standing Bear.  The sculptor was a Polish immigrant Korczak Ziolkowski who worked on nearby Mt. Rushmore. 

Located on private land and funded by non-governmental contributions. Chief Standing Bear intended for the sculpture to pay homage to the noble natives of the Black Hills by depicting one of their most honored warriors, Crazy Horse, astride a galloping horse.

While a massive sculpture, and surrounded by a museum on other cultural arts activities including a satellite campus of the University of South Dakota, I found the memorial both sad and disappointing.  Instead of a beautiful memorial to a Native American I saw an unfulfilled vision and found no promise of the memorial being finished anytime in the next decade.

Perhaps Billy Buck will one day bring his grandchildren back to South Dakota and view the finished memorial.  Because of the overcast weather we did not spend much time at the memorial. There is a bus to the base of the mountain and private tours to the top as well. 

BLACK HILLS RAILROAD

• No trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota will be complete unless you take a ride on the 1880 Train of the Black Hills Central Railroad.  The train station is in Hill City and restored steam locomotives pull a vintage train from Hill City to Keystone.

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills lead to the construction of railroads to attend to the mines. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad laid the a standard gauge track in the Black Hills in the late 1800's from Hill City to Keystone.  This route is the path of the current Black Hills Central Railroad began operation in 1957.  In 1990, Robert and Joanna Warder purchased the Black Hill Central Railroad and began the restoration of vintage trains on the site in Hill City. By 2001 the link between Hill City and Keystone was fully operational providing visitors to the Black Hills a 1880 steam locomotive experience.

On the day we visited, the train was operated by a recently restored 1926 oiler locomotive pulling seven cars up a steep grade outside of Hill City down to Keystone, the home of the famous Holy Terror gold mine.  Our family elected to ride to Keystone and spend the afternoon.

At Keystone, the downtown is buzzing with shops, restaurants and places of interest. The train is unable to turn around but maneuvers to hook the locomotive to the rear of the train and travels in reverse back to Hill City.  While in Keystone, we visited the Big Thunder Gold Mine!

BIG THUNDER GOLD MINE

Keystone boasted many mining ventures, the most productive of which was opened by William B. Franklin in 1894. It reached a depth of over 1200 feet.  Mr. Franklin was known to frequent the saloons of Keystone and was often ushered home late at night by his angry wife, to which he would tell his comrades, "ain't she a holy terror?" When it came time to name his mine, those same comrades over drinks at the saloon convinced Franklin to name the mine after his wife. He agreed. He named it "Holy Terror"

Among the miners drawn to Keystone at the turn of the century were two German immigrants, W.B Krupp and Julius Engle.  They quickly became partners and developed an expertise in the use of dynamite which caused them to be much sought after workers in the area mines. They staked their own claim upstream from a successful "Lucky Boy" mine and worked the mine in their spare time. They named the mine "The Big Thunder".  

Calculating where they imagined the Lucky Boy gold line might have originated they dug their mine shaft straight in to the side of mountain through solid rock.  They used a technique called "double jacking" where one man would hold the bit while the other would swing the sledge hammer.  The mine guide described the technique explaining the man holding the bit would wipe his thumb clean against the end of the bit. It would be the aiming point of the man with sledge hammer.  Counting to three he would move his thumb right before his partner hit the end of the bit with his sledge hammer!

Understanding that the Big Thunder miners were short stocky Germans allows me to better understand the ceiling height of the shaft! Hard hats were essential to keep me from knocking a lump in my noggin.  The men worked this mine for 22 years and eventually were able to purchase a steam powered jack hammer, no doubt saving their thumbnails.

Most claims were 300 feet long and 30 feet wide.  The Big Thunder shaft was about 680 feet long ending in a big room 240 feet underground. There the shaft intersected with the Lucky Boy ore line.  To their disappointment the line was only inches wide and was soon played out.

In the room the guide demonstrated how the miners worked by lighting a candle and turning out the electric lights.  Then he blew the candle out and we were in pitch black darkness.  Hard to imagine working in these conditions for 22 years...and only finding 10 ounces of gold!  But that was the plight of the German part time miners.

Easily the Big Thunder Mine as a tourist destination is far more profitable than it ever was as a functioning gold mine.  Great place to visit on an overcast day.  The guide was knowledgeable and entertaining.  Lots of vintage mining equipment on display including a mobile porta-john. 

If you make it to Keystone, it will remind you a small version of Gatlinburg, Tn.  Shops, homemade fudge, ice cream and creative t-shirts.  Great place to spend an afternoon ending with a leisurely train ride back to Hill City.