Most of us have heard of the "Buffalo Jump," of course, but in all my
travels, I had never actually seen the site of one before. After
spending a dark and stormy night outside of Rapid City, I decided to
duck over to Wyoming to visit Devil's Tower. It wasn't long after dawn
when I spotted signs on the highway directing me to this noteworthy
landmark:
Very
thorough explanation, isn't it? But what, you may be wondering, as I
was, does the buffalo jump actually look like? After considerable
searching in the early morning light, I finally realized that it lay in
an unmarked field just across the road:
That's
one heck of a sinkhole, but it doesn't seem as though buffalo could
become effectively trapped in it, does it? Perhaps not - but it was a
sinkhole, after all, that was responsible for creating one of the most
spectacular archaeological sites in the world today - Mammoth!
* * *
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It never fails to come as a surprise. The midwestern states always
seem like vast stretches of nothing until, wham! They hit you with
something truly spectacular. Or, in the case of Rapid City, with many
things truly spectacular.
It doesn't seem like much at first. A
good-sized town tucked away in the northeast corner of South Dakota, not
far from Sturgis of "Sturgis Raw!" fame, which fans of The History
Channel will recognize in an instant as the site of one of the biggest
motorcycle rallies in the world.
They call this area The Black Hills. But it is perhaps best known for one rather grayish-tan hill:
Every
day, thousands of people flock to Mount Rushmore, to this ultimate
homage to dead presidents. It is so cheesy, yet so reassuring. It
reminds us that in fifty years currently popular celebrities like Kim
Kardashian and Pitbull will be long forgotten - yet these four
presidents will live on in the American imagination. Not because of
their principles, not because of their achievements, but because some
sculptor thought it would be really cool to memorialize their heads on
the side of a mountain.
And you know what? It actually is really
cool. And what's even cooler is that they livened up that dull,
colorless mountain by turning the entrance to it into an Avenue of Flags
containing the banners of each of the fifty states:
The
whole monument is so cool, in fact, that another sculptor - with
entirely different motives - decided to attempt a similar gambit some
twenty miles to the south:
Any guess what famous figure that's supposed to be? Maybe this will help:
That's
right; this mountain is - or is going to be - a monument to Crazy
Horse, the famed Indian warrior who inspired such fear and admiration in
the spirits of white men, and who, a century and a half later, remains
an icon of the Plains Indian to both red and white men alike. This
massive project - which, if completed, may be the largest sculpture in
the world - receives no federal funding and has been a work-in-progress
since 1948. However, I think it's safe to say that even if the project
is never finished, it has ensured that Crazy Horse will enjoy a
permanent place in American history.
It is perhaps ironic that not
far south of the Crazy Horse Mountain lies Custer State Park, named for
the cocky yet ill-fated Indian fighter who met his doom on a Montana
battlefield which I hope to see again later in my trip. It is perhaps
also fitting that General Custer and his outmoded ways of thinking have been
commemorated by an equally antiquated theme park, which has been
constructed in the city that also bears his name:
That's right - in Custer you can order food from the Flintstones drive-in...
...
or make a call from the Bedrock phone booth, which can be really handy
if, like me, you have a third-rate cell service provider and your phone
hasn't worked in a week.
Yes,
Rapid City has an abundance of special charms that you won't want to
miss. You don't have to worry about hurrying down to nearby Hot Springs,
though - this guy definitely isn't going anywhere:
* * *
If you would like to see more photos from my cross-country travels, please follow my new Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/lorilschafer/.
For updates on my forthcoming memoir The Long Road Home, which I am drafting during this road trip, please follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter.
