The Old West Returns
: : : Black Hills Buffalo Roundup Represents ‘A Drift Back in Time’
by T.D. Griffith
The Badlands serve as a backdrop to
Custer State Park in South Dakota
The roundup at Custer State Park is a park management tool, helping to identify and vaccinate the herd
Governor, Mike Rounds
the herd on the move
At one time buffalo roamed the prairies
by the millions.
a stampede
All above photos courtesy of South Dakota Tourism, with exception of Governor Mike Rounds, © Bob Willis
Wild Bill's gravesite
Mt. Rushmore
Crazy Horse Monument
the badlands
Devils Tower National Monument
the Black Hills offer endless recreational opportunities among the 1.5 million acres of wilderness
John Quincy Adams
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
AS THE SUN PEEKS OVER THE BADLANDS, bathing the Black Hills in a ginger hue, the call of a wild turkey breaks the early morning stillness. Deep in a creek-carved coulee, the quiet cooing of a sharp-tailed grouse is joined by the chirping of a meadowlark. A new day has awakened the prairie.
On a nearby hillside in Custer State Park, more than 10,000 people gather, some stomping their feet against the pre-dawn chill; others casting their eyes to far-off ridgelines and ponderosa pines. All await the rumble of 6,000 hooves.
This is roundup day. In an autumn ritual as regular as falling leaves, cowboys, cowgirls and park staff gather one of America’s largest buffalo herds.
“For me, it’s uniquely pleasing,” said Craig Pugsley, a South Dakota State Park staffer who has participated in 30 roundups.
The event, to be held October 1 this year, evokes historical images of the Old West when as many as 60 million bison blackened the plains and explorers like Lewis and Clark spent two days passing just one herd.
“Custer State Park provides the only opportunity for the public to witness this truly Western event,” Pugsley said. The state park, a 110-square-mile preserve in South Dakota’s Black Hills, is home to elk, deer, pronghorn, mountain lions, big horn sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, prairie dogs and one of the largest publicly owned herds of American bison. It also features scenic drives, a Wildlife Loop, four mountain resorts and impressive finger-like granite spires called the Needles that rise heavenward from the forest floor.
South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds annually hosts a large contingent of guests for the Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup. He said the event still gives him a thrill.
“It’s truly one of the most exhilarating events you can experience,” Rounds said. “When a thundering herd of 1,500 bison stampede across the prairie, the ground shakes! Real-life wranglers guide the herd past 10,000 screaming fans, and a lot of them are cheering for the buffalo. At one time these animals roamed the prairies by the millions, but now, bringing in a herd this size is unique to South Dakota. Getting an up-close look at some of these majestic 2,000-pound bison is a thrill you’ll never forget.”
The event is also a park management tool, Pugsley explained. Using horses and pickup trucks, park staff and volunteers push the entire herd into holding pens and corrals, then systematically work the animals through chutes where they are branded and vaccinated. Because the park has a limited carrying capacity, several hundred bison are culled and sold at public auction in November. In the past, proceeds have ranged from $83,000 to more than $1 million. The funds help support park operations.
Park Superintendent Richard Miller said there is nothing mundane about the 30-year-old event.
“They are always exciting,” Miller said. “Every year there seems to be a different twist. It could be the weather, it could be the temperament of the animals, or more recently, it’s been ensuring that all of those who come to the roundup have an enjoyable experience.”
The bison—known for capricious behavior—are as unpredictable as the weather. A big bull can stand six feet tall at the shoulders and weigh as much as a ton. They’ve been known to outrun a horse and can turn on a dime.
“This is a roundup in which the animals are wild,” Pugsley said. “We’ve had a number of years when the entire herd has turned and broken out of the roundup and stampeded back to the west, causing us to totally re-group and start again. We’ve had buffalo run through fences, and we had one pickup hit broadside by four buffalo at once. There was a lot of damage to the pickup, but none to the buffalo.
“We’ve seen them jump from standing still right over a six-foot-tall fence,” he added. “One minute they were in the corral and the next they were on the other side of the fence. We’ve even had cowboys actually fall off their horses, then have the riderless horse come through the roundup. The horse was helping herd buffalo, but there was no rider to be seen. We picked him up a couple miles back.”
Given the bison’s tendency toward tenacity, how does one herd an animal that doesn’t want to participate in the parade?
“There’s an old saying that you can herd a buffalo anywhere a buffalo wants to go,” Pugsley laughed. “If they decide they don’t like the direction they’re going, there’s not much you can do to stop them.”
Trail boss Bob Lantis claimed the event is the highlight of his year. Born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa, Lantis first set foot in the Black Hills when he was 12 years old and knew “from that point on I was headed West.” After a stint with Boeing working on Minuteman Missiles, he returned to live in the Black Hills in 1968.
“I think the roundup is a drift back in time, especially for the riders and obviously for the people who are watching,” the 72-year-old outfitter said. “It’s something that’s passing, something that isn’t everyday, and it’s completely different from the normal things people do for entertainment. It’s a fantastic experience and a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The Buffalo Roundup is just one of those things that seep deep into your soul.”
Lantis, who still guides horseback trips into the Black Hills, Yellowstone and the Arizona desert and who will help coordinate cowboy volunteers at this year’s roundup, said the event allows him to get lost in yesteryear.
“It basically takes me back in time,” he said, fondly. “It’s like the Old West as it was, the stories you’ve heard of settlers crossing the prairie, and the Indians who first inhabited this place. Frankly, this is a Dances With Wolves experience that you’ll never forget.
“You don’t get bored with buffalo,” Lantis added. “You’d better stay awake or you’ll get hurt. It’s just an adrenaline high. My wife tells everybody that I would skin skunk to ride with the buffalo.”
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CUSTER STATE PARK BUFFALO ROUNDUP
WHEN: Monday, October 1, 2007. Arrive at viewing areas between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.
VIEWING AREAS: There are two primary viewing areas for the roundup. Both are located along the Wildlife Loop Road, about 10 miles south of Highway 16A or eight miles east of the Blue Belle Lodge entrance.
North Viewing Area — Located north of the corrals, gives spectators and photographers a dramatic head-on view of buffalo running directly toward them.
South Viewing Area — Affords a panoramic view of buffalo coming off Hay Flats and passing by the spectators
just a couple hundred yards away.
ENTRANCE FEE: A State Park entrance license is required on all vehicles. It may be purchased upon entering the park. Spectators may purchase a temporary entrance license, good for seven consecutive days, for $5 per person or $12 per vehicle, or an annual pass for $23.
CAMPING & LODGING: Camping and lodging are available in the park or neighboring communities, all within an easy drive of the park. For camping in CSP or general park information, visit www.custerstatepark.info or call 1-800-710-2267. For lodging within CSP, visit www.custerresorts.com or call 1-888-875-0001.
WHAT TO BRING: Be prepared for any type of fall weather ranging from cool and wet to 70s and 80s. Wear layers, bring gloves and a warm hat, and a chair to sit on. Concessions are available in both viewing areas.
ARTS FESTIVAL: On Saturday and Sunday prior to the Monday event, visitors may attend the Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival adjacent to the State Game Lodge. The festival features more than 100 exhibitors, the Buffalo Wallow Chili Cook-off, concessions and entertainment such as Native-American dancers, cowboy poets and musical acts.
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BLACK HILLS RECREATION GOLD
SOUTH DAKOTA’S BLACK HILLS, one of the world’s most ancient mountain ranges, comprise a million-acre playground filled with history and mystery, the graves of woolly mammoths and Western heroes, alpine lakes and mountain meadows, and a vast underground wilderness. The region also is home to the highest concentration of parks, monuments and memorials in the nation. Consider these intriguing travel nuggets:
- MAMMOTHS & EARLY MAN — The Black Hills and Badlands were once home to decidedly different inhabitants than they are today. In 1974, a bulldozer operator preparing a site for a new apartment building in the community of Hot Springs on the Black Hills southern edge unearthed a giant tusk that had once belonged to a massive woolly mammoth. Work stopped and the digging began in earnest. Today, 52 woolly and Columbian mammoths as well as 35 other species have been discovered at The Mammoth Site, all victims of a slippery-sided sinkhole that once lured animals to their deaths. The site’s museum is the world’s largest mammoth research facility where visitors can tour an active paleontological dig and view Ice Age fossils exhibited just as they were discovered. For more information visit www.mammothsite.com.
- THE LAST FRONTIER — The Black Hills were among the last U.S. areas to be mapped, due to the federal government’s 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty with the great Sioux Nation. Whites did not explore the region until General George Armstrong Custer’s 1874 Expedition. Although, gold-seekers found their way into the Hills prior to Custer, most never returned — succumbing either to the elements or Lakota Sioux, legendary warriors who fiercely defended the ‘Paha Sapa’ (literally Hills Black). Custer’s confirmation of gold sent a wave of miners, muleskinners and madams across
the vast sea of prairie known as the Great Plains. By 1876, more than 10,000 people were in the Black Hills. Many of them located in Deadwood. Later, devastated by epidemic and fire, the historic community continued to rebuild.
There was a time when it wasn’t safe to walk the boardwalks of Deadwood. But that was a hundred years and a dozen gunfights ago. This is the town that welcomed Wild Bill Hickok, then wept when he was gunned down holding aces and eights, forever after known as the ‘Deadman’s Hand.’ This is the place that witnessed the one-woman-cyclone known as Calamity Jane, who claimed she could out-shoot, out-spit and out-swear any man, and most often did. Today, both are buried side-by-side in Deadwood’s ‘Boot Hill.’ Visitors now encounter brick streets, period lighting, old-time trolleys, Victorian facades and the largest ongoing historic preservation project in the U.S., all fueled by an unlikely benefactor — limited stakes gaming, complete with poker, blackjack and the notorious one-armed bandits.
Visitors can still enjoy a touch of the Wild West lifestyle in the town that also spawned the HBO series. For more information, www.deadwood.org. - MONUMENTS — Nowhere else in the world can visitors gaze at two mountain memorials—one finished and one in progress. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, featuring the giant likenesses of four of America’s best-loved presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, was sculpted from the ageless granite of the Black Hills from 1927 to 1941. Had they been carved from head to toe, each of the presidents would have stood 465 feet tall — able to wade the Potomac without getting their knees wet; having to kneel down to read by the light from the torch of the Statue of Liberty. Mount Rushmore remains one of America’s most enduring icons. Visit www.nps.gov/moru/ for more information.
More than a half-century after sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began carving the massive tribute to the legendary Lakota warrior known as Crazy Horse, his widow and seven of their 10 children carry on the work. Chief Henry Standing Bear asked Ziolkowski to create the Crazy Horse Memorial because the Sioux “would like the white man to know that the red man has heroes, too.” When completed, the colossal 563-foot-tall statue will rank as the largest work of art in the world and will depict Crazy Horse pointing over the head of his stallion to the sacred Black Hills. Mount Rushmore would fit in the horse’s head. It is located just 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore. For more information, visit www.crazyhorse.org. - BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK — Flanking the eastern slope of the Black Hills, Badlands National Park is a 244,000-acre moonscape that the Lakota had labeled ‘mako sica’ or ‘land bad’ a couple of centuries before white men first gazed upon it. When Custer first encountered the Badlands, he described them as “hell with the fires burned out.” With ragged ridges, chiseled spires and deep canyons ravaged by eons of wind and rain, this may be the most unusual terrain in the world and should be included in everyone’s ‘must-see’ list. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/badl.
- DEVILS TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT — Located in extreme northeastern Wyoming on the northwestern edge of the Black Hills, Devils Tower was designated America’s first National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The natural phenomenon is actually the core of an ancient volcano, exposed by millions of years of erosion. Indian legends tell of a giant bear that chased some young maidens up a rock, leaving its claw marks in the ancient stone tower. Today, the tower is a favorite among experienced rock climbers. To learn more, visit www.nps.gov/deto.
- OUTDOOR RECREATION — With 18 peaks exceeding 7,000 feet and a million-and-a-half acres of pineclad cliffs and clear-running streams, the Black Hills offer a veritable recreation wonderland roughly the size of Delaware. The 114-mile Mickelson Trail traverses the hills from the historic mining town of Deadwood to the buffalo herds of Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. Along the way, hikers and mountain bikers discover lofty trestles, free-roaming wildlife and mountain meadows painted with wildflowers.
- WINTER WONDERLAND — When the fall foliage of Spearfish Canyon transitions to winter, the Black Hills become a recreational wonderland for outdoor enthusiasts. With more than 330 miles of groomed trails, thousands of miles of untended backcountry trails, affordable accommodations, rentals, and reliable snow conditions, the Black Hills consistently rank among the top snowmobiling destinations in the U.S. Crosscountry skiers discover a million-acre preserve and downhill skiers and snowboarders find ample powder and high-speed lifts at two exceptional ski areas—Deer Mountain and Terry Peak.
- THE UNDERGROUND WILDERNESS — In an age when orbiting satellites have mapped the topography of the earth’s surface, from the tallest mountain peaks to the deepest watery recesses of its massive oceans, subterranean labyrinths such as those found in the Black Hills have become one of the last bastions of mystery in an uncharted terrain. Deep within the bowels of the Black Hills is an underground wilderness filled with hundreds of miles of darkened passageways, unusual features and rare specimens, some found nowhere else in the world. Tiny crystal Christmas trees, gypsum beard that waves like strands of hair with the slightest breeze, and calcite rafts floating on the still waters of a deep, underground lake, are among the rarest cave specimens found on earth. Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park rank as the second and fourth longest caves in the world, respectively. But air volume studies conducted by the federal government, which use sophisticated computer models to determine miles of passageway, indicate that mapped passageways constitute less than 5% of what actually exists in these two caves. For more information on these two national preserves, visit www.nps.gov/jeca and www.nps.gov/wica.
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DID YOU KNOW?
MINING HERITAGE — Long before tourists flocked to the Black Hills, mining fueled the economy of western South Dakota. And the granddaddy of all mines in the Western Hemisphere was The Homestake Gold Mine at Lead. In 125 years of operation, 40 million ounces of gold valued at more than $1 billion were taken from the Homestake, making it one of the richest digs on earth. Its shafts still extend a mile-and-a-half below the earth’s surface, where the rock’s temperature exceeded 135 degrees. Although a faltering world gold market closed production in 2002, the Homestake is now a finalist to become the site of America’s new Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, where scientists will conduct studies away from the effects of cosmic radiation.
NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE —For centuries, western South Dakota has been home to succeeding tribes of Native Americans. Their stories are still recalled in the sounds of stampeding buffalo, the steady beat of an American-Indian drum, and the pageantry of a summer powwow. Threads of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota culture are woven through South Dakota’s history like a great tapestry that warms this nation’s rich and storied past. It is a timeless spirit still carried in the hearts of the state’s 62,000 Native Americans.
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FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO MAIN STREET:
: : : Bronze Statues of U.S. Leaders Create ‘The City of Presidents’
RAPID CITY HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN for its proximity to Mount Rushmore where towering stone portraits of four American presidents were carved from a pine-clad cliff. But visitors to the community today also encounter presidents on virtually every street corner.
This South Dakota community has literally become ‘The City of Presidents’ where 27 life-size bronze statues of the nation’s leaders now man downtown street corners.
“We’ve witnessed the incredible patriotism that has been created by Mount Rushmore National Memorial,” said Dallerie Davis, co-founder of The City of Presidents project. “It’s become iconic, a symbol of our country, our patriotism and who we hope to be and what we hope to accomplish as a nation. We trust that these presidential statues will be a continuation of that dream.”
Since its inception in 2000, as many as four presidential sculptures have been placed within the city’s historic district each year—two from the early years of the presidency and two from more recent administrations. By 2011, organizers expect to have all of the country’s leaders greeting visitors to Rapid City.
“On Mount Rushmore, we see four great presidents,” Davis said. “On Main Street, you’ll be able to see all of our presidents. When you see these leaders, you realize that some were great and others were not so exceptional. But it’s all a part of the process, a democratic ideal we must respect. Seeing each of the presidents will remind us of this democracy which is, in the history of the world, an extremely unique process.”
Created by five South Dakota artists — Lee Leuning, John Lopez, James Michael Maher, Edward Hlavka and James VanNuys — each of the $50,000 sculptures has been produced with the support of local benefactors or businesses. More impressively, each of the presidents is depicted in the context of their time. JFK is shown walking with John Jr., holding one of his son’s toy airplanes. FDR firmly grips a podium to steady himself against the crippling effects of polio as he addresses the nation. Nixon is posed in a Chinesedesign chair, his hands projecting a power posture as he negotiates with Mao Tse-tung.
To date, the presidential likenesses have weathered sun, rain and snow well, although President Harry Truman had a run-in with a Ford (the automobile not Nixon’s successor) earlier this year.
According to Rapid City police, an officer was pursuing a suspected intoxicated man driving a 1999 Ford Taurus in the early morning hours of March 2. When the Ford’s driver failed to negotiate a turn at a downtown intersection, his car slid into the statue of Truman, who was proudly holding the newspaper carrying the erroneous headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
The impact sheared Truman’s image from its stainless steel mounting pegs. The president suffered minor scrapes and a damaged lapel. The Ford was totaled. Its driver, who attempted to flee on foot, was apprehended by police a short time later and was charged with a multitude of offenses including reckless driving and driving under the influence.
After an extended ‘hospital stay’ and treatment that includes sandblasting, polishing and a re-patina, Truman will resume his pose on Mount Rushmore Road this summer.
IF YOU GO:
Information and a self-guided walking tour brochure available at 631 Main St., Rapid City. Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, June through September. For more information, call Davis at 605-342-7272.
SkyWest United Express serves Rapid City with daily flights to and from Chicago and Denver.
SkyWest Delta Connection serves Rapid City with daily flights to and from Salt Lake City.