(picture of our camp at Custer State Park, Black Hills, SD)
We got up at 6am to shower, pack up our camp and head out to Cody, WY, with a stop off at the only Catholic church we saw in the area. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is a tiny RC church in Keystone, SD. Mass is at 8am, and we camped about 30 minutes from there. So, we needed to get an early start. We made it five minutes after Mass had started, and surprisingly the place was packed, but I suspect mostly with vacationers. It was a lovely service with some heartfelt prayers, despite the singer’s lack of exact intonation, but her enthusiasm (and bravery) shall be praised and honored. I heard someone meet the priest with “Nice to see you here, Monsignor,” I guess he’d be from Rapid City, no clue, if I remember I’ll look it up on the web. Note to fellow Swansfielders: Danko managed to read the name of the other parish priest, his last name is Wirostek…any relation? (Yes, spelled with a W not a V, but I assume that linguistically the names are related, not necessarily family)
After Mass we ate breakfast near the Rushmore Mall, which appears to be a shopping Mecca for many who live miles around Rapid City. Then, we saw an amazing sight: a Starbucks, our first since Ohio (I’m sure Illinois has them, but we saw none in Indiana or Southern Minnesota, but then we saw NOTHING in Southern Minnesota, a sentiment shared by several fellow vacationers with whom we’ve chatted of late). Okay, Starbucks is nothing compared the greatness of God’s earth that we’ve encountered so far, but I really needed decent latte and Danko a well-brewed iced tea (and Solomia is hooked on their teas and juice blends). I shall now defend our vice: we love to experience new things, we will try anything, we aren’t big fans of fast food, and we love to experiment, however, Darka loves coffee and Starbucks does it right, Danko loves ice tea and they never fail to brew a good cup, and the kids have their favorites as well, better that as a treat than chicken nuggets. Yes, it is a chain, yes, some say it is over-priced, etc, etc…but we admit it, we are Starbucks addicts, and we have made peace with that truth. For anyone worrying about our health: Darka doesn’t drink flavored coffee, Danko gets unsweetened ice tea, and the kids dig the organic juices. Not too horrible a vice.
Okay, on to much more exciting adventures, next stop: Devils Tower, Wyoming. WOW!!!!!!!!! Still in the enchanting Black Hills region.
History: so here’s this big rock, familiar to many through the movie Close Encounter’s of the Third Kind. Many theories exist regarding the formation of this huge rock tower, among them Native creation stories, such as it being a rock that rose up high to save seven sisters from a big bear, whose claws made the deep crevices on the side. In one of the versions, the seven sisters decide to escape to the skies, and became a constellation known to us as The Big Dipper, in another version it’s not seven sisters but a group of brothers who kill all but two bears in the area to teach them a lesson that bears shouldn’t harm people, and that is why there are no bears in the Black Hills.
I don’t recall the exact geological theories, so I won’t attempt to explain them here, but I found the ranger’s talk on the history of the area fascinating. So basically the west was a mix of many tribes, some of which were forced out of the east coast of the US back in the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 1800’s there were 22 different native peoples living and fighting in the Wyoming and South Dakota area. The US government had a treaty with the tribes to give them these lands for their own, but col. Custer wrote in a surveying letter that when he pulls grass out of the ground in the Black Hills its roots are covered in gold. Well, this is obvious bunk, but it sure started a group of folks to pine for occupation and ownership of the Hills, so Custer’s small cavalry went up against 30,000 natives. Obviously, he didn’t win, but even though Custer was considered an impossible, uncooperative, selfish, and egotistical man, it was not taken well that the native tribes killed him, and so started another eradication of native peoples on American soil.
I find it interesting that much of the displays and pamphlets in the area give a very Native perspective to history, lots of emphasis on both sides given equal importance and respect and neither side really shown as the more important.
So, continuing the history, how did Devils Tower get its name? Actually, its amusing and maybe some would say kismet. So, the native tribes had various versions of Bear Lodge or Bear House. Col. Dodge came over in the late 1890’s (I think) and since he was not fluent in any of the local languages, he brought along a Native American from the east coast along as an interpreter. Some of you are jumping ahead and guessing what happened: when the name of the tower was asked of a local Native American, the interpreter didn’t hear “Bear’s Lodge” but “The House of the Bad God.” Col. Dodge wrote it down on his surveyor map and went home. Back in DC he figured that “The House of the Bad God” wasn’t an elegant name, so he “Americanized it” (as the ranger put it) and called it Devil’s Tower, which due to a clerical error later became Devils Tower (someone forgot the apostrophe). In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt declared Devils Tower the first national monument. Some have complained that the name should be changed, but that would take an act of congress. It can be done, but this particular ranger, who is of the Devils Tower Historical Society, feels that the name may have been a saving grace for the monument in that it’s intriguing name has brought more visitors versus the name Missouri River Buttes, similar formation 30 miles down the road from Devils Tower, about which very little people know, including this particular man who after thirty years of living in the area saw the Buttes just recently. So, perhaps, that misinterpretation was a good thing, for this tower as a national monument, but others would argue it opened up a whole can of worms.
Some Native communities are arguing that the tower is a sacred place and using it as a recreation area is insulting. This tower is very popular for rock climbers, been so since the end of the 19th century. Some Native Americans think that hammering stakes into the tower is like hammering into a living body. Many Native Americans come to pray at the tower and leave prayer cloths hanging in the trees, we as visitors and the rangers are forbidden to touch these cloths; they are removed only by Native Americans.
The month of June is closed to climbers so that Native communities can hold religious ceremonies at the tower. However, there is a lawsuit in the courts now appealing the decision to close the tower, a national monument, in the month of June for religious reasons because then this would be, as the claimants argue, a sanctioning of a religion by the federal government, which is, according to the lawsuit, unconstitutional. I am on neither side of the argument, but I am curious as to the outcome of this dispute.
NOTE: for future visits to Devils Tower, eat before you go into the park or pack a picnic. Again, we didn’t plan too well, we assumed we could at least get cold drinks up at the visitor center to accompany our picnic, but the visitor center is strictly a small bookstore and small and informative exhibit. We ate at a KOA “restaurant” at the entrance to the park…we should’ve eaten our picnic.
Since we miscalculated our time at Devils Tower, our time of arrival at Cody was 11pm. On our way in we wanted to take the “scenic” route, but due to the late hour decide to take the “not as much to see” route to get to Cody faster, as was recommended by a local who travels from DeSmet Lake to Cody (over 120 miles) for soccer games (that’s dedication, I think Beckham’s mission to make soccer more popular in the states should be an easy mission, although I still think if he were serious about his mission he would’ve done it on the east coast, but that’s another story). So…we drove through Big Horn National Forest, this is some of the “non-scenic” route…we are awed as to what is considered scenic!
Currently, we are at a Days Inn in Cody and we may not be back on-line for a week, but check in occasionally, perhaps there are a few Wi-Fi surprises waiting us in the Yellowstone area.
OH and PS, another good thing to get the kids: small aluminum stools on which to sit around the fire, didn’t want to drag their huge camping chairs, so hoping to pick up some stools tomorrow. So, that’s CamelBak Hydration backpacks, aluminum stools, and odor eaters…the van is taking on an interesting waft, odor, uh…stink that even the TWO Yankee Candle air fresheners cannot conquer, hmmm…perhaps we need to take more advantage of those nice clean free showers at the campgrounds.
Goodnight and sleep tight and hope you are enjoying the blog, please feel free to post comments and share thoughts. Roma, I was excited to read your comment about Wisconsin curds, we aren’t planning to hit WI on the way back home, but maybe next WI visit. ☺ Sounds yummy.
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