Oh, the joys of sleeping in. We didn't get up until 9:00 local time and decided we'd take it easy all day and see Mt. Rushmore on the way home the next day.
We spent the day walking around Deadwood. We walked around in some stores and in the 10 saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was killed. Over the door, on the inside of the building, they have his "death chair" on display.
Then we saw a tour bus which was leaving in about an hour. We walked a bit down the street and came to this building that says it was the site of the original 10 saloon and the place where Hickok was really shot. Ok, so we visited both death locations. This one was way more interesting, with detailed histories of the individuals involved in the murder and the two trials of Jack McCall.
We didn't get to finish reading before it was time to go back for the tour. We got the last two seats on the bus and off we went. There wasn't much to the tour at first. We learned that there are two creeks that meet under the street in town. Then we climbed up Mt. Moriah to the cemetary where Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. The cemetary is 800 feet above Main Street. Very steep, narrow roads and we were in a big bus. The driver was very good.
We got out to climb up to Hickok's grave where everyone took pictures and then stood in the hot sun for half an hour or so while the guide talked about Hickok's life and times. The view was impressive. The tour guide told us they had to put concrete walls around all the graves to keep them from washing down the hill during storms. Gross. You know how they found out they needed those. Somebody's ancestors washed up downtown. They don't bury anyone in the cemetary anymore and that may be why.
Everyone who died in Deadwood was buried or reburied in the cemetary except the Catholics, who had their own cemetary. They originally buried some people elsewhere, but the town decided to build houses in that spot, so they moved the remains uphill. There are stories about how they missed some of the unmarked graves and built houses over them. Tour guide says it's a creepy neighborhood.
We ate a late lunch at what used to be the Gem Theater. That was pretty cool since the Gem is a major location in the show Deadwood.
Every building in Deadwood, with the possible exception of churches, has several slot machines, including the small grocery store. We lost 5 cents in nickel slots and that was enough gambling. One interesting fact about South Dakota: with legalized gambling, there are quite a few gas station/casinos in the state.
We left town and drove up to the Broken Boot gold mine for an underground tour. The tour guide wasn't too interested in being a guide. The first thing he told us is that since we had such a large group, we wouldn't stop in the first tunnel and he'd just explain it all later. I suppose it may have been because in large groups, there isn't room for everyone to see what he's talking about, but still, we didn't feel we were getting our money's worth. He even mentioned a couple places in the mine that some tour guides(but not him, obviously) would lead people into if they(the guides) felt like it. We were free to take pictures or rocks as we pleased. The tour was only about ten minutes, but it was kinda fun.
Then we drove up to Lead to see what was there. It's a small mining town where I guess the mine is still in operation. I saw a sign for a Catholic church and we thought we ought to go to mass so we drove around looking for the church. It took us half an hour just to find it, only to find out from a man in the parking lot that they moved the mass up a half hour so we were too late. He grew up in the town, though he now lives somewhere else, and he had no idea they would change the time. The didn't bother to change the signs along the road. So we gave up on mass and went back to the motel to rest and watch tv.
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