A Day in Sturgis & Deadwood, SD

Monday, June 8 -- Today we visited two towns in South Dakota...Sturgis and Deadwood. Sturgis is the location of the huge, huge motorcycle gathering each August, as well as the site of Fort Meade and the US Cavalry Museum. Fort Meade was deactivated in the 1990's and is used now for officers' training. Deadwood was a sophisticated yet violent western town. It was born 133 years ago when a fabulously rich gold strike was discovered in Deadwood. Hickok, Earp, Calamity Jane and other legendary figures were there. Then we drove to the National Cemetery, the emotional highlight of my day. Here are a couple photos from our Fort Meade visit.
Photos taken in the US Cavalry Museum.
German flag taken down from balcony in Germany by US Cavalry soldier.Strong KKK influence in town named Belle Fourche near Ft. Meade and the border. In Deadwood we witnessed the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, heard about Calamity Jane, got photo of Hickok and Hickok's assassin, Jack McCall, and Calamity Jane (Helen). Then we visited the graves of Hickok and Jane.
Wild Bill's gravesite. It was first made of wood but tourists destroyed it taking small splinters. Then it was made of marble but tourists also defaced it so badly it had to be replaced with bronze and circled with a fence.Calamity Jane's gravesite. She requested to be buried next to 'Wild Bill'.
Lastly we visited the National Cemetery. An awesome site. 13,000 gravestones of US soldiers with 41,000 bodies which includes some of their family members. Truly an emotional experience. The cemetery is eerily quiet and absolutely beautiful.
It's difficult selecting photos from 100s taken to try to depict what we saw.
Tomorrow we leave for Casper, Wyoming and home to Idaho to fish.