Waltzing Matilda: Our Big Day Out Touring Around The Blackhills Of SD

It was time for some more sight seeing, this is a town with lot of history. Today we decided to go and visit a little town called “Deadwood” Just driving to these places is amazing. The scenery is really beautiful and no photo can do any of it any justice at all. You have to see it with your own eyes. I feel very lucky to be able to just do that. For those of you that don't know this is the final resting place for “ James Butler Hickok” and “Martha Jane Burke” More widely known as WILD BILL and CALAMITY JANE. I just had to put myself between these two signs.

Below a Picture of Wild Bills Grave.

And next to Bill lies Calamity Jane.No headstone for a Jane but a Plaque on a brick wall.

I have to admit I was pretty excited to see these graves, they are people in history that you hear about but never think you would ever get up close and personal with like this.

A little history Lesson.

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The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 set off one of the last great gold rushes in the country. In 1876, miners moved into the northern Black Hills. That’s where they came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold…and Deadwood was born.
Practically overnight, the tiny gold camp boomed into a town that played by its own rules that attracted outlaws, gamblers and gunslingers along with the gold seekers. Wild Bill Hickok was one of those men who came looking for fortune. But just a few short weeks after arriving, he was gunned down while holding a poker hand of aces and eights – forever after known as the Dead Man’s Hand.
Deadwood is like a mini Las Vegas, Casinos on every corner and in-between. We couldn't find any parking any where so we decided to move on and continue our sight seeing trip.

Deadwood.

After such a great time in Deadwood we moved onto a little sleepy town that has about 7,000 residents. In the 1st week of August, during the famous Blackhills Bike Week, known mainly as Sturgis Week the population has swollen to a massive 700,000 . Below is what I cut and pasted from one of the Sturgis Bike week forums.

A sea of Bikes

The number of people going to Sturgis Bike Week has been growing. Crowds as large as 700,000 people have gathered in the scenic Black Hills for fellowship, fun and the riding - not to mention the vendors. The population of the town explodes during week leading up to Sturgis Bike Week. It doesn't start getting back to 'normal' until a couple of weeks after the huge event.

Below are some of the Pictures I took when we went to visit Sturgis.

While in Sturgis I was able to buy my sister (Julie) back in Australia a 2011 Sturgis flag for her bar. Hand picked by her “SISTA”. Must get that in the post –One day-Soon. A great day so far, one more stop on the way home. To the film set of Dances With Wolves, where they have a few buildings stored from the film, plus a fair bit of memorabilia.

Some pictures below of Dann and myself at this fascinating place. I have to admit I do like visiting places that have any thing to do with Movies and famous people.