Another Visit to Waimea Canyon

I think that I would have to say the Waimea Canyon is Granpa's favorite place on the whole island.  The views are spectacular, it's always cooler up here - sometimes lots cooler, and he doesn't have to worry about me snorkeling outta sight!

The road begins in the area where Captain Cook landed lo' those many years ago, and winds up the side of an old volcanic cone.  Kaua'i is the oldest of the island chain, therefore has experienced the most erosion and "soil" creation, therefore grows more vegetation, and is therefore known as the Garden Island.  When the Hawaiian weather forecasters talk about Kaua'i they say, "the Garden Island" more often than "Kaua'i."

It begins as a gentle valley.  There's a farm in the bottom of the valley off to the right. (I hate to show someone's private residence.)  Each layer of the canyon represents a different eruption and subsequent lava flow.

As we travel farther up the road the soil turns red - very red.  Waimea is Hawaiian for "red."  This soil washes down the mountain side and into the ocean in the area of Waimea town, so the water is nearly always cloudy.  Not much snorkeling goes on around here.

Once upon a time three rivers flowed from the center of Kauai from the Alaka'i Swamp at the top.  All three ran down the gentle slopes of the shield volcano.  Suddenly, a geologic fault caused that flank to collapse and the three rivers combined as they followed the path of least resistance to the sea.  This resulted in a variety of sharp, broken chasms being eroded away.  This next view from the Waimea Canyon Lookout is breath-taking in person.  Wild winds whip clothing, hair, cameras - everything feels as if it will be ripped from you without mercy.  It's exhilarating!

After enjoying the wild Kaua'i chickens up here in the parking lot, we hop back in the car and continue the upward climb.  We pass a couple of pull-offs and hiker/hunter roads.  Beyond the 15-mile marker, we pass the Koke'e Museum.  We'll stop here on the way back down, but Granpa is on a quest to get to the top!  Well, almost to the top.  At the very, very top is a parking lot for hikers willing to attempt the Alaka'i Swamp trail.  We tried it once, and it was, well, a swamp...  There is supposed to be a boardwalk, but it was covered in mud, and the patches of non-boardwalk trail were p-r-ret-t-y slippery.  We decided the better part of wisdom was to leave it to the younger folks.  Granpa works in the hospital; people DO die up here because things are slippery and the rocks are so crumbly.  One never knows when they are about to lose their footing... and it's a lo-o-ong way to the bottom.

THIS is the view from the top of the canyon, but look quickly because in a heartbeat cloud-like mists can begin forming and moving silently, stealthily down the mountain side obscuring views completely.  It's a mile or better down to that beach.  There is no settlement down there today, but that is where the Tahitian's first set up housekeeping.

On a clear day you can see forever, all the way to where the ocean falls off of the edge of the planet it seems!  One is never sure whether those dark patches in the water are cloud shadows or cooled lava flows on the ocean floor.  It is so far away that a boat's wake is the only thing that betrays the boats  passing. 

Off to the left you see white peaks.  There is a patch that appears to be barren soil with absolutely nothing there.  I ask Granpa to zoom in with his camera.  Well, looky here...

It's the more adventurous folks!  They hiked here (I think its about a 7-mile hike), and I bet they got MUCH better photos than we did!  Some day I think I'd like to try this hike, but I'm told it involves some really serious moves.  Maybe in another lifetime, eh?

Nisei Soldiers and Their Texas Connection

"Nisei" is a Japanese language term used for children born of Japanese parents in other countries.  This post is about the nisei who joined World War II as American soldiers.  Hawai'i, of course, was not an American state until after World War II, but their men formed the 100th Infantry Battalion.

Some thought that, while the American military allowed nisei to join, they were given the worst, most dangerous jobs because of their heritage, some even said they were merely used as "cannon fodder."  But this incident points to something much different - and there's a Texas connection.

It was October of 1944 in France.

The 1st Battalion of the 141st Texas Regiment (a battalion consists of a headquarters and two or more companies of men) were in the Vosges Mountains of France.  It was a low range of mountains in eastern France near the German border.  The Allies had pushed almost 400 miles from their August 1944 ANVIL-DRAGOON landings in southern France, scooping up some 89,000 German prisoners in their path.  At the Vosges, they linked up with some of Patton's Third Army and completed the continuous line of assault Eisenhower wanted.  Meanwhile, German high commanded ordered their army to dig in and stay in the Vosges.  They were ordered to halt the Allied advance, ordered to not allow the Allies to take any German soil.

Major General John E. Dahlquist, commander of the "Texas" Division, was green as a gourd (as we say in Texas) and wouldn't listen to his more experienced, seasoned, veteran men.  He was twice threatened with losing his command if he didn't hustle his troops to keep up with everyone else.  Now he pushed them too far, too fast, taking heavy casualties on the way.  Two hundred and seventy-five Texans from the 36th Division found themselves on a densely forested ridge headed toward the town of St. Die and out too far in front of the rest of their forces. They became cut off, surrounded by Germans who zeroed in on them from three sides. For two days, shells blasted their positions, but the Texans continued to resist, to fight on, even with very little food and very little water - and running low on ammunition.  Two attempts to break through to them failed. The Press dubbed them "The Lost Battalion."

Finally, on October 26, Dahlquist ordered the exhausted men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT), to return to the wooded slopes, rescue the Lost Battalion, as the Texans would come to be called, and restore his reputation.  The 442nd was organized on March 23, 1943, after more than a year during which Americans of Japanese descent were declared enemy aliens and designated "4-C," by the U.S. War Department.  It had taken all that time plus several key events to convince the Roosevelt Administration that these men should be allowed to enter combat for their country.

Now Dahlquist ordered the 442nd RCT to rescue those Texans.  "For five days, fighting from tree to tree in heavy fog, they tried to get to the trapped men. On the morning of October 30 they were just 1,000 yards from the survivors -- but pinned to the steep slope by artillery and machine-gun fire. Finally, they had had enough. I Company and K Company rose to their feet and charged up the hillside, hurling grenades into German machine gun nests and firing from the waist as they climbed. I Company had started into the forest with 185 men; just eight walked out unhurt. K Company had begun with 186 men; only 17 emerged on foot. All the rest were dead or wounded or missing."  --http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5225.htm

All tolled, the 442nd nisei and Hawaiian draftee and volunteer soldiers suffered 800 casualties, including 54 killed in action, in those six day of nearly nonstop combat in the Vosqes Mountains of eastern France, to rescue 211 men from Texas.


On November 12, General Dahlquist announced he wanted to review the 442nd, to thank them for what they had done. When the battered unit appeared, Dahlquist grew irritated at their sparse numbers, ignorant at how much they had sacrificed.

My apologies to all of the men of the 442nd and their families who sacrificed so very much for those 211 Texans.  Thank you, mahalo, for all you have done.  I believe that your actions settled once and for all the question of whether the nisei soldiers were being used as "cannon fodder" or whether they were given the most difficult assignments because of their outstanding performance.

Eventually, the 442nd, bolstered by the combat-hardened 100th Infantry Battalion, comprised of Japanese American draftees from Hawai'i, became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service"  --http://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team/

Rainbow Bark Trees

Having spent over a year on the island of Kaua'i back in 2010 we searched out a lot of what there was to see then.  One, of course, expects to see ocean and beaches and sea animals, because the Hawaiian islands are all volcanic in origin we expected mountains, and the tropical weather promises a lot of blooming things, but the discovery of Rainbow trees was a marvel!  We mentioned these beauties to someone who has been here for several years, and she hadn't seen or heard of them.  So we are on a mission to share the mystery with her.

We turned up into the Wailua Valley, drove past the "Fantasy Island" waterfall, and kept on going through island neighborhoods, and going, and going, and going.  The farther we went the more windy the road.  Debris began to litter the ever narrowing road.  Tammy thought we might have a touch of crazy in us.  (Well, she might not be far off base there...  The road became so wind-e that she and I began to be a bit carsick.  Could have been because we were cranking our heads around and around trying to see the beautiful foliage!)

Finally we came to the low-water crossing John and I had been anticipating, and the end of the pavement.  HERE was a perfectly manicured park and an oasis in a mountainside of growth.  They suggest you take a deep breath and, because this place feels like a giant oxygen factory, you will almost get a buzz from the purity of the air!!

We carefully drive across the running water and park on the far side of the river.  We've tried driving farther up the unpaved portion of the road before, but you'd need a monster truck with about three feet of clearance to accomplish most of it.  The rent car companies here make you sign disclaimers specifically saying that you will NOT attempt to drive certain areas of the island.  (Smart folks!)  So we limit ourselves to this particular portion - besides, it's the prettiest!

You might get a clue that this unique tree is of the eucalyptus family from the look of its base.  A better idea might be had from the leaves - but they are SO FAR UP!!  These guys grow to enormous heights!

Actually, they are Rainbow Eucalyptus trees, native only in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea or the Philippines.  They are also known as Mindanao gum trees.   I have no clue how they got to the island of Kaua'i, but they've been here a long, long time.

"The unusual phenomenon is caused by patches of bark shedding at different times. The different colors are therefore indicators of the age of the bark: Freshly shed outer bark will reveal the bright green inner bark. This darkens over time and changes from blue to purple and then reaches orange and maroon tones."

Read more at http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/forests/news-most-colourful-tree-earth?image=1#GpMmDc3xGXXgbOfk.99

 Isn't that just absolutely gorgeous!!

You know, coconut trees aren't native to Hawai'i either.  Some guy back in Captain Cook's day thought he'd make his fortune in coconuts, bought a plantation here, brought and planted his coconuts, and waited for the big payday.  Unfortunately for him, coconut trees don't mature for twenty years - so he went broke.  (My kinda luck for sure!)  The back story on these Rainbow trees? No clue.



Can you believe that this tree is so common in the Philippines that it's used for pulp wood!  They cut down one of the prettiest trees God ever made to make paper!

And, of course, one of God's cutest creations, the koala bear, makes it's home in the Eucalyptus tree, only coming down long enough to make its way to another Eucalyptus - and hoping to find another koala just waiting to be asked out on a date!  

These trees can grow between five to eight feet a year and can get as tall as 220 feet!  The trunk can get as thick as six to eight feet around!  Why, that's almost as big around as I am!!

Thar She Blows! Humpback Whales!

The very first thing Granpa and I do is look for the whales!

The humpbacks vacation from Alaska and the West Coast to Hawai'i during the winter months, giving birth to their babes in the warm central North Pacific and seeking out an "escort" for those females in estrus.  They are only here through March - sometimes leaving earlier, sometimes a bit later.

So, we are lookin', lookin', lookin'.  Granpa's got his camera with the monopod to steady it in the fierce Trade Winds; I've got my binoculars at the ready with len's polished and focused.  We've chosen a spot on shore with a wide, wide view of the ocean and waters only hundreds of feet deep as opposed to thousands of feet deep.  The whales seem to prefer about 600 foot deep shelves.   We watch.  We wait.  But not for long!!

This is our first assurance that the whales are still here!  The mist is the result of an underwater blow indicating that the whale is about to surface!!  When we were here on Kauai the last time this was about as good a picture as we got of whale season.  Since then, John got a new camera for Christmas that will take a series of shots in rapid succession.  We're hoping for something more this time.

Adult female humpbacks are rarely alone in Hawaiian waters.  She will usually be leading a group of males or is being chased by a single male.

She may have given birth upon arrival here in late September or early October, and have an "escort" for herself and the baby (calf), though escorts may only hang around for a very short time.  I can almost imagine the whale-eyes he's making at her as if saying, "Hey, babe.  How was you're trip down from Alaska?  These Hawaiian waters surely do warm the soul, huh?  Hope the delivery of that darlin' calf was an easy one.  Well, gotta fly!  See you around the coastline again real soon..."

What?  You think it's different from species to species?  Maybe - but not from male to male.  (Just kidding, Granpa.  YOU were different from ALL the rest, and that's why I chose YOU!)

The lead whale will throw its tail up and the chaser will lunge and dive from behind.  (The first photo was taken into a rising sun; the second in a mid-day chase scene.)

 If you see this lead "fluke swish" from the front or back, it's hard to see the chaser's back as it lunges.

Getting a good shot of the chaser's back you may miss the fluke swish altogether ...

(Nothing in life is simple.)

There are eleven documented populations of humpback whales in the oceans.  The one that migrates to Hawai'i comes 2,700 miles from Alaska, leaving behind their deep feeding and resting waters.  Relatively speaking, Hawaiian waters are more shallow which help whales accomplish several things.  First, it concentrates the whales in a smaller area, hence they can find each other.  Next, the shallow banks seem to allow for more successful reproduction, and better survival of those calves born from last years mating.  (Notice the word, "seem."  Here's one I find very hard to believe: The actual mating of humpback whales has never been seen, filmed, or documented.  Everything about it that you might hear is pure guesswork!)

One thing that seems to be consistently true about these whales is that they are never totally and completely consistent.  Seems a few whales here and there stray from their "population" into the breeding grounds of a neighboring population.  For instance, and "Alaskan" whale may end up off the coast of Mexico, or Hawai'i, or Japan.  No one knows why.  I'm sure it makes for better genetic mixing, but why do they do it?  Do they get lost (probably males because they're not about to ask for directions!), or are they juveniles in rebellion, or is there some primal plan going on here?  Also, apparently not all whales abandon their Alaskan homes every winter.  And whales may breed en route, so they don't have to migrate at all...  See?  They are consistently inconsistent - which may be how they manage to keep a few of their secrets!  I LIKE 'EM !!

 An unsuspected breach

Blogging is not all I do...

As Travelers, we stay in touch with our closest friends through Facebook.  These are a few of my recent status updates (without getting political.)

When our sons were little, I would watch them struggle with a new challenge. I loved watching their little minds work - the eyes tell all! When learning began to turn into frustration I would then, and only then, offer to help. If they said yes to me, then I would do all in my power to help them learn how to overcome the problem. I wouldn't do it for them. I would help them LEARN how to overcome the problem.

God is like that. First we must recognize our need, then we must acknowledge Him and allow His power to work through us until we are made stronger. It is so very simple, and can be so very gentle - IF we allow Him into our lives before chaos and calamity take over.

*****************************

There are those who exhaust themselves trying to stay above chaos and calamity, believing that they don't need God, that they are strong enough in and of themselves to overcome all things. Well, they might be. But stand up next to God. Now who's stronger?

One of our sons is as stubborn as a mule (well, maybe more than one). I had a precious girlfriend when the boys were small who had the wisdom of saints. She pointed out that there was good stubborn and bad stubborn. As adults, we call good stubborn "patience." So I worked with him throughout his childhood pointing out when he was being good stubborn and when he was being bad stubborn. Over the years he gravitated to the good stubborn as his motis opperendi. (Did I spell that right?)

His most wonderful wife is still prayerfully working on him, but he's a Godly man (and an alright guy, too!)

Are you being stubborn in your relationship with Christ? Let go and let God. It takes a mighty man (or woman) to confess the error of their ways and ask Jesus into their heart. But that's okay. It took a mighty God to allow His Son to die for your sins. God knew he could resurrect Jesus, but He had to watch the death first. God did it because He loves you, too. Accept it. Accept Him. Just tell Him you believe in what Jesus did, ask Him to forgive you, and the let go and let God guide your every thought.  Easter is celebrating the Resurrection of Christ.  Resurrect Him in your heart, now, too.  Find a church service - maybe a sunrise service - and totally commit your life to Christ.

Amen. So let it be said, so let it be done!

 **************************************

 If God is not in your thoughts, he's probably not in your actions, either.

 

Hawaiian Digs

Thanks to our agency, Sonotemps, for working out a "roof" for us.  It is greatly appreciated.  February is one of the high months for tourism in Hawai'i, and on short notice, there is no single place we could find that was available for five weeks.

The bed is only a double, but it may be the best mattress we've had in our travels.  It's in a corner, with a window at the head and one to the side.  We're on the second floor, and so the breeze is very good - in fact, I had to go buy a wee blanket for myself!

The apartment has a shower tub.  The last time we were on Kaua'i we had what I called a "Menehune" shower - so small we couldn't bend over without one end or the other hitting a wall. (Scroll down the left column of titles - way down - to read about our last Kaua'i contract.)

There is only a single chair, but it's not bottomed out and has a padded footstool.  Very comfortable!  It's a "barrel" chair, so when I'm on the computer I have to dig my elbows into my sides and only move my wrists over the keyboard.  I look at it as an incentive to lose weight, so that I'll have more elbow room!

I've spent a good bit of time cleaning the kitchen.  These are my three best friends.

 

 
Tis the first thing I do when we get to a new place.  The spray bottles are 99 cents each at Wal-Mart, then I buy dish detergent, ammonia, and bleach, (all very affordable) put some in each sprayer and water them down.  That and a Scotch Brite pad, and I can clean anything!

I think I've about got it done now.  I've never seen a sink, stove top and refrigerator all in one compact unit before.

I didn't even attempt to clean the drip pans - just bought new ones for a couple of dollars apiece.  The refrigerator doesn't work - and is beyond cleaning - but at one point it was a pretty cool idea! There is now a small stand-alone refrigerator that doubles as a surface to put the microwave on.

There were no pots and pans.  We bought a small skillet for bacon and eggs, and a porcelain pot for a vegetable.  It had no lid, so I ordered a pizza (Yeah, right, Granma, you got the pizza just for the box.  So why did you eat the whole thing!!!)  I cut a circle out of the cardboard, wrapped it in foil, poked a hole through the center and stuck cardboard strips through it for a handle.  Works like a charm - and I never have to wash it - just replace the foil !!

This toaster oven is the sum total of my oven space, so our meals pretty much consist of microwave-able fare.  Therefore, we had to renew our Costco card.  Took some dedication to get this baby cleaned up, but she's mirror perfect now!

The TV is only about 12" and is analog only.  It got 11 channels - and some of those not too clear.  We opted to rent a 32" digital flat screen for about $3 a day ($100 a month), so now we get a gazillion channels, and Granpa is happy when he has to stay close because he's on call.  (I very much like to keep my man happy!)

Everything we accumulate will have to be donated to the Salvation Army or given away when we leave.  Ordinarily we just pack it up in the car and take it back to Texas.  But we're not payin' airfare on another suitcase to get these things home.

John's on call this weekend.  There's a beach and the port where cruise ships put in only about 2 miles from here, so we might hang out there with binoculars looking for whales breaching - or watch some of the gazillion TV channels...

Just thought you might wonder how we get settled in at a new location!

A Touch of History for Hawai'i

The Polynesians, of course, were the first to discover the Hawaiian Islands (only they weren't called Hawai'i until many centuries later.)  Sometime around 1300 A.D. the Polynesians virtually stopped all voyages to these islands, and the Hawaiians developed a sophisticated culture of their own making.

Almost 500 years later, when Captain Cook landed on Kaua'i and named these islands the Sandwich Islands (after his mentor, the Earl of Sandwich, back in England), he found about 400,000 "native Hawaiians."  They were a friendly, self-sufficient (had to be!) and very productive people.  As he moved inland to the east and north, exploring the island, Cook might have seen something like this:

The Hawaiians built and lived in grass houses (pili) (without the wood and glass windows in Cook's time...),

 
built saltwater fishponds on the shores called loko i'a, made feather-crested headgear (mahioles) and created petroglyphs called ki'i pohaku.  These things were not replicated anywhere else in the world.  They were completely and distinctively Hawaiian.

When you arrive here, if you're going to take a taxi, you had better learn their language.  It looks like English, but it ain't English!  If you give the taxi driver an address in English pronunciation, he will have no idea where to take you - even if he himself is a New Yorker or a Texan!

The first missionaries to arrive found no written language and so created one using only 12 letters.  (Why?  N-o-o-o idea.)  There are five vowels : A, E, I, O, U.  That's cool, but they aren't pronounced the same way as OUR vowels.  There were only seven consonants:  H, K, L, M, N, P, and W.  These ARE pronounced the same as ours, except for the W which might sound like a V.  That's the easy part.

Vowels are like this:
A - as in Ah if stressed, or above if not stressed
E - as in say if stressed or dent if not stressed
I -  as in bee
O - as in no
U - as in boo

There's a particular type of lava called 'a'a.  That would be pronounced ah-ah. (See the stress marks on both letters?)  A Hawaiian chief is called Ali'i (ah-LEE-ee).  Check these out:  hala (HA-la) and hale (HA-leh).  One is a tree and the other a building.  You will be known as a haole (HOW-leh), a white man.  Perhaps the better part of wisdom is to hand the taxi driver your address written on a piece of paper...

Within 100 years after trading ships and exploring adventurers arrived with diseases and immigrant workers, the native Hawaiian population dwindled to just 40,000.

There is an island off of the coast of Kaua'i known as the Forbidden Island because it is forbidden for any non-native Hawaiian to step foot on the island - even for a picnic!  It has a population of about 200.  The island's real name is Ni'ihau.  (You might remember the movie "South Pacific" referencing the "Forbidden Island.)

Home to Texas and Off to Kaua'i

Now it's a mad dash for home across mostly familiar territory, dropping down through Wyoming and Colorado, nick the corner of New Mexico and into the Texas panhandle.  Home, sweet home!

But before we get there, we are blessed yet again with some wildlife.  Pronghorn antelope are hardly American looking, but they sure are American.  The American Indians thought the antelope hide was the prettiest and best.  They liked very much to make wedding clothes out of antelope hide.

These deer were literally hunkered down on the side of the road.  They waited for us to stop the car and back up!

 This one was hiding by himself a bit to the left in the brush.  Pretty good camouflage, yes?

Aren't they absolutely exquisite?  Don't cha just wanna hug 'em?

There is a snow storm moving in on us.  We hope that we will at least make Cheyenne, Wyoming tonight - maybe even Denver, Colorado.

Beautiful, isn't it?  You shoulda been there!  The snow came down fast and thick, but before we got to Denver the weather lifted, and we actually made it almost to New Mexico.  After spending the night in Trinidad, Colorado, we drove on home to East Texas making it there Tuesday evening.

Finally ... Mount Rushmore!

This is it folks.  There's an interpretive center and a huge gift store, and there is this.  Granpa is delighted.  He apparently has secretly wanted to show me Mount Rushmore for years.  He saw it as a little boy, and he was determined to get me here before we got too old and decrepit to travel. (Which, at our age, will be sooner rather than later.)  He's happier than I am, I think!  We've discovered so many wonderful, fun things in our travels, but this one is really special to me, because of him.  Thank you, my sweetheart!

It's pretty cold here in February, but we almost have the place to ourselves because of that.  The Park Ranger says less than 50 people have shown up today - compared to thousands a day during the peak summer season.  I'm not big on crowds, so this is perfect!  (Well, in the winter you don't get an opportunity to take the big fancy tour.) 

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

 

Theodore Roosevelt

 

Abraham Lincoln

Texas Fishin'

Our grandson, Colt (named for the horse AND the gun), loves to fish.  If there's three drops of water in a footprint I think he'd throw in a hook just because.  That boy would go fishin' in a barrel.  Well, yesterday he and his brother, Cody, were fishin' in a creek behind their dad's house in about a foot of water.  (Like I said, any puddle will do.)  Colt asked me to blog his results, so here they are:

First you bait the hook:

 And then you catch the unexpected:

Yup, that's a water moccasin - a five foot long water moccasin.  Colt likes killin' snakes as much as he likes fishin.'  But what all-Texas boy wouldn't?  You know you're a redneck when you have rattlesnake and water moccasin in your freezer.  (And you wonder why people in Texas carry guns!)

What do you do then?  Re-bait the hook!

Wild Bill Hickok and Deadwood, South Dakota

The most famous resident of Deadwood, Dakota Territory (South Dakota)

In 1868, the U.S. government gave the Lakota Sioux ownership of the Dakota Black Hills by signing the Fort Laramie Treaty.  About five years later, there was a financial recession back east and some thought what was needed was an infusion of gold.  (That's it.  Add more money, don't look back to see what caused the problem in the first place and modify behavior, thereby preventing future recessions.  Will we ever learn??)  

The next year, 1874, General George Armstrong Custer leads the 7th Cavalry into the Black Hills ostensibly to look for a good place to build a fort.  He just happened to have two experienced gold miners with him.  (What are the odds of that "just happening?")  Lo and behold, they discover gold at French Creek, near today's Custer, South Dakota.

A year later, in the northern Black Hills, an even richer deposit is found, and the stampede to Deadwood Gulch is on! 

Just a year later, according to Deadwood's website, "Colorado Charlie Utter and his brother Steve organize a wagon train from George, Colorado to the gold fields of Deadwood and the Black Hills. The wagons pass through Cheyenne, Wyoming picking up over 100 passengers.  Among them are: Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Madam Mustache, Dirty Em and "working” girls.  The wagon train arrives around July 12, 1876."  Just three weeks later, Wild Bill Hickok is dead, shot in the back of the head, holding what has become known in poker as a Dead Man's Hand:  aces and eights. Amazing that he would be eternally linked to a town he only spent three weeks in!

Hickok is buried in Mount Moriah cemetery.  It's a cold, slippery walk through there to pay homage to the past, but it's obvious lots of folks do it - even in February's chilly weather.

Over the next few weeks, Calamity Jane spread the rumor that she and Hickok had been lovers.  That's doubtful since Hickok had a new wife, Agnes, back in Cincinnati to whom he wrote letters after arriving in Deadwood.  Regardless, Calamity's dying wish was to be buried next to Hickok.  Over twenty years later, that's exactly what happened.

Population estimates for Deadwood at the time were anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 - the largest population ever in its history.

In 1877, the Homestake Mining Company was bought by mining mogul George Hearst and became the deepest, longest-operating and most profitable gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. Cool!  That year a Chinatown also develops in lower Deadwood.  (Woohoo!  Granpa could live there for sure, huh?)

In 1878, Deadwood gets its first telephones - just one year after President Hayes had phones installed in the White House!

Two years after Chinatown is established in Deadwood the city government finds it necessary to attempt controlling the use of opium by taxing and licensing the opium dens.  (Who says Americans are the only capitalists?  Opium dens were profit centers!)  (And, by the way, Granpa CAN'T live there!!)  That same year, Deadwood suffers the first of several city-wide fires, destroying over 300 buildings and leaving some 2,000 people homeless.  Within six months they had rebuilt the town with brick and stone structures.  Even so, the 1880 population had dwindled to about 3,700.

In 1883 the first electric lights are turned on in Deadwood.   (Nikola Tesla didn't showcase electric lights at the Chicago World's Fair until ten years later!)  (Tesla was Edison's rival.)

In 1889, South Dakota legislators pass prohibition in May, and South Dakota is admitted to statehood in November.

1890 sees the population drop to about 2,000.  Ol' Custer's 7th Cavalry massacres the Lakota Indians near Wounded Knee Creek.  (But Custer himself had been killed at Little Big Horn in 1876.)

A second fire hits the Main Street district of Deadwood in 1894 taking out Seth Bullock's hardware store, so Seth Bullock builds a 64-room sandstone hotel.  (That's HUGE for 1894!)  This remains even today - and some say ol' Seth's ghost still roams the hallways at night.

In 1898 a provision is added to South Dakota's constitution making gambling and prostitution illegal. Deadwood's population rebounds to about 3,500. 

In 1903, Wind Cave, found in the area of Deadwood, becomes the nation’s seventh national park. Today, Wind Cave National Park is the world’s fourth longest cave.

Five years later, President Theodore Roosevelt declares Jewel Cave a National Monument thereby providing for its preservation. Jewel Cave is currently the world’s second longest cave with 147 miles.  (Take THAT Wind Cave!)

In 1911 President William Howard Taft visits Deadwood.  I guess it's because of the railroads that he was getting around the country so good.  If you'll go to our early post about Centre Hill in Virginia you will find him there, too!  Taft was the first president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C.

The rest is pretty much what I would call modern history.  Today Deadwood is not much bigger than the old timey photo at the top of this post.  If you want a quick biography of ol' Wild Bill, click on the link below.  It's said that he killed as many as 100 men in gunfights during his life - all of them "legal" kills - he was anti-slavery, acted as a Union spy during the Civil War, drove a stagecoach, cleaned up lawless towns as a sheriff, and acted for two years in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show before turning up dead in Deadwood.

http://www.biography.com/people/wild-bill-hickok-40262?page=2

And Yet Another Surprise!

I'm tellin' ya' folks, you gotta get outta your house, outta the airplanes, get in your cars and stay off of the Interstates!  Here we are just a few miles down the road from tinsy-tiny Buffalo, South Dakota and we find...

Notice in fine print at the top of the sign, "The True..."

Apparently there is a fancy monument a bit further down the road, just north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota marking the "Center of the Nation."  But it's apparently not the TRUE center.  (I'd bet there's a story there somewhere, but I don't know who to ask about it.)
 

Now, when I open the road atlas and locate Belle Fourche, South Dakota, I don't see it as being the "center" of the nation. There seems to be several places that claim that, like Lebanon, Kansas. There is a reason, though, for all of the confusion. 

The geographic center of the contiguous (lower) 48 states is about four miles west of Lebanon, Kansas, at 98°35' West 39°50' North.  That's pretty much on the Kansas - Nebraska border.  You're not gonna believe the "scientific" way that was originally determined:  In 1918 the Coast and Geodetic Survey people made a cardboard cutout of the contiguous 48 states, balanced it on a pin and - there it was!  Believe it or not, when they really got scientific and used modern GPS kinda stuff, they were only off by about 20 miles.  Amazing.

In 1959, with the addition of Hawai'i and Alaska to the United States, the geographic center of the entire United States did move to the South Dakota location. 

Having said that, the Geodetic Survey no longer endorses any location as the center of the U.S. (because of changing coastlines), so - take your pick.  The one in Kansas has a wedding chapel next to it, though, and a picnic table...  but the Hawaiians and Alaskans might take exception to your counting them out.

South Dakota

 At sunrise, as we head into South Dakota, we begin to see hills.

 We begin to see serious wildlife for the first time since leaving Texas.

We've never seen pheasants in the wild before, so this is really cool!

This will be the second time John has ever seen an eagle in the wild.  It did the same thing the other one did - took off, did a fly around, and came back to pose for a few more photo ops!  I like the rosy dawn color of the sky.

 The American Plains - where the deer and the antelope play...

Almost feels like home!