May 29th - Sturgis & Spearfish

The weather was great today. Mostly sunny with a high of 66 and a low last night of 39. The 39 really didn't seem all that cold. We didn't pay any attention to how cold it was supposed to get and our bedroom windows were open all night. At night we only leave the front heat pump active. We had the thermostat for it turned down to 60. I don't think it even ran excessively.

Today we "backtracked" to take a look at Sturgis & Spearfish, Montana. Last Friday we spent the night at a rest area, on I-90, that was very near Spearfish. We (Kathy) probably drove 160 miles today while looking around.

Sturgis, at least without all the Harley's that are there in August, wasn't all that impressive. Spearfish, on the other hand was quite impressive.

We first went to the DC Booth Historic Fish Hatchery. It is currently more of a historic site than an active hatchery, but they still raise fish, They release 50,000 8-10" trout a year into South Dakota streams. The hatchery and the adjacent park are a real feather in Spearfish's cap. They provide a beautiful setting for a "day in the park."

http://www.visitspearfish.com/thingstodo/attractions/dcboothhistoricfishhatchery/

You can buy fish food, it comes out of quarter vending machines, to feed the trout. We fed the smaller ones. It is fun to see them make the water boil as you throw the food pellets into the water. The larger ones are in pond that is built against a "basement" wall which contains glass panels. You can go down and watch them through the panels. The photo below is looking down at them from the observation area. These are 15-18" long.

 In the early 1900's they used rail cars to transport the fish to the area, since trout are not native in the Dakota's. This is one of the "fish cars" that was used to transport them. It is 81' long and was built expressly for the purpose of transporting fish. Five men travelled with the fish. A "boss", three "workers", and their cook. the car had a small office in one end and a bathroom and kitchen in the other end.

 The "boss" had his bunk in his "office", the other men had bunks in the main part of the car. There was an ice storage area in the car. The workers had to regularly chip ice from ice blocks (there was room for the ice) and put in on top of the containers of fish, which run along the bottom sides of the cars. As the ice melted the cold water dripped into the water containing the fish. Without the ice the water would have gotten to warm and the fish would have died. The cooler water also held more oxygen. One man did all the woodwork renovation on this car. It took him over 2,000 hours.

I talked to the "staff guys" at the car for quite some time. Both of them, and their wives, are full time RV'ers. They typically "volunteer" at locations run by some arm of the federal government. Volunteers at the hatchery are provided with a full hook-up (water, electricity & sewer) for their RV's, along with free WiFi and cable TV. In return the volunteer works 15-24 hours a week. One of these guys never got out of his chair and the other walked around some just to chat with other visitors. They aren't "locked in" to a time frame. They don't have to commit to being at one place form months, although I am sure that there is some minimum time frame to make it worth training the volunteers. At the hatchery volunteers can start as early as April and stay as late as October. One of these guys winters in Texas and the other in Arizona. They didn't tell me where they volunteer in the south. (One of these guys spent most of his working life in Detroit and camped somewhere around Coldwater during summers. He was a mason.)

 The concrete channels are left over from when the hatchery was in full operation.

 Notice the patient lady sitting and waiting for her husband to stop shooting the bull with the volunteers.

 After the hatchery it was time for lunch. I picked the Bum Steer on 5th as the place to eat. The building was great.

 The food was the best I've had in so long I can't remember having better, maybe at the Beef House near Covington, IN. Kathy also had a steak and thought the same thing. There was a great salad bar, with two different soups. The soups were both great.

We decided that this was our anniversary lunch, since it cost about twice as mcuh as  our supper last night. It was worth every penny! If you ever drive I-90 near the South Dakota, Wyoming border make sure to stop at the Bum Steer for a meal.

After lunch it was off to the High Plains Western Heritage Center.
http://www.visitspearfish.com/thingstodo/attractions/highplainswesternheritagecenter/
Actually Kathy dropped me off and she went back to check out downtown Spearfish in more detail. Spearfish is relatively close to the border with Wyoming. I took the photo below before entering. While visiting with one of the staff guys, in a upstairs area with huge windows, the guy told me that you can see three states from the museum. The area far out and to the left of the hill is Wyoming. There is a similar vista to the right of hill but I didn't take a photo of it. You can see Montana when looking that way.

One of the interesting things I read about while at the museum was that last "great cattle drive." In 1979 a South Dakota rancher had 4,500 head of cattle that he needed to get to the stockyards. The stockyard was located 40 miles from some of the cattle. He decided to drive the cattle to the stockyard. After getting approval from the other ranchers whose property they would cross he did just that. The original cancelled check for the cattle was on display. The amount was $2,522,957.87. The check was a plain old hand written business size check.

We came back through Spearfish Canyon, cross-country. The sights in the canyon are well worth seeing.

It was another great day. Tomorrow we leave here and are going to see if we can park a couple of days at the Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands National Park. We know there is some type of camping available but can't find any good information. At best we will only have have a place to plug in for electricity. Since we only plan on staying a maximum of two nights we have plenty of on board water and sewage capacity. Since we have never tried staying at a National Park my biggest concern is getting our 40' rig in and out of the camping area.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.