Sonya's Blog Day 8 - Mount Rushmore

Sonya’s Blog Day 8 - Tuesday, June 30th - Mount Rushmore

We managed to get a trail ride booked for tomorrow morning at 8 AM. We are taking Elkhart Pass as the one Natasha wanted is too wet as they have had too much rain lately. Speaking of rain in South Dakota, it has been a little crazy here in the past month I guess. Little nervous today because is it really cloudy with dark, angry looking clouds. A couple of weeks ago or so they had hail as big as softballs and one rancher lost 19 head of cattle in that storm. Hail big enough to kill cattle is something I am not too keen on experiencing. They have also had a tornado, in South Dakota! Crazy weather, so hopefully all will be okay for the few days we are here and that Kiz Kiz makes it through without having a heart attack.

We are off to experience Mount Rushmore today and hike around. Okay, my favourite part of Mt. Rushmore, well the part I found the funniest actually, was during the audio tour that we rented. They were talking about the hall of flags which signifies the contributions made by the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the 2 Commonwealth’s and 3 Territories of the USA and blah, blah, blah. The narrator then went on to talk about how important the monument was to people that lived outside of the States and how it is known as the “Shrine of Democracy” everywhere else in the world. I literally laughed out loud because I don’t refer to it as that and I certainly have never heard anyone refer to it as that, but there you have it. They even sold keychains with the Mount Rushmore carvings and “Shrine of Democracy” below. Sweet!

Mt. Rushmore is a massive area that is super busy, over 3 million visitors per year. It is set up like a park, with entrance fees “for the parking” and a visitors centre, museums, gift shops and concession areas. I thought we would be there for an hour and we were there for over 3 and are going back tonight for the lighting ceremony and more American greatness. There was a talk by a Park Ranger who is Lakota about the effects Mt. Rushmore had on his people, their area and his people’s dealings with the chief sculptor, ? It was interesting because when he was talking about the white history he was scarce on the details and actually got some stuff wrong, but when he started talking about the Lakota he went straight into storytelling mode and was much more animated. Plus, I learned how to say Lakota properly, the K is not so hard, you say it from the back of your throat like an kohh almost - La-koh-tah - you almost breath through the K part to make the right sound.

We also saw a presentation by another ranger in front of the 9th and final model for Mt. Rushmore - it is amazing how much more detailed the model is - and actually Mt. Rushmore was never completed to the final vision of the sculptor as he died and WWII had started and the States were probably going to be involved and the money ran out for Mt. Rushmore. This ranger talked about the tools that the carvers used and how the feat was completed and what kind of equipment was used. Certainly not an easy job, but it was started in 1927 and work finished in 1941, so most of the work was done when jobs were scarce and the men working with the sculptor (about 400) were just happy to have work. It is quite an accomplishment.

After that we went and rescued Kizmet from the RV as she was not allowed at Mt. Rushmore and went into the town of Hill City. It was a quaint little town and was THE town in South Dakota during the gold rush. It had a neat main street that we walked up and down. Natasha got a key chain and Isaac a magnet and we also grabbed some pie for dessert. We then headed back to the RV for supper.

Off to the evening lighting ceremony now.

So that was pretty good, exactly how I expected it to go except I thought there would be more of a light show, instead they just lit up the mountain with white light. There was a lot of American history and quotes and then a short movie. They then lit up the mountain and sang the National Anthem. The Ranger then called on anyone in the audience whom were in the armed forces (currently or retired, or a representative) to go down to the stage to help with the lowering of the flag. There were quite a number of people in the audience who went down, so 4 or 5 were selected to lower and fold the flag. It was interesting to watch the orders being called out and how precisely the flag was folded and handed over to the Ranger. The Ranger then went through each person on stage and they stated their name and division. It was quite late by the time we got back so we all just got ready for bed and called it a night as we have an early morning tomorrow stating with horseback riding.