Friday, May 12, 2017

Day 27 (D-34) Deadwood, Sturgis, Sundance, Gillette ---> Returning to Wyoming (From Black to Yellow)

On our 6th day, we'll leave Rapid City, South Dakota to cover about 211 miles (you are thinking in miles now, aren't you?  211+126 = 338km ) which will take us to Buffalo, Wyoming.  We'll be on the road for about 4 hours, but with stops and places to see: the towns of Deadwood and Gillette (Sundance?) and Devils Tower.
Here's a map of Wyoming and its counties (administrative divisions) and a road map and the map with Devils Tower.
It's the beginning of our east-west drive from Black to Yellow -- from the Black Hills to Yellowstone.


Let's relax as we drive across Wyoming; get the feel of this Cowboy State with a song or video clip every day. Did you like  The Beaches of Cheyenne (Day 9)?  Here's an older song, (1958).  Do you know it? Rawhide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KPplYp7K7M  
Don't worry about the English for now; he sings about the many miles a cowboy does moving the cattle across the nation, more than our 211 miles in the comfort of our coach!

Deadwood, the wild West town of the past.  It was established in 1876 during the Black Hills gold rush. Many tree dead trees lined a canyon wall where gold had been found.  The gold is gone, but the name stayed!  Deadwood gradually evolved from a wild frontier town to a prosperous commercial center, in part because of the construction of the railroad. Hundreds of Chinese came to the Black Hills looking for work in mines or commerce.  Many settled in Deadwood and by the end of the 1880s Deadwood had a Chinatown! The town was known for prostitution and gambling. Do you know Wild Bill Hickok?  He's buried here. Do you know the name of his sweetheart?  If you don't know who she was and if you are curious, you can go surfing.  Or you can wait. We'll definitely come back to her, and to him, soon....
Prostitution remained a business until the 1950s when brothels were being shut down.  With the end of prostitution and gambling, Deadwood became the only city in the United States to be named a National Historic Landmark, in 1961.  Today's population:  1270.

Sturgis is nearby.  What has been the big event in that town (August 4th-13th this year) for the past 76 years?
Sundance:  You remember Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, don't you?  Population: 1182.
Gillette: Population: 29,087  Coal mining town!  Provides nearly 35% of the nation's coal.  "Gillette Syndrome" a social disruption when a town's population grows rapidly.

My best,
Jane
PS.  Click on the maps to make them bigger.  And you know that you click on the links to open them.
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--cattle = bétail
--coach = a bus, for long distances
--brothels  =  You don't need my help here!  It's easy to understand from the context!  
--"shut down", another phrasal verb, means "to close" in the sense of "stop operating".

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