After Spearfish South Dakota and then our trip up to Fort Peck Montana to visit Ranger Scott and Ranger Sue, we came back down U.S. 85 into Medora North Dakota for a night. We had been to Teddy Roosevelt National Park a couple years ago, so we didn’t take the time to drive through the park and all we did was walk to dinner from the campground and then did a little sightseeing as we walked through town on our way back to the campground.
Kathy’s Strawberry Jalepino MargaritaFood prices seem high out here ($14 for a burger?)Our after dinner walk in downtown Medora NDMore downtown Medora
The next day we continued on down 85 for another nights stay in Spearfish on our way to Hot Springs. Besides, we needed to check in at the Spearfish post office to see if our General Delivery package had arrived yet.
This time instead of staying at a campground, we decided to take advantage of our Harvest Hosts membership once again. We reached out to McGuigan Farm Experience on the HH web site and they accepted our request to stay within just a couple hours.
Our host Nancy greeted us at the drive and welcomed us with a big smile and a little conversation. She showed us where we could park. It was a nice big hard packed grassy field that allowed us to pull straight in with our toad attached and was large enough we could just circle around in the morning to leave without ever having to unhook the toad.
We had the place to ourselves
After we got settled in, Nancy took us on a tour of the farm. Although it’s been in Mike’s family for generations and had been a working dairy farm for the vast majority of that time, they now rely on income from grain production and leasing out some of the land. They have recently started the McGuigan Farm Experience project to offer both school groups and the general public alike the opportunity to visit a real farm with real animals so that folks might learn about what a farmer really does and where that food on the table comes from.
Nancy excused herself and left us to relax the rest of the evening and relaxing it was! It was SO dark and SO quiet! We had a wonderful nights sleep with the windows wide open and enjoyed a gentle breeze rolling over the hayfields that lulled us to sleep.
As we prepared to depart in the morning, I noticed some water on the hardpack under the fresh water tank compartment. Further inspection revealed that now the FRESH water tank fill hose had a small leak. I figured it wasn’t hard to fix, (tighten a hose clamp), but this old body just doesn’t want to twist, turn, and stretch like this project would require.
Thankfully, we were at Spearfish which is just down the road from Belle Fourche which is the home of my new best (RV repairman) friend Jim and Progress RV.
We didn’t even call ahead. We left the farm and drove on up the ten minutes to see Jim in hopes he would drop whatever he was doing and come on over and take care of us. And he did just that!
My new Best Friend Jim @ Progress RV
Next stop … Hot Springs South Dakota. But first – the car goes in the shop for some unexpected repairs. More on that in my next post.
Thanks for riding along. You can leave any comments below.
After Kansas City, we worked our way north and spent our first night’s stopover at a great little city park in Elk Point, South Dakota. $15/nite for 50 amp electric and water. There’s a dump station, but we didn’t need it.
The park has multiple ball diamonds, multiple picnic shelters, plenty of scattered picnic tables, and loads of playground equipment.
Read the plaque below and you’ll learn about how this site was actually a stopover for Lewis & Clark.
Historical Marker at Elk Point City Park
Kathy enjoying the playground at Elk Point
After Elk Point, we moved on and arrived at Spearfish South Dakota where we enjoyed meeting up with friends Matt and Sherry, Jim and Brenda, and Paul and Chris (who we spent a couple days with in Mason City Iowa) and they stopped by on their way to Rapid City. The next day David and Susan came on up from Custer State Park where they were volunteering to join us all for the day.
Spearfish, as you might recall is the town where some of us volunteered at DC Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery a couple years ago. It was good to see the recently re-painted fish car!
It was great to spend the evening around the campfire at Volunteer Village again
Enjoying dinner at the Farmhouse
Jim & Brenda’s rig
The DC Booth Fish Car
Campers having a birthday party
These types of campers are becoming more popular
An early RV
While at Spearfish, I noticed a small leak under the coach. It was coming from the “wet bay”, where the waste tanks (and the drain pipe) are located. Further inspection showed that the 3″ pipe coming out of the black tank had a very small leak at one of the fittings. I could see (once I got down on my hands and knees) that this joint had been repaired before by the previous owner.
We were fortunate in that a RV repair shop was just up the road in Belle Fourche (pronounced “Bell Foosh”). I called them, explained our plight that we were full-time RV’ers and were planning to head out tomorrow to Fort Peck Montana for a few days. They had us bring it right on in.
Jim the owner came on out and looked over the situation, assured us he had the necessary fittings and could get us back on the road in a couple hours. He did a great job, I was right by his side and we had some great conversation while he was doing the repair. It ended up he took out all the old, and provided new fittings and a new elbow and we were out of there and back to Spearfish before noon that day.
Bottom of the black tank with the leaking fitting (caulked previously)
Outside the shop
The drain elbow with the black tank fitting removed
Smiling customer Herb with Progress RV owner Jim
After about a week, we traveled north back up to Fort Peck Montana and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers campground we had volunteered at in 2019. We wanted to check in on the two rangers we had worked for while we were there.
On the way, we stopped for an overnight stay at Miles City Montana. We were going to stay at the local Elks Lodge, but it was in a noisy downtown district right along a truck route and we were fortunate to stumble across the local county fairgrounds. We had a very quiet and restful evening parked alongside the ag building.
The next morning we found a great little coffee shop downtown where we got our morning boost (and a little something sweet too!)
Our spot in the fairgrounds
The old train station Miles City MT
The Ugly Mug Coffee Shop
Apple Crunch Danish (we shared this one)
Inside the shop
After our morning boost we visited the Range Riders Museum right across the street from the fairgrounds. I have never been in a museum with such a wide range of collections. It was great to talk to the ladies up front and find out a little about the “Range Riders”. These were ranchers and cowboys who worked their livestock on the open range (no fences).
The museum was founded in the 1930’s and still operates with mostly volunteers. Although I took tons of pictures while visiting, I now find they have a great web site with a lot of great information about the museum. I invite you to take a few minutes and explore the Range Riders Museum to learn about a lost way of life in western America.
If you’d like to see my photos, you can follow this link to my Google Photos album of the museum.
From Miles City we made it the rest of the way up to Fort Peck for a couple days. Check out the picture below that shows the final result of one of the volunteers who made the little camper lending library.
It was good to visit with both Ranger Scott and Ranger Sue again. Since the Interpretive Center is a federal building, masks are required. Scott is in charge of the campground and Sue is responsible for the Interpretive Center. To see more of our time at Fort Peck back in 2019 you can follow this link.
Our site at Fort Peck Dam Campground
Kathy at the free library
Close up of the library
Ranger Scott
Ranger Sue @ the Interpretive Center
There’s more … but I’ll save that for another time. Thanks for riding along, hope I didn’t bore you too much. I know I can get a little wordy and I’ll work on the next post to cut out some of the details.
We’ve had a wonderful time here in the Black Hills of South Dakota this summer and early fall. We continue to enjoy working at DC Booth Historic National Hatchery, along with taking in all the other attractions that the Black Hills area has to offer, and spending lots of leisure time with all our new friends we’ve made here at the hatchery.
We sit around the campfire nearly every night to share stories and learn about each other
Besides all that, you’ve probably seen my post about the Sturgis Bike Rally that took place here in early August and now this month (Labor Day weekend) the happening things here include the 18th annual “Dakota Five O” bicycle race/ride/tour AND the 8th annual Spearfish City Campground Boat Race (down the Spearfish Creek) for the little ones.
We had a great time taking in both this past weekend and I shot some video to share with you. Check it out below,
The daily visitor count at the hatchery has really slowed down now that the Labor Day weekend has passed and now we can actually stand out in front of our rig at the campground and see clear through the aisles to two or three streets over! There are maybe 15 or so other campers besides the 10 of us volunteer rigs parked in Volunteer Village along the north edge of the campground. The leaves on the trees are JUST started to turn and it’s evident that fall is quickly approaching.
The weather man this morning said it’ll be in the 60’s next week. Brrrr!
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Well, here we are at Spearfish South Dakota nestled in the cradle of the northern Black Hills. The DC Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives actually sits in Ames Canyon at the south end of town right next to the beautiful Spearfish City Park and across the street from City Campground.
We’re continuing to enjoy our stay here and as the end of our time here nears, I thought I had better share with you some of our experiences here.
As I’ve said before, the friends we’ve made here and the relationships we’ve developed will stay with us as we continue our travels and we look forward to meeting up with these great folks again “on down the road”.
As non-bikers (motorcyclists) we weren’t really all that excited about visiting Sturgis during Bike Week. It’s only about 20 miles down the road, but the thought of fighting all the traffic (both road and foot) didn’t really get us enthused.
But … since we work at the hatchery 3 days on and 3 days off, what’s a person to do during the 3 off days? Matt and Sherry had been there last year, convinced us to go along with them, and after all … no grass to cut, no house to maintain, … so what the heck … go have some fun!
Estimated attendance was about 500,000 people over the 10 day time span of the rally with an economic impact to the area of over $800,000,000! (yea, that’s $800 MILLION!)
The pictures below show just SOME of the sights (and bikes) we saw along the way on Wednesday (mid-week) of the rally. There are other sights that we saw that would not be appropriate to share here on a public forum.
As always, if you click on any of the thumbnails below, you’ll be able to see a larger view of the image
Here’s a video of our campground during the rally. Although it was at full capacity with over 80 full hook-up sites and host to hundreds of tent campers scattered throughout the grounds, it was really a pretty calm environment for us – even during Bike Week. We’d hear the rumble of all the powerful bikes coming and going during the days, but at night it quieted back down.
Spearfish City Campground during Sturgis (79th annual) Bike Week
The park quieted right back down after Bike Week was over and we had the park nearly to ourselves again.
All in all, it was a great experience to be able to go to Sturgis during the rally and see all the beautiful bikes, eat some great food, and watch all the “different” people walking the curbs and sidewalks.
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Just want to let you know, it’s pronounced “Leed” not like pencil lead, but to “lead” a horse to water. The reason the town is called Lead is that there are quartz-like veins in the rock that “lead” the miner to the gold in the mines. Back in the day these were sometimes called Lodes .. as in “We hit the mother lode”.
We are so glad that we had the opportunity to visit and volunteer in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We have heard so much about the beauty that abounds in this area of the country and when we found out about the possibility of volunteering at D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives … well … we jumped at the chance!
A view of part of the hatchery grounds looking down from the trail
We are camped in “Volunteer Village” which is a separate area of the Spearfish City Campground. The entire campground is set along side Spearfish Creek that starts up in Spearfish Canyon and travels down through the City of Spearfish and travels north to eventually become the Redwater River and then ultimately into Belle Fourche Resevoir.
Our site along with the 9 other couples in Volunteer Village at the city campgroundA group of boys enjoying Spearfish Creek right in back of our RV sites
Since we work 3 half days on duty / 3 days off) as volunteers at the hatchery, we have plenty of time to see the sights. Add to that the fact that one of our additional benefits of working here is that we are given VIP passes from the Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association.
This card gives us the opportunity to visit 50+ area attractions for free or deep discounted pricing. The purpose is to familiarize us volunteers with everything that the Black Hills & Badlands area has to offer and be eager to share the information about the attractions with visitors to the hatchery as we serve as tour guides in the venues here.
The list of free and discounted attractions offered by BH & Badlands Tourism Assoc
One of the first places we just had to check out when we got here was the City of Deadwood, just about 20 miles south of Spearfish. We also visited the City of Lead.
As you can see by the map below, the downtown areas are only about 3.5 miles apart … it’s like one larger community now but back in the day there was quite the rivalry between the towns … so much so that when the wealthy W.E. Adams at age 71 married his second wife of only 28 years, the gossip and shame cast upon him by other upstanding citizens of the community was NOT the fact that he was marrying a MUCH younger woman, but that he was from Deadwood and she was from Lead!
(The following was taken from blackhillsknowledgenetwork.org) ” Lead was founded in April 1876 by brothers Fred and Moses Manuel who had ventured out from the booming gold town of Deadwood in search of gold. The brothers discovered a promising vein of ore near current-day Lead. Such veins were called leads. The brothers staked their claim, built a mill and in the spring of 1876 mined $5,000 worth of gold from what would eventually become Homestake Gold Mine. “
Kathy wanted a coffee, so we stopped in to this cute little former gas station in Deadwood that now serves as a coffee shop and a glass-blowing studio! Customers can buy the finished product, or make their own at the direction of the owner.
After the coffee stop, we moved on to the Homestake Mine / Sanford Lab Visitor Center just down the road in Lead where we were treated to a trolley tour of the town and the history of the gold mine and the impact it had on the town. The mine was closed in 1983, but is being used today as a research facility at over 5000′ below ground level (under the open pit portion). When the mine was in operation, it had over 350 miles of tunnels down as deep at 8500 feet!
A Google Maps shot of the open pit mine at Homestake (over 1.5 miles wide)
They dug the open pit as deep as they could and ultimately started digging and blasting tunnels down as deep as 8500′ below ground level!
Making a glass bowl
Homestake Gold Mine Open Pit
Mine Visitor Center
Our Trolley Ride Tour
The Mine Hoistroom
Looking across the valley
This was a fascinating tour and you can find out more about the history of the Homestake Mine and it’s impact on the area around towns of Lead and Deadwood along with the current neutrino research work going on underground at the 5000′ level by following this link.
We drove to the top of Mount Roosevelt located just northwest of Deadwood in the Black Hills National Forest where we parked and then took a trail and walked up about 3/4 mile to the site of the “Friendship Tower” that was built by Teddy Roosevelt’s good friend Seth Bullock. We just happened to be there on the 100th anniversary of the completion of the tower July 4, 1919.
Built in memory of Teddy Roosevelt by his friend Seth BullockSherry, Matt, Kathy, and me at the overlook on Mt Roosevelt
After Mount Roosevelt we drove on up to Mount Moriah – the highest point in Deadwood and the home to Deadwood Cemetery. We drove up through the narrow old streets to the parking lot, paid our $2 entry fee and then continued to climb up through the grounds stopping to look at well worn stone monuments of those early pioneers we didn’t know and we saw the burial spot of some of the more famous Black Hills pioneers as well.
Entrance to the Deadwood Cemetery on Mt. Moriah (Kathy, Sherry & Matt up ahead)Looking over one of the hills of burial plots in the cemeteryPlaques memorializing Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity JaneThe Burial Site and Grave Monument of Wild Bill HickokCalamity Jane’s Burial Site & Monument
Continuing our walk up the streets of the cemetery to the top, we then turned off to a trail that took us up another 750 feet to the burial site of Roosevelt’s good friend Seth Bullock. Seth wanted to be buried at this spot so that he could look across the valley to the Friendship Tower on the top of Mount Roosevelt. You can read all about Seth Bullock, his influence on Deadwood and the Black Hills along with his close friendship with Teddy Roosevelt by reading this Wikipedia article.
Our 750′ climb up from the top of the cemetery to Seth Bullocks burial siteSeth Bullock’s Grave SiteA lot of folks leave stones as a sign of remembrance and respect
There’s still much more to see and do in the Deadwood / Lead area and you can find out more by following this link.
We’re having a wonderful time volunteering here in the Black Hills at DC Booth Historic Fish Hatchery and we have a lot more to share with you. We’ll continue to send along updates as we visit new and interesting places in the area.
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If you’re curious (at any time) to know where we are at that moment then click the button at the top right of this page labeled “See Where We Are Now“.
We’d love to hear from you. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page, you can send us a note. Again, thanks for riding along. ’til next time – safe travels.
Really? We don’t fish … we don’t cook or even eat ENOUGH fish (according to the health experts) and we don’t really have any desire to handle fish or even SMELL fish! Why on earth would we consider working at a fish hatchery as one of our Workamping / Volunteering gigs?
Our good friends Phil and Cheryl volunteered here in 2016 and other good friends Matt and Sherry volunteered here in 2018 and they ALL highly recommended that we get on the list to volunteer here. Matt and Sherry were coming back again this year (’19) and so we submitted our application and resume’ back in August of 2018 and were accepted as volunteers.
D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives is not your normal production fish hatchery. There are 90 national U.S. Fish & Wildlife fish hatcheries throughout the nation along with many other state-managed hatcheries that are still in full-time operation.
This hatchery was an active production facility from it’s completion of construction in 1899 until 1983. At that time it was closed as a major production facility and turned into the national hatchery education site and archives.
Volunteering here has given both Kathy and I a new appreciation for serving as “tour guides” doing interpretive work. We were both a little nervous about this new role in our lives as volunteers. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know that most of our volunteer experiences have been working in private or public RV parks or campgrounds as hosts, cleaning crew, or office duties. Although all of these positions have involved working with the public and have given us the opportunity to meet and talk with a lot of new people, we’ve not been put in the position of “tour guide” doing interpretive work.
Would we be able to learn the script? Would we be able to smile all day? Would we be able to be on our feet for four and a half hours at a time? We were not concerned about the camp site, the area, or the management. We were confident that would all be great … thanks to our friends who’d worked here before.
We have to say that as of this writing … we’ve only been here about 3 weeks now … it’s been a wonderful experience and we’re quite comfortable with doing the interpretive work (tour guides) and we’re really enjoying our interactions with the other volunteers and being able to see the many sights that the Black Hills of South Dakota have to offer.
There are basically four different venues here where the volunteers are scheduled to work. Our venue assignments are rotated each shift. Spouses work the same shifts. We work 3 half-days on duty, then 3 full days off duty.
We might work in; the Museum, the Fish Car, the Booth House, or the Gift Shop.
The original hatchery building, constructed in 1899
Remember, you can click on any of the thumbnails below to see an enlarged image
Looking from the porch to Gift Shop and Pond #3
Looking over the raceways to the Gift Shop
The Hatchery with 2 room apartment upstairs
View from the Overlook
Inside the Hatchery (Museum)
Inside the Hatchery
Fish Car #3 and the Ice House
Remember, you can click on any of the thumbnails below to see an enlarged image
There were 11 fish transport cars in the national hatchery system. This is Fish Car #3
Inside shows tanks (along sides) and pull-down bunks above
Steam boiler produced steam to turn an impeller & shaft to turn an air pump to aerate the water in fish tanks
The on-board cook prepared 3 squares a day for the crew
Well, you know what this is….
A view from the other end of the car
The Fish Culture Hall of Fame (formerly the Ice House)
The Booth House – where hatchery Superintendents and their families lived
Remember, you can click on any of the thumbnails below to see an enlarged image
The “Pond Shop” gift shop overlooking pond #1Inside the gift shop we sell hatchery merchandise and LOTS of fish food!The “Pond Gift Shop” and restrooms with Pond #1 at the left
There are 10 RV sites in “Volunteer Village” which is a separate area of the beautiful Spearfish City Campground that is dedicated to use by volunteers at D.C. Booth Hatchery. We are supplied the Full Hookup site, 45 channel cable, free wi-fi and a community fire pit area where we often gather each night for a campfire with smores and stories. Sometimes we have pot luck meals there too!
Our sites back up to Spearfish Creek and a walking trailBoys having fun floating down Spearfish Creek right behind our rigs
Remember, you can click on any of the thumbnails below to see an enlarged image
Another special perk of this position is that the volunteers all get a “VIP” card to carry in their wallet. This card is issued by the Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association and it entitles us to free admission to about 40 area attractions and discounts in area gift shops and restaurants.
The idea is that as tour guides at D.C. Booth we have the opportunity to meet and interact with hundreds of visitors daily and we should take the opportunity to talk with them about other attractions in the area. We’re kind of a “mini marketing” team for other things to see and do nearby.
This is the list of all the attractions free to tourism VIP’s
Some of these benefits are valued at just a few dollars while others are over $100 per ticket. It’s a great idea to promote the are wonderful benefit for us too!
While we are here at Spearfish (through Sept 2019) I’ll be writing other short blog posts about our excursion trips that we take using the VIP cards so you can get a better feel for a lot of what there is to offer here in the beautiful Black Hills!
If you’re not already subscribed to this blog, you can easily do so by scrolling up to the top of any page and entering your email address in the block on the right side.
You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel (herbnkathyrv) on You Tube.
If you’re curious (at any time) to know where we are at that moment then click the button at the top right of this page labeled “See Where We Are Now“.
We’d love to hear from you. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page, you can send us a note. Again, thanks for riding along. ’til next time – safe travels.
