Rushmore Mountain, near Keystone. Upon the abrupt face of this mountain Borglum, the sculptor, is carving the Statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and RooseveltRise Studio, Rapid City, S. D.
We go down from the mines and take a winding road up to Rushmore Mountain. On the way we try fishing. Here one of the most exasperating experiences of the trip takes place. I peered into the clear stream and spied a beautiful speckled beauty of somewhat larger than average proportion. Carefully I sent a fly up to him, but he was not interested. I tried every fly I had with the same result. Then I sent him a nice, fresh, green grasshopper, then a yellow one. Mr. Trout never batted an eye. I then offered him a frog leg. He only wagged his tail as though amused. The last resort was a nice juicy worm. I trailed it down the stream until it bumped him on the nose. That dumb trout was too lazy to even open his mouth. Possibly I misjudge him. He may have just had lunch, but at any rate he should have shown some interest in an extra bite. Well, I decided that if he was going to have his laugh on me, I’d get even with him.
I took my fishing rod and gave him a real poke in the ribs. I had the satisfaction of seeing him wake up rather hurriedly and disappear upstream.
On the way up to Rushmore we see a large leaning rock with a tree growing out of the top of it. This is only one of the phenomena of the “Hills” that fires the curiosity of the visitor.
The road up to Rushmore is on a mountain facing the one being carved. It is steep and winding. Cars go up several miles, but it is quite a climb. At the top is a long cable over which supplies are transported to the top of Rushmore. The carving is just begun. It has been discontinued for lack of funds, much to the regret of the people of the “Hills” and of South Dakota. If the work is finished it will be a monument of no mean calibre and a shrine for tourists. We did not take the footpath to the top, though such can be done. By climbing the steep precipitous crags facing it one gets a remarkable view of the grand and majestic bald peak.
From Rushmore we go on to Keystone. On the road we see abandoned gold mines and some still running. Within the town we come to the Keystone Consolidated Mines. At present they operate three gold mines with the main mill, the Columbia, the Keystone and the Holy Terror. Two stories are told of the naming of the last. One is that its inaccessibility clear up in the mountain top is responsible. The other is that the discoverer’s wife insisted that he name the mine after her. The miner went to take out his claim and when he returned he answered, to his wife’s insistent queries, “yes, he had named the mine after her,” and he showed her the papers.
Going on through Keystone we stop at a miner’s house, and he shows us many kinds of ore including tin, tourmaline, spodumene, copper, topaz, several kinds of quartz, gold, ruby studded rocks and so on. We cross the creek then and pick up our own specimens of rubies.
Now we go back to Hill City and from there up a long gradual incline into the most noted scenic spot of the Black Hills.
Rugged Formations