Matt and Carol's Travels: Rapid City, SD

Thought of the Day:

Conversation between three guys:

Pessimist: the water glass is half empty.

Optimist: the water glass is half full.

Opportunist: drank the water.

Our major purpose for stopping in Rapid City was our doctor's appointments. Arriving at Ellsworth is going to be a semi-busy stay this trip... oh, as usual, when visiting here. The first thing on our list was getting Carol to the airport so she could help with Eric and his family. Generally I don't post the private lives of our children, but for those that don't know, Eric is currently battling the big "C", cancer.

As for me, I am tending the home fires. The first item on my agenda is getting the trailer to the tire shop for new tires. It was an interesting adventure as the tire shop I had the appointment with was for big trucks and trailers. It was like driving into a semi-truck wash, pull in one side, and out another when the job is done. This is what I found returning home after the new tires...

All the spices on the counter belong in the cabinet. Those square bottles go on the black rack at the back of the shelf. Unfortunately one spice bottle didn't make it, leaving a heap of cardamom on the countertop, and un-usable because of glass in the mound of spice.

The next item on my list was general maintenance on the truck to get the oil changed. I will need to make an appointment to have them replace the leaking marker lights on the cab. We have been dealing with the leaking for a while, though I have reduced the flow of water in during a good rain.

SUNRISE ON ONE OF MY WALKS

I have decided to walk every other day in the morning, instead of getting up and sitting around.

Another item on my "Things-to-Do" list is identifying a problem with our slide. There is a hump in the seam where the trailer edge and slide edge come together. I procured a camera device that allowed me to look in the seam under the slide. To my surprise I found several items, a cedar flower disk, a beaded star... and a lost CD.

The CD is a bigger problem that is going to take some thinking.

For awhile we have had an issue with the kitchen sink plumbing leaking under the sink, getting the items on the shelf water logged. I went into action... again, to solve the problem. I drove down to the local Ace Hardware and bought repair parts. When I began the repairs I thought of another issue the sink was having, a faucet with low water flow on the cold water side. BRIGHT IDEA: buy a new faucet.

It was easy installing it without plumbing in the way. Better yet, it was great to have equal water pressure for hot and cold water... and no more leaks underneath the sink.

The other evening I was trying to enjoy a show and I kept hearing popping noises close by. To my surprise...

Today I decided to go for a drive and visit one of the cave in the area... no good... no openings. I left the cave and headed for another cave 30 miles away. On the way I found a ghost town to visit. The Four Mile Ghost Town is a group of buildings that came from around the region, with a couple imported from other plain states.

A lot of the buildings are in the shape they were found, some have new roofs of tin, and maybe a new plank or two. Before we get to visiting, lets learn a little about the town.

Towns would spring up wherever the stagecoach ran. This town was created because of a watering hole that was used to water the stagecoach horses. The name of the town came about via the stagecoach line. The stagecoach line named towns pertaining to mileage... this town was four miles from Custer. The town grew when the word got out that gold was discovered on the other side of Custer. Later the town was renamed "Moss City". Four Mile was forgotten after the gold rush, and everybody knew the town as Moss City. It was almost a hundred years later the the discovery was made, indicating the Moss City was originally named Four Mile.

Keep an open mind about what you see.

SALOON

TOWN HALL, A.K.A. BATHROOMS

SURVEYOR'S OFFICE/HOUSE

Land surveyors today have it easy, and I'm not sure they could even measure land the way the early pioneer surveyors did. In the early days a rope or chain was used for measuring. A surveyor using rope would count the revolutions of the wheel the rope was wound on, then either driving stakes in the ground, marking trees, or stacking rocks.

IMMIGRATION OFFICE

Immigration wasn't known to the original inhabitants of this country. Immigration didn't become a part of the United States until 1795, when Congress passed the Naturalization Act. This Act required an immigrant to be in this country for five years before they could become a citizen. Imagine what the indigenous people had said the Europeans that came over in the beginning. Can you see an Immigration Office at Plymouth Rock? I can see the Indian saying to the ship's captain... come back when you have the correct documentation. By 1820 an Immigration Officer could see immigrants from 26 European and Scandinavian countries.

ASSEYOR'S OFFICE

The job of this office was to distribute the surveyed land to create a township. A section of land in a township was set aside as "school land", roughly 36 square miles. Pieces of the land were rented out, and the monies went to paying the teacher's salary.

Some townships grew quickly, but once the railroad stopped comin' around, the town became a ghost town. One example of a growing town had: 2 abstract offices, 3 attorneys, 2 banks, 2 barbershops, 2 blacksmiths, a brick mason, a butch shop, 4 carpenters, a town jail, 6 churches, 2 dentists, 2 doctors, 2 dray lines (transport companies), a firehouse, 2 drug stores, a flour mill, 4 general stores, 3 hotels, 2 livery barns, 2 lumberyards, 2 newspapers, an opera house, 2 pool halls, 2 restaurants, 2 saloons, a school, stockyard, an undertaker, and 2 cemeteries. Like I said earlier, when the railroad moved further west, so did the people... you now had a ghost town.

CARPENTER SHOP

STANDARD STARTER HOME

This is what a pioneer family, not living on the plains, may have started with. It was basically a wood frame structure lined with oiled paper (what we now call tar paper). The difference between the plains home (sod house), and living near town, the town house had wood plank floors, vice dirt like sod houses.

LAUNDRY SERVICES

If you were affluent, or owned a business that required laundry services, you're in the right place. This was not a place you found the regular pioneer, unless they were working there.

STRIP MALL

This building usually housed the blacksmith and livery barn, and in the case of this one, the hardware store.

HOTEL/RESTAURANT

This hotel has seen better days. This building was in questionable condition, so they posted a sign stating that the building was not supervised, enter at your own risk... so I did.

Not exactly 4-star accommodations, but good for a night. The restaurant downstairs probably/hopefully served good food for the weary traveler.

UNDERTAKER

This gentleman could be a busy man in some of the pioneer towns, especially those where gold or silver was found. He did not usually deal in high-end funerals.

CHURCH

When a town was small, church was most often held in homes, or a large building, until the community could afford to build a church.

SCHOOLHOUSE

In most rural towns the schoolhouse was very small, and the teacher needed to be fluent at all grades. Children usually didn't get past the 8th grade because of their responsibilities on the farm.

SEAMSTRESS

A person may have found the women somewhere near the laundry. She could be found making a new special dress for one of the young ladies around town, or one who lived in the countryside, or creating a suit for one of the business proprietors in town.

JEWELER AND ABSTRACT OFFICES

A jeweler could be known as the guy that made glasses, shiny jewelry, and put together watches. His beautiful jewelry workmanship helped women see that there was hope that their station in life would improve, and they could own one of his fine pieces of jewelry. What about that Abstract Office. Back in the pioneer days the abstract office was responsible for providing a written record of information pertaining to a piece of land.

EARLY DAY ABSTRACTS

This practice was discontinued in the 1970s and 1980s, when companies went away from abstract documentation, moving forward to title insurance. In other words, an abstract was an early form of insurance for the land owner.

GENERAL STORE

This store was part of the Four Mile Ranch, but was on postal records as Moss City. Moss City was the last unlocated ghost town in the Black Hills. Moss City records were requested from state library in 1994 under "Moss City", but couldn't be found, when they re-submitted them under "Four Mile"... there they were. This store was located not far from where it is today.

CARNIVORE PARIDISE

A lot of the farmers and ranchers either knew how to butcher meat, or had someone that knew how. The folks in town relied on the local butcher, especially the restaurant and hotel.