May 17, 2016

The weather is wet and cold. It is not a good day to be out and about but we went anyway. We just changed directions. We headed to Deadwood, an interesting town where Wild Bill Hickok was killed. We went into the saloon and paid our 10 dollars each to go into the original bar where he was shot. It was in the basement which used to be street level, just like Chattanooga they had flooding issues so the build up the street burying the first floors of buildings. Deadwood was a dead town in the 90’s. It still had the clamor board side walks. It had been a mining, gambling and prostitution hub in its hay day. The town petitioned the state to allow casinos as they were part of their history and won. Apparently this is what started all of the casinos on reservations. They had a very small museum that had the most interesting artifacts. The Adams museum displayed items belonging to the last Russian Czar’s family, the first black hills train, fossils and the fur coat that belonged to the last madame of the town among many other items. We left Deadwood and headed for Spearfish canyon along the way we saw a shack that was a rock shop and decided to stop. It turn out the shop owner actually has his zoo keepers license and raises foxes and wolves. We chitchatted and he offered to give us a private tour. In the shop he had a baby red fox he was bottle feeding. He also has a wolf that the Guinness book of world records is coming to confirm is the largest living wolf. I think he said his weight was 258 pounds. Total about 8 adult wolves, two baby wolves, about 8 foxes (red, sliver, arctic marble and gray) and the baby red fox. That was a most unusual stop. He has really neat fossils of dinosaurs several of which where from the private collection of the first person to find and identify that particular species. It was late when we left there so we returned to Rapid City. It was another great day. We are so blessed to be on this trip.

Deadwood historic main street.

Typical store front.

In one of the stores we tried on hats but couldn’t decide which one was best.

Saloon where Hickok was killed. Picture showing the bar.

Saloon where Hickok was killed. Picture from behind the bar.

The Adams Museum had a two headed cow they said lived 6 weeks among other interesting artifacts from historical Deadwood.

Sleeping fox kit at the rock shop.

Playful wolf pups.

Yawning arctic marble fox.

World largest wolf maybe.

Two of many wolves he keeps.

He also sells fossils and rocks.