Footnotes....

There are so many things about the trip to South Dakota that I didn't even mention. Sometimes you have to figure out what, exactly, to share when you have only a few thousand words to utilize. Anything more and it would be a full book. But who really wants to read a book about my travels in this nation?

Some of the things I didn't mention were the tour of the Keystone School. Built in 1900, it was used continuously until it was closed down in 1988 when the student body numbers fell to something ridiculous like 8 students. The kids in town are now bussed the 20'ish miles to Hill City. The building is fabulously preserved, and the original one-room schoolhouse is on the same (tiny) property. It is about the same size as my guest bedroom and was moved to its current location from about 50 yards away.

The Ingalls were a presence in Keystone. The Ingalls, as in "Little House on the Prairie." Carrie, the daughter born after Laura, lived there. She managed the newspaper there. She married there. She died there after 35 years in 1946. Mary, the oldest girl and referred to in an old newspaper article as "Blind Mary," moved to live with Carrie after Ma and Pa Ingalls passed away. The house was preserved and placed on the historical list in 1976. It then burned to the ground and was lost forever in 1977. So sad, but at least the stories and memories of this well-known and very common (as in not even close to wealthy) family remain.

The drives through the mining district neighborhoods were amazing. I've lived in a mining town. My house was built by my next door neighbor's father over 100 years ago (she is now deceased) for the company. It was a typical old coal mine row house. These homes in Keystone were much cuter, much tougher, and told stories that had to be amazing. I gazed at them and wondered how many were still owned by the original family. And a gold mine was still operating about a stone's throw away (though it is also a huge tourist attraction, complete with tours into the mine).

All around are reminders of previous days. The buildings are old, or made to look that way, the way of life is still a bit rough and tumble, the native souls of the land are obviously one with the area, the towns all hide from each other's view but are interconnected. It's just a fantastic area. So much so that I literally could write a book about it.

Our vacation didn't stop when we arrived back in the Colorado desert, though. I'll touch on that, but not now. Instead, I'll leave all to the peace of the summer night and collect a better thought....