A Black Hills gem: The Mickelson Trail

Dick Lee (left) and Guy Edwards (center) were key
advocates in making the Mickelson Trail become a
reality.  SAHS president Rand Williams is at right. 

It was great bike riding weather across the northern Black Hills today (5/7/13), appropriate and accommodating conditions for the final program of the season for the Spearfish Area Historical Society.  The topic was The Mickelson Trail -- From the Beginning.  Paul Higbee moderated the program featuring Guy Edwards and Dick Lee, two men intimately involved in the creation of the "Rails to Trails" project that stretches 110 miles from Edgemont to Deadwood.

Created on the track bed once used by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, the Mickelson Trail -- named for late South Dakota Governor George Mickelson -- has become one of the top-rated trails in the country.  Its scenic beauty has become a significant attraction within the Black Hills, drawing bikers and hikers from all over the country.

But the project didn't just happen.  And the story about its origin is a fascinating lesson in vision, determination, and grass roots politics -- not to mention something that is all too rare these days:  a corporation willing to step up and help make good things happen!

CB&Q had constructed the line over just a nine-month period, completing work and arriving in Deadwood in 1890.  It was a race from Nebraska to the gold mining region of the northern hills -- a race between the CB&Q and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley line, which was building its route along the eastern slopes of the hills through Buffalo Gap, Hermosa, Whitewood, and then in to Deadwood.  The Elkhorn won the race.  But if the old CB&Q line no longer operates -- it has a very powerful legacy that remains -- the Mickelson Trail.

Dick Lee, a retired helicopter pilot and long-time Spearfish resident provided an overview of the political hurdles that had to be overcome when the Burlington finally shut down the so-called "High Line" from Edgemont to Deadwood in 1983.  The Spearfish spur of the line was closed down nearly a half-century early when flooding in Spearfish Canyon wiped out the rail track.  It was never rebuilt.

"When we first pursued the idea, nobody thought it would work, including Governor Janklow, but we managed to get around him," Lee told the group.  "We got George Mickelson on our side, and he made all the difference.  He said, 'we're going to make this thing work.'"

Lee recounted riding his bike on the old track bed back in 1986 -- as was Guy Edwards' wife, Cynthia.

"We noticed they were tearing down these old trestles on the abandoned line, and we were both kind of angry about that."  They expressed the view that these bits of history should belong to the people.  Cynthia Edwards notified her husband, Guy, who worked with Lee and a handful of others to pursue a vision of creating a "rails to trails" trail along the route.

Edwards provided great detail about the politics of creating the trail.

The first task was convincing the salvage contractor to quit cutting down trestles.

"He'd probably cut down 30 of them, and there were 52 on the line," said Edwards, but it cost  $14,000 to get him to stop.  Despite that early victory, the future looked bleak.

"Governor Janklow was opposed to the project.  As a matter of fact, three years earlier he had killed the project."

There was little support for the trail.  Property owners along the route expected the right-of-way to revert to them.  Even local business owners in Hill City, Custer, and elsewhere were not sympathetic, fearful that they'd end up in a fight with ranchers and other landowners along the trail.

Opening of the first leg of the  trail;
Left-to-right are Guy Edwards, Governor
George Mickelson, and Dick Lee.

From his earlier years in the South Dakota legislature, Edwards knew George Mickelson -- and Mickelson had decided to run for governor.  Edwards approached him and won his support for the project.  After Mickelson's election, the project had a staunch advocate in the Governor's Mansion.

Senator Jim Abdnor was enlisted to help smooth over some severe opposition from the local U.S. Forest Service supervisor, and momentum began to build in support of the project.  When landowners invoked a lawsuit to stop the project, the dispute over rail abandonment ended up in the courts.  It finally ended in the favor of trail supporters.

Marshaling local media and a growing number of community advocates, trail proponents received enormous support from the Burlington Northern railroad.

"The Burlington Northern not only gave us land north, they also donated $50,000," Edwards recalled.  "They were amazing partners."

Karen Miller of Spearfish rests near Tunnel B during
her 110-mile trek of the Mickelson Trail in 2006.

The trail was called the Burlington Northern Rail Trail.  However, after the death of Governor Mickelson in a 1993 plane crash, the Burlington agreed to cede their name to honor the late Governor.  It is now the Mickelson Trail.  The entire trail was completed in 1998.  Partners include the U.S. Forest Service, SD  Dept. of Transportation, Department of Corrections, the National Guard, Department of Game, Fish and Parks, the Friends of the Mickelson Trail, and countless other volunteers.

Edwards and  Lee both expressed advocacy for yet another enhancement for the Mickelson Trail:  paving the trail down hill from the 6,000 foot high "Mountain" trailhead near Crazy Horse to trailheads at Custer and Hill City.  They encouraged members of the society to write letters to the Governor and legislators to support such a plan.

There is already a paved spur of the trail from Custer to Stockade Lake, and there's a move afoot to build another spur from Hill City to Mount Rushmore.

If you'd like to see a gallery of scenes from our 2006 bike ride on the Mickelson Trail, visit this Black Hills Journal Biking Gallery.

This was the Annual Meeting for the historical society.  Rand Williams and Linda Wiley, who serve respectively as president and secretary, agreed to continue serving on the board and were elected by the membership.  Program chairman Laurie Hayes reminded members that programs are the lifeblood of the organization, and she encouraged the submission of ideas for programs next year.

See you in September!

3 Lives, 3 Women, 3 Stories...and Wounded Knee

Belinda Faye Joe portrayed Waste' Win

More than 70 people filled the front parlor of the Spearfish Senior Center this evening (4/2/13) to enjoy a well-done presentation of Dakota Daughters, an hour-long story of three women, three lives, and three stories -- intertwined with the horrific incident at Wounded Knee Creek.

This was an exceptional meeting of the Spearfish Area Historical Society, blending the dramatic arts and a bit of area history.   With support from the South Dakota Humanities Council, performers Joyce Jefferson, Lillian Witt, and Belinda Faye Joe-Rencountre did a splendid job in capturing and holding the attention of society members.

Each performer researched and wrote her own part for this poignant historical interpretation of the events leading up to the Wounded Knee massacre in December of 1890.

The veteran member of this group, Joyce Jefferson, played Mattie Elmira Richardson, engaged to one of the Buffalo soldiers stationed in Dakota Territory.  Lillian Witt portrayed Sadie Babcock, a rancher's wife.  And Belinda Faye Joe, in her first performance with Dakota Sisters, played Waste' Win, Lucy Lone Eagle's friend.

These three ladies portrayed Dakota Sisters They are:
(l-r) Joyce Jefferson, Lillian Witt, and Belinda Faye Joe

The fast-faced seven-act performance reached back to the mid-1800's, before gold was discovered in the Black Hills, to a time in the 1860's when the Hunkpati Dakota tribe was forcibly removed from their Minnesota homeland and relocated to Dakota Territory.  That's where Waste' Win began her story of the harsh winter in the stockade at Fort Thompson.  It was the days when Sadie Babcock and her husband and three children arrived in the territory in Texas -- ready to partake of the "free land" offered by the government.  And as the Civil War was ending, Mattie Elmira Richardson and her family were just freed from slavery.  Mattie became engaged to Siscro McCarty, a Buffalo soldier assigned to the Ninth Cavalry in Dakota Territory.

The dramatic interpretation led the audience through the era of the battle at the Little Big Horn and the shifting attitudes of the different cultures in the plains.  Mattie and her family moved from the south to Nicodemus, Kansas, and she shared one of Sisco's letters with the audience.

In the 1880's, Sadie Babcock befriended Lucy Lone Eagle, while Mattie Elmira pursued her education in Kansas and worked to earn money so she could join Siscro in Dakota Territory.

The 1880's ended in the region with a significant drought.  Waste' Win makes friends with Lucy Lone Eagle, and Lucy shares stories of their journey and plight with Wast' Win.  Trooper Siscro writes to Mattie and describes the Ghost Dance religion and life on the reservation.

November and December 1890 bring more bad times beyond the drought.  By this time, Mattie has become a maid for the Babcock family, and she reads a letter from Siscro, who tells about his cavalry unit being dispatched from Fort Robinson in Nebraska to Pine Ridge.  News comes that Sitting Bull was killed by tribal police, and in late December, Lucy Lone Eagle, her tiospaye, Big Foot and their band, arrive at Wounded Knee Creek.  Near starvation, they meet their fate in a massacre on December 29, 1890.

Dakota Daughters shared introductions and acknowledgement of prayers, songs and candles to represent ancestors, healing, light, and life.  You'll find more photographs from this inspiring program in our SAHS Photo Gallery. 

While the Humanities Council encourages discussion following these performances, there was very little following this dramatization, but there was a stirring round of applause for the ladies portraying the Dakota Daughters, for their performances and their display of hope -- a recognition that Mitaukuye Oya'in:  We are all related.

The final program for the Spearfish Area HIstorical Society is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, when Guy Edwards and Paul Higbee will tell the story of the Mickelson Trail…from the Beginning.

An insight into Masonic history in the United States

Members of the Spearfish Area Historical Society learned a bit about Masonic history last night (3/5/13), as guest speaker Jim Savaloja wove an intricate story about the origins of Masons and their impact on our society – and in many other parts of the world.

After a few days of a late winter storms, Mother Nature eased up a bit, allowing members to make their way to the Spearfish Senior Citizen’s center for the March program.

A North Dakota native, Savaloja (shown at left) spent a long career as a peace officer after attending the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and the North Dakota State School of Forestry in Bottineau.  Now retired,  he served as a criminal investigator for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department at Devil’s lake.

A Mason since 1971, Savaloja was elected Grand Master of North Dakota in 1992.

 

Savaloja’s program covered the development of the present day Masonic Lodge, which was chartered in the British Isles and brought to the American colonies in the early 1700’s.  He tracked the lodge across the Atlantic to Boston and Philadelphia and told of the involvement in Masons by such early leaders as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere and John Hancock, among others.

Tracing the expansion of citizens into the western United States,,  According to Savaloja, it was a small group including James Monroe and Robert Livingston – both Masons -- who negotiated acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase from France, only to learn that the purchase was not accommodated by federal law.  Congress, he said, was left to approve the unusual arrangement after the fact.

Even the “Corps of Discovery” that explored the newly-purchased western lands had a Masonic involvement, said Savaloja.   Leader Meriwether Lewis was a Mason.  While his partner in leading the group – William Clark was not a Mason, Savaloja says Clark later 

became a member of the group.

Savaloja provided numerous other stories about the Masons, providing an evening of good fun enjoyed by the members.  You can find a bit more information -- along with additional photographs -- in our SAHS History Gallery.

We were delighted to welcome several Boy Scouts from Troop 17 in Spearfish, along with their leader, Bob Evridge.  We understand that the troop is one of the oldest -- perhaps the oldest -- in South Dakota.

The next SAHS meeting is set for April 2^nd and will feature Lillian Witt, Geraldine Goes in Center, and Joyce Jefferson with “The Dakota Sisters – A Reenactment.”

Speaker provides scientific glimpse of Black Hills flooding

Dan Driscoll of the USGS

There was standing room only Tuesday night (2/5/13) as more than 100 people sandwiched themselves inside the Spearfish Senior Citizen's Center to hear Dan Driscoll talk about flooding.

It's a topic all too familiar to many residents of the northern Black Hills, and memories of the devastating Rapid City flood of 1972 came back with little prompting as Driscoll gave the group an hour-long overview of historic floods in the Black Hills region.

An hydrologist with the U. S. Geological Survey in Rapid City, Driscoll has been very involved with studies relating to flood-frequency analysis.  Well rooted in science, he provided members of the Spearfish Area Historical Society with a thumbnail sketch of how scientists go about measuring size and frequency of flooding -- underscoring the importance of historical data, while conceding that there's still a lot of uncertainty about flow estimates in flooding rivers.

With a different and perhaps younger crowd, Driscoll's meticulous description of the processes used by scientists engaged in flood research might have been met with drooping eyelids and quick refuge to a cell phone to check messages.  Such was not the case on this evening -- with all-to-vivid memories of the June 1972 Rapid City area flood that killed 238 people.  This audience was transfixed on the topic and you could've heard a pin drop.  This, despite an overtaxed sound system brought in at the last minute to replace the Senior Center's sometimes cranky equipment.

Members of the SAHS packed the house on Tuesday, February 5th, to learn about floods in the Black Hills

Driscoll posed a question that was more than just rhetorical:  "…should floods of such large magnitude be expected about every 100 years, 1,000 years, or perhaps even less frequently?  The Black Hills area has a very robust history of flash flooding, and historical flood information can be very useful in addressing such questions."

With that in mind, Driscoll called for volunteers.

"We're interested in finding individuals who can help us in researching additional information regarding historical floods…this could be used as part of future paleoflood studies."

Probably not surprised by questions from the audience about the potential impact of future flooding in the region -- particularly from Spearfish Canyon -- Driscoll managed to allay a few fears, while seeming to concede the inevitability of such flooding.

He observed that the limestone plateaus in the vicinity of the headwaters of Spearfish Creek are "less prone" to heavy thunderstorms.  But he also noted that flash floods -- rapid rises in streamflow typically caused by intense thunderstorms -- are part of the Black Hills landscape.

Driscoll candidly remarked, while talking about Whitewood Creek, that "Main Street in Deadwood is right over Whitewood Creek.  When the 'big one' comes, it won't be pretty."  

But there've been at least a dozen floods in the region over the last 2,000 years that were worse than the Rapid City Flood, according to Driscoll.

So, perhaps we're betting on the relative infrequency of devastating floods?   That's a wager probably not often considered in Deadwood casinos.

Such observations notwithstanding,  Dan Driscoll and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey are collaborating with local, state, and other federal agencies in research that might provide new insights to regional flooding hazards.   Such research will help guide long-term policy and management aimed at reducing damage and destruction from flash flooding in the Black Hills region.

We hope a few folks stepped forward to aid in Dan Driscoll's request for volunteers to aid that research.

We offer here a few photos of the February meeting of the historical society in our History Gallery.  But this month, we really encourage you to follow this link to a USGS Flood Report that includes many stories and photographs of various floods in the Black Hills over the past century or so.  Like this February meeting, we believe you'll find it well worth your while.

~ Larry Miller

Members get a glimpse of the Fassbender Collection...

by Larry Miller

Josef Fassbender at work

For much of the 20^th century, the name Fassbender was synonymous with “photography” throughout the Black Hills and much of the surrounding region.  German immigrant Josef Fassbender arrived in Spearfish in about 1924 when he went to work for the O. A. Vik Studio.  By 1928, he had established his own Black Hills Studio.  He and his family would continue the business for some six decades -- well into the 1980’s.

“It really was a family affair,” said writer Paul Higbee, who presented the program highlighting the Photography of Joseph and George Fassbender last night (1/8/13) for the January meeting of the Spearfish Area Historical Society.   Josef Fassbender’s daughter, Betty Johnson, was in the audience, too, offering clarifications and anecdotes as Higbee wove the story about the Fassbender family business.  Fassbender's great grandaughter, Julianne Zoller and her daughter, Nora, also attended the meeting.

About 75 people were on hand for the event at the Spearfish Senior Citizen’s Center. The program included a screening of regional photos taken by the Fassbenders over the years.  They were described by Richard Carlson of Lead, who is spearheading the indexing and scanning of the formidable collection of photos estimated at about 800,000 images.

Josef M. Fassbender was born in Lobberich, Germany in July of 1892 and studied architecture in Cologne and later did postgraduate work at Chemnitz.  Before the onset of World War I, Fassbender decided to leave Germany and came to the United States.

“He was about 20 years old,” said Higbee, and he arrived in the United States with a Father Golden, who was en route to do missionary work on an Indian reservation in South Dakota.  But for young Fassbender, there was a brief stop in Indiana, where he briefly studied English, according to Higbee.

The 1956 Who’s Who for South Dakota indicates that Fassbender arrived in South Dakota in 1914 and worked a couple of years as a cowpuncher near Lovell, and then was a clerk in the drugstore at Faith before he established Josef’s Studio in Faith in 1917.  The following year, he married Magdalena Mengenhauser, and they would begin their family of three boys and two girls.

When Fassbender came to Spearfish in about 1923, he worked for O.A. Vik, who had a photo studio on the corner of Main and Illinois, where “Horses to Harleys” is now located.  The building in those days was a white wood frame building with skylights – a useful feature for photographers -- always seeking natural daylight.

Most Spearfish old timers will remember “Black Hills Studio” at 621 North Main Street, where the High Plains Gallery is now located.  Along the way, Fassbender's would also have businesses in Lead and Sundance.

While Josef Fassbender was passionate about his photography, he did find time for community involvement.  He served on the Spearfish City Council and was a member of Lions, Elks, Knights of Columbus, and the Snapper Club.  Not surprisingly, he was also involved with regional and national photography associations.

Betty Fassbender Johnson

“Dad wasn’t a bookkeeper,” noted Fassbender’s daughter, Betty, who assumed those responsibilities as she got older.   Her sister, Julia, did the tinting before color photography became commonplace, and her mother did the retouching of photos.  Of course, all that required customers to identify the various colors that were to be included in any photograph that was to be tinted.

For a time, the family business enterprises included the Mobil filling station, which pre-dated the coffee shop and bicycle shop now located on south Main and Grant Streets.

Josef Fassbender died in 1958.  While his oldest son, Henry, had gone on to a career with the Eastman Kodak Company, another son – George – took over operation of Black Hills Studio at just 25 years of age.  He continued the family business for several more decades, but passed away in 1998.

Higbee said that George Fassbender cared deeply about what would happen to their photographs and before he died made arrangements for two good friends – both with deep roots in the region – to take custody of it.  Johnny Sumners and Ed Furois did just that and preserved the collection for several years. 

A group of interested citizens helped to pull the collection together and it was moved to a south Spearfish building.  Then in 2010, the cities of Lead, Deadwood and Spearfish bought the collection for $300,000.  It was eventually removed to the temperature and humidity-controlled environment of the Homestake Adams Cultural Center in on Sherman Street in Deadwood where it remains today.

While the vast majority of the estimated 800,000 images are portraits -- mostly school pictures --  the balance of them include a treasure trove that captures a wide diversity of life in the Black Hills and surrounding region.  The photographs, negatives, slides, and film footage provide a glimpse of activities ranging from rodeos and sporting activities to the carving of Mount Rushmore and almost all significant activities that took place at Black Hills State University for several decades.

Paul Higbee

There are photos of president Calvin Coolidge donning an Indian headdress, along with a variety of other dignitaries who were pioneers in the region.  And Fassbender provided almost all of the official photography for Josef Meier’s historic Passion Play.  Homestake mine, politicians, and rare photos from almost every community in the region.

Higbee recounted the fact that Fassbender served as something of a news photographer during the 1941 misadventure of George Hopkins, who parachuted to the top of Devil’s Tower and couldn’t get down.  He was rescued six days later amid a frenzy of news coverage – with Fassbender photos appearing nationwide.

Richard Carlson invited society members who are so inclined to join the 40 or so other people who’ve volunteered to help with the organizing, indexing, and digitizing of the Fassbender photos.  There is a web site for the Fassbender Photographic Collection.  While it's a bit thin right now, the expectation is that it will one day be a very robust site that can help the publicly-owned collection become a valuable force in helping to tell the story of the Black Hills and its people.

Few things can capture the imagination more than images that  reflect our past.  It was little wonder that numerous folks lingered long after the historical society program had ended, eyeballing more of the remarkable photographs contained in the Fassbender collection.  For a few more photos and a bit of additional information, visit our History Photo Gallery.

Ellsworth AFB has rich and diverse history...

One of the powerful economic factors for the Black Hills region over the past seven decades has been Ellsworth Air Force Base, situated just east of Rapid City.  The story of Ellsworth is a fascinating one, reflecting significant changes in technology – and government policies – since the base came into being at the onset of World War Two.

Highlights of the Ellsworth AFB history were recounted Tuesday night (12/4/12) by George Larson, a Rapid City writer who focused on a variety of aircraft to help tell the history of the base.  Many of the aircraft and missiles discussed were deployed at the base over its many years.  Larson, a retired Lieutenant-Colonel in the Air Force, spoke to members of the Spearfish Area Historical Society for their monthly gathering at the Senior Citizens Center in Spearfish.  He was able to accommodate a last-minute program change, when scheduled speaker Rick Mills was forced to cancel his talk about "Railroads in the Black Hills."  

Originally established in 1941 as Rapid City Army Air Base, the base has played an important role in national defense – and in the economy of the Black Hills – ever since.

 “Early buildings at the base were largely made of wood and usually had no insulation,” Larson said, also noting that the buildings were heated by coal and or wood.  One of the few remaining structures from the old air base is a huge smokestack that Larson says still plays a role in operation of the facility.

Larson anecdotes about early days of Ellsworth ranged from bomber training incidents where 100-pound bombs were actually filled with rancid flour – to tensions that grew between ranchers and the government over bomber training in the Badlands region.

“A lot of people also don’t realize that during the Berlin Blockade (1948-49) that the 28^th Bomb Wing flew B-29’s to Germany and that they were placed on alert when the United States told the Soviet Union ‘if you mess with our Berlin Airlift, we will respond with nuclear weapons.’” A massive airlift of food and supplies into the city occurred from June of 1948 until May of 1949 – almost one year – before the Soviet Union relented and opened roadways leading in and out of Germany’s capitol city.

The Rapid City Army Air Base was renamed in honor of Brigadier General Richard Ellsworth, killed after his B-36 Peacemaker reconnaissance aircraft crashed in Newfoundland on a 1953 training flight. General Ellsworth was commander of the 28^th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at the Rapid City Air Base when he died.  31 other persons were also killed in the crash.  Larson showed a photo of the crash site in Newfoundland.  The wreckage, he said, remains exactly as it was in 1953, “except that they removed the live ammunition and some of the electronics.”

Much of Larson’s talk focused upon several aircraft flown by the Air Force – many of which were flown at Ellsworth.  He shared photos and stories about B-17,  B-29, B-36 and B-52 aircraft, among others.  He also talked extensively about the Strategic Air Command (SAC), where he had spent several years during the era of legendary SAC boss General Curtis LeMay.

“I lived by General LeMay’s standards.  I was a nuclear weaponeer on the base – in charge of nuclear weapons and in charge of the weapons,” said Larson.

 “We had tests.  We had ORI’s (Operational Readiness Inspections).  You had to do it at 100 percent or you were out of the service.”  LeMay commanded the Omaha-based Strategic Air Command from 1949 to 1957.

“It was a real pressure cooker for all those years.  You could not make a mistake.  No mistakes were allowed in SAC; if it did, you were gone.”

Larson seemed to thrive in the SAC environment.    Referencing the “spot promotions” that were a part of the SAC culture under LeMay, he noted that he had received three such promotions even over pilots.

“That was part of the SAC culture that’s no longer there,” said Larson.

The final portions of Larson’s talk dealt with the Nike, Titan and Minuteman missile facilities that were strewn across the region and operated under the auspices of Ellsworth Air Force Base.  He recommended the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, which is located about 75 miles east of Rapid City not far from Interstate-90.

We've included a few additional photos and some more information about Larson's talk and Ellsworth Air Force Base in our Spearfish Area Historical Society Photo Gallery.

You can also find links to more information about the history of Ellsworth Air Force Base by visiting Ellsworth Historical Features, part of the official Ellsworth AFB web site.

Larson’s book about the history of Ellsworth Air Force Base was originally due out this last summer; however, he says the publisher has expanded the size of the publication, which should better showcase the many photographs that are included in the publication.  Entitled Thunder Over Dakota–The History of Ellsworth Air Force Base 1941-2011 is now expected to be available in the spring or summer of 2013. 

Mayor proclaims November 13th Linfred Schuttler Day

Few people in Spearfish have contributed as much to understanding and promoting history as Linfred Schutter (at right in photo), the retired postal worked who -- as the cake in this photo depicts -- put "his stamp on Spearfish History."

So, it was fitting that Spearfish Mayor Jerry Krambeck (center) should issue a proclamation designating today -- November 13th, 2012 -- as Linfred Schuttler Day in Spearfish.  (Read the Proclamation here)  And while Linfred is always caught up on his history, we have a feeling the event this evening (11/13/12) caught him by surprise!  It took place at the regular monthly meeting of the Spearfish Area Historical Society at the Senior Citizen's Center in Spearfish.  You'll find more photos of the occasion in our 2012 Photo Gallery.

Schuttler's younger brother Ron joined his "big brother" and Mayor Krambeck for the above photo.  The younger Schuttler also share a few poignant stories about his brother, whom he touchingly referred to as "my hero."

Linfred Schuttler points out the curvature of the earth
in the National Geographic photograph taken by
the crew of the 1935 high altitude balloon flight from
the Stratobowl nestled in the central Black Hills.

The cake-cutting and fellowship followed yet another great program presented by -- who else but Linfred Schuttler? He recalled the excitement and history created by the National Geographic high altitude balloon launch Explorer II from the Stratobowl just outside of Rapid City in the 1930's.

Schuttler described how folks congregated around the gondola that came down in a field not far from White Lake, South Dakota, and who had a nice close-up view of the craft before military personnel from Fort Meade arrived on the scene and moved them back from the site.

This bit of South Dakota history has proven to be quite durable and increasingly fascinating for folks.  Last summer, a record number of "Moon Walkers"  participated in a hike that took them to a site overlooking the famed Stratobowl.  A story of the event can be found on Black Hills Journal.

The story of Linfred Schuttler is pretty interesting, too!  We recounted a few of his many life events in a story we wrote a couple of years ago after Linfred talked about "Spearfish CAVES."

Congratulations, Linfred, on this well-deserved recognition -- and THANK YOU for all the great history you've shared with us.  We look forward to many more of your programs!

"Construction boom" of the post-Depression era

During and just after the Great Depression, the U.S. government greatly expanded its public building programs.  That campaign included many "Class C" post offices for "second class cities," defined by the volume of postal receipts that ran through the facility.

This 1940 photograph shows construction of the post office at 526 Main Street, just across from the two-story Spearfish Hotel, which was situated where Heisler's Ace Hardware is located today.

A wood frame home had stood on this site previously.  The 1940 construction of the post office included a basement to house offices for some federal programs, such as the Cooperative Extension Service.

The architectural style employed in construction included a brick building with wooden doors and windows, and very simple forms of ornamentation.  Artist Marion Overby of Los Angeles was commissioned to do  scuptures for some of the post offices, including the Spearfish facility.  After consulting the mayor for ideas, she titled her work, "Fish Story," and the sculpture was hung on the wall of the lobby.

The post office closed at this location in 1997 and moved to 120 Yankee Street in north Spearfish.  It was then remodeled and occupied by Great Western Bank.

"The sculptures had been sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC," says GWB president Tom Willnerd.

"But it was requested that they be returned to Spearfish as part of the restoration of the old post office.  They're once again on display in the lobby of the building."