listing for all programs for the 2025-2026 season is under the program tab
October 7, 2025 7pm gathering at the Spearfish Senior Citizen Center is presented by Nancy Davis
PROGRAM : What's in the Names? For Wood Place and Besant Park Road Stagecoaches and Trains
Travel with Nancy Davis as she shares her ancestral history of the Bessant (correct spelling) and Wood
families. The Bessant family story is one of tragedy, survival and eventual success. Samuel Bessant
(her great great grandfather) built the Besant Park stage stop the connected Cheyenne with the Northern
hills. The Homestake Mine and gold brought the development of railroad lines throughout the Black Hills
and the demise of stagecoach travel. One narrow gauge line bordered the Wood family homestead just
north of Besant Park Road. Nancy's great grandfather Archie Wood a dynamic entrepreneur, ran the
Dumont section house, the store and post office among many other pursuits. The ease of travel by
train found a unique friendship between Archie and Gerty (a midwife) Wood and three historical figures:
Deadwood Dick, Calamity Jane, and Poker Alice.
