October '04 Black Hills Road Trip

October 22nd - Quick stops en route for more Oddball Minnesota

Olivia, MN

Granite Falls, MN

Oldest rock in the world.


It's 3,800,000,000 years old.


The house Grandpa Sween grew up in.


October 23rd - Into South Dakota

Petrified Gardens off I-90

It's worth the stop. Really!

The Badlands


There's a reason they call it the Badlands.

Wall, SD

Mount Rushmore

Keystone, SD


Anniversary dinner.


October 24th - The Black Hills

Around Keystone

The Crazy Horse Monument

Custer State Park

Pierre, SD - More capitol pictures here.


October 25th - Heading East

Bridge over the Bad River

Lewis & Clark slept here... twice.

Mitchell, SD

Talking to Auntie Diane while trying to be on the Corn Palace webcam.


Our chauffeur

Huron, SD

Actress Cheryl Ladd was a car-hop here at The Barn.


You read that right-- it's the worlds largest pheasant.

De Smet, SD


The oldest building in De Smet. It used to be by the shores of Silver Lake and was moved to town in 1884.
The Ingalls lived here their first winter in De Smet. Read: "By The Shores of Silver Lake."


The County Courthouse was built around 1898. Pa Ingalls served as Justice of the Peace between 1883 and 1884.
Some of his writings were found in the basement.


Downtown was an area of much Ingalls activity including the Mead Hotel which is now the parking lot for
Maynard's Grocery on the right.


The Wilder Boys' feed store once stood here. The mural depicts the shores of Silver Lake.


This was something. We can't remember. Beardsley Hotel? The building beyond it is the Dugout Bar where
the Hawthorne Store used to be. The Ingalls bought dry goods there.


Laura and Carrie attended school here.


The Ingalls home was built by Pa in 1887. It is where Ma and Pa lived until they died.


Laura and Almanzo's home in De Smet.


Pa Ingalls died of a heart attack in 1902.


Ma died on Easter Sunday in 1924.


Laura and Almanzo's infant son.


Mary died in 1928 of a stroke.


Carrie died in 1946.


Grace suffered from bad health and died in 1941.


Silver Lake was drained and is now this field.


The Big Slough still exists and that's where Laura and Almanzo spoke for the first time.

Dawson, MN - And more Oddball Minnesota