Custer
Crazy Horse
If you think Mount Rushmore is
awesome, then you should take a look at the Crazy Horse
Memorial between Hill City and Custer. Started in 1938 by
sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and continued by his children
and grandchildren to the present day, the statue when
finished will consume an entire mountain and depict the
Lakota Sioux warrior Crazy Horse sitting on horseback and
towering 563 feet above the valley of Laughing Water. The
sheer size and scale of this carving is almost beyond
belief. The horse’s head alone will stand some 22
stories high and when complete it will be so gigantic
that the entire Mount Rushmore monument will fit into the
armpit of the statue.
Work on the memorial continues and over
the past few years the nine story face has taken shape
and is now two thirds complete. It remains on schedule
for completion on June 8th 1998, for a
dedication ceremony to mark the fiftieth anniversary of
the first blast. For more information click HERE.
For a personal account of the area
click HERE.
CUSTER
Custer is the oldest
settlement in the Black Hills and takes its name from the
infamous ‘Blood and Guts’ General George
Armstrong Custer, who in 1874 brought in a large
expeditionary force to reconnoiter this unknown
wilderness, in the middle of Indian territory. Shortly
afterwards gold was discovered in French Creek close to
the present day downtown area and hundreds of fortune
seekers soon followed, trespassing on Indian territory
and that marked the beginning of the settlement. The 150
foot wide Main Street is a reminder of times past, as it
was built wide enough for eight yoke of oxen to make a
U-turn in the middle of the street.
Flintstones
Bedrock City
Welcome to Custer’s only theme
park, a thirty acre site on the edge of town dedicated to
the famous TV cartoon series. As well as finding Fred,
Wilma, Barney, Betty and all the other characters, the
park also incorporates the stone-age village of Bedrock
City. The kids will love it!
Mountain
Music Show
Right next to the Flintstones
you’ll find Custer’s Original Mountain Music
Show, with some great family humor and toe tapping
rhythms. ShowTime is 8pm nightly.
Jewel
Cave
Further west along Hwy 16 brings
you to Jewel Cave which at 104.5 miles long, is the
second longest cave in the U.S. and third longest in the
world. Speleologists estimate that over 1,000 miles of
the cave are still unexplored. Inner sights include
aragonite frostwork, gypsum beards, and hydromagnesite
balloons. These rare calcite formations gave the cave its
name. For more information click HERE.
Wind
Cave
Situated between Custer State Park
and Hot Springs, Wind Cave is the world's eighth longest
cave, and the Uunited States fifth longest, with over
77.2 miles of boxwork, frostwork, and popcorn formations
as well as some amazing tangled helictite bushes. The
above-ground park comprises of 28,000 acres of prairie,
forests, and wildlife. For more information click HERE.
HOT SPRINGS
Evans Plunge
Fed by geothermal springs that gave
the town it’s name, Evans Plunge is now a warm
mineral water fun park complete with waterslides, tubes
etc. You can even rent swimming gear here! For more
information click HERE.
The Mammoth Site
Visit the world’s largest
collection of Columbian and Woolly mammoth bones still in
situ. This is a National Natural Landmark. For more
information click HERE.
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