We were here 23 years ago with Nick and Karen, but we must
have stuck to the kid friendly attractions as there are several items of
interest that have been here forever that we missed, as well as some I had
wanted to check back on. I thought I was going to check in on the progress of
the Crazy Horse Monument, but when spotted, it looked exactly to me like it did
23 years ago. I guess a close up inspect won’t be necessary.
The Crazy Horse Monument is being sculpted by the heirs of Gutzon
Borglum, the man who is best known for sculpting the Mount Rushmore National
Memorial. Since we just did a scenic road trip on our first day in the area,
there was no reason not to do a drive by!
Setting our itinerary a year ago, I saw a small point on the
Rand McNally atlas map indicateng that the geographic center of the United
States was just North of Belle Fourche South Dakota. While not terribly close,
we decided it was worth adding to our initial scenic drive.
In 1912 the US Geological Survey established a point about 3
miles Northwest of Lebanon Kansas as the geographic center of the US. It stood
as that marker until 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii were made states. Admitting
those states reset the geographic center of the US to where we headed today.
Not many folks ever go here. Since the highway that ran by
the site was rerouted, a visit requires an 8-mile drive on a very remote dirt
road. Luckily the farmer who owns the land has made sure that folk who want to
visit are able. We hiked a bit out into his field and found the actual USGS
marker positioned at the exact geographic center of the US. How cool!
Why we didn’t visit the nearby National Monument while we
were here 23 years ago I can’t recall. Established by Theodore Roosevelt with
many of his other Western monuments, is the Jewel Cave National Monument.
We toured this interesting cave, and learned that where we
were walking likely didn’t exist last time we were here. Until relatively
recently, the only touring of Jewel Cave was through the one and only surface
opening that has been discovered in the first couple centuries of exploration.
In the last couple decades, an elevator shaft was sunk into the center of some
very large rooms that has resulted in visitors being able to visit some more
spectacular portions of this massive cave system.
Jewel Cave is believed to be the 3rd longest
system of connected caves in the world, at over 190 miles of explored caves. Mammoth
Cave in Kentucky, which we visited last time we were out East, is the longest
at over 400 miles of explored caverns. All of the 400 miles of Mammoth Cave
have been explored, while perhaps less than 5% of the estimated 190 miles of
Jewel Cave have been explored. The primary reason is that the Mammoth Cave
system has been fully explored is because there are more than a couple dozen
natural entrances that made exploration much easier.
There is only one in Jewel Cave, and luckily it was on the Canyon
Trail we hiked. Having only one entrance meant that explorers would take days
just to venture further into the cave system. Packing in and out everything
they needed meant that their exploration ventures could only be 4 or 5 days in
duration. What that means is that Jewel Cave may be much larger than its
current estimate. For example, since last November about 20 miles of actual
mapped caves have been added to the system map. We will definitely check back
on this and keep track of its progress.
Talk to you soon!
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