My wife and younger son and I recently took a trip to the north-central Plains. I’m referring to the Dakotas and several states around them. Our son planned the whole trip and drove the whole way. It was a great trip and it’s a great region to visit.
Here are a couple of maps to show you where we went:
Sources: researchgate.net (left) and britannica.com (right).
This is an area with a low population density, and it’s mostly rural prairie land. It has good farmland which enriches our nation. The region has impressive natural features, historical sites and places of cultural interest. I recommend visiting the U.S. North-Central Plains.
In northern Kansas, we stopped at the Geographical Center of the Lower 48 States. It’s a help-yourself tourist attraction, out in the Kansas prairie, where you can see the center of the U.S.A. (minus Alaska and Hawaii). There’s also a small chapel on the site.
In Nebraska we paid a visit to Chimney Rock (not to be confused with the Chimney Rock in North Carolina). This Chimney Rock is a formation in the Nebraska Panhandle which was a landmark for the 19th-century pioneers. It’s actually not as tall as it was then, as the top part has broken off, but it’s still quite impressive.
From Nebraska we entered South Dakota, passing through the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation. After that we went to Badlands National Park. Badlands are eroded areas in which the erosion forms picturesque hills and canyons. Here are some photos of Badlands National Park:
In another part of South Dakota we went to Mt. Rushmore. It’s an impressive work of art in which the faces of four presidents have been sculpted out of the solid rock of a cliff in the Black Hills. The four presidents are, left to right, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
On a walking trail which brought us below the faces, Lilia took this more close-up photo, at a different angle:
Mt. Rushmore is in the Black Hills. Here are some photos of the Black Hills:
We visited Deadwood, South Dakota, with its Old West downtown.
This is the city where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed in 1876. You can visit the location of his killing, though it’s not actually the same building that existed then. We saw Wild Bill Hickok’s grave at the local Mt. Moriah Cemetery.
We stopped at Sturgis, South Dakota, where they have the big motorcycle rally, though not when we were there, so it was calm.
We went into the state of Wyoming, stopping at the Vore Buffalo Jump, where Indians used to kill bison by getting them to jump into a hole in the ground.
We visited the so-called “Devils Tower” although I think it should be called “Bear Tower” or something like that, based on an Indian legend. You can walk all around this natural formation and see it from different angles.
In the Indian legend a giant bear forms the lines on the rock by scratching it.
From there our route passed through Montana and we wound up traveling on an isolated road which forms the Montana-South Dakota state line. Here it is, with Montana on the left and South Dakota on the right.
Passing through South Dakota we entered North Dakota and visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In his 20s, the future president worked as a cowboy in North Dakota. Later in life Roosevelt said “I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota.”
The Theodore Roosevelt National Park has two non-contiguous sections. It is located in the North Dakota Badlands which are not the same as the South Dakota Badlands, they look different from each other.
Photo by Lilia Wall.
Photo by Lilia Wall.
We visited the state capitols of both North Dakota (in Bismarck) and South Dakota (in Pierre):
The North Dakota capitol includes a skyscraper.
North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck. Photo by Lilia Wall.
The South Dakota capitol follows traditional capitol building architecture.
In Chamberlain, South Dakota, we visited the Akta Lakota Museum, about the Sioux Indians.
In Mitchell, South Dakota, we visited the Corn Palace.
Each year the Corn Palace has different artwork on its exterior, and the artwork is composed of corn cobs and other parts of the corn plant. This year the theme was wonders of the world.
See the corn cobs?
Mitchell is the hometown of George McGovern, a longtime senator who ran for President in 1972. McGovern attended the local Dakota Wesleyan University where he met his wife. The campus library has a “McGovern Legacy Museum” which we visited.
We crossed the mighty Missouri River several times. At the place we crossed from South Dakota to Nebraska, the Missouri river is the state line. As you cross the bridge southward, you are actually descending. It’s impressive.
Photo by Allan Wall
In conclusion, this is an interesting part of our country that should not be neglected. There is much to see of interest. Let me close with a photo of some of that great Nebraska farmland:
Nebraska Farmland. Photo by Allan Wall.
Tags: Agriculture, American Indians, Badlands, Bison, Black Hills, Chimney Rock in Nebraska, Deadwood in South Dakota, George McGovern, Kansas, Missouri River, Mitchell in South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, Nebraska, North Dakota, North Dakota Badlands, Sioux, South Dakota, South Dakota Badlands, Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyoming