Carol writes: After four long years on the road, we finally made a visit to our actual legal home, a large and growing mail-forwarding service located on Americas Way, just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. During our 10-day visit “home,” we stayed at the Ellsworth Air Force Base Famcamp.
After the tragic death of Brigadier General Richard Ellsworth during a training flight, President Eisenhower renamed the base Ellsworth Air Force Base in honor of its recently deceased commander. Today, Ellsworth AFB is the home of the B-1B Lancer, commonly known as the B-1 bomber,
a modern generation bomber with nuclear weapon capability.
At the South Dakota Air and Space Museum,
a large static display featured many of the aircraft that have played a part in Ellsworth’s mission to provide combat air power while serving as the Guardians of the North.
The “tanker” has long held a special place in our hearts…
As always, we were humbled by the pride that is always on display at any U.S. military base we have visited. On one of the hangers along the flight line, we observed a large sign signifying that Ellsworth was “Raider Country.” We later learned that Ellsworth is home to 3 of the 4 original WW II squadrons comprising the Doolittle Raiders. Led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, in 1942 these brave and selfless pilots were tasked with a daunting bombing mission over Japan in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Dickinson, North Dakota
Our next stop in the Dakotas was for 3 days in the town of Dickinson, North Dakota, a convenient base from which to visit the South Unit and the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
This is the only national park that has been named after a person, and that person was our nation’s 26th President—Theodore Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt first visited Dakota Territory in 1883 during a hunting trip for bison, during which he fell so deeply in love with the outdoor lifestyle of the Dakota Badlands that he embarked on a ranching operation. A year later, after losing both his wife and his mother in the same house on the same day, February 14, 1884, he returned to his beloved Badlands to grieve and lose himself in the primitive lifestyle and remote ruggedness of the vast Badlands wilderness.
The so-called Maltese Cross cabin that TR lived in has been moved to a more convenient location that is accessible to visitors. The Maltese cross that TR carved into the end of one of the logs on the cabin was still evident.
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| TR's Maltese Cross Cabin |
During our visit to the South Unit, we had one of the most extraordinary wildlife sightings we have ever experienced when we encountered several hundred head of bison grazing in the grasslands beside the main road through the park.
Along with several dozen other delighted park visitors, we were surrounded by an enormous herd of bison engaged in typical bison activities:
grazing,
wallowing in the perfect patch of dirt,
resting,
entertaining the prairie dogs,
and chasing tourists back to the safety of their cars.
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| Prairie dog looking on, bottom right |
and chasing tourists back to the safety of their cars.
On all park roads, bison have the right of way…
A visit to the North Unit brought back some very vivid memories associated with our family visit during the Galus Family 1989-90 year on the road…
- We found the campground and actual campsite from which we observed a huge bison stroll through camp one morning in the summer of 1989. Both leashed cats nearly jumped through the screen door to escape inside. Jason and Megan, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more thrilled.
- We revisited the hillside where in 1989 we cautiously stomped through tall, dry prairie grass on the way back to the car as we zigzagged around numerous rattlesnakes hidden in the grass where they kept alerting us with rattles when we came too near for their liking.
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| Rattlesnake Hill |
On the outskirts of the national park, situated high on a hill above the tiny tourist town of Medora, we noticed a large, lovely gray wooden home with dark red trim.
It turned out that this jewel on the prairie was the home of a European aristocrat named the Marquis de Mores, who traveled from France to Dakota Territory in 1883, the same year that Teddy Roosevelt arrived for his first hunting trip. The Marquis de Mores founded the town of Medora and named it after his wife, Medora von Hoffman. He then proceeded with a bold plan to start a cattle business which would ship fresh beef back east on refrigerated railroad cars.
As usual, my interest was especially drawn to old photographs, like this one of the home taken shortly after building was completed in 1884.
Locals eventually dubbed the home “the Chateau.” Teddy Roosevelt often dined at “the Chateau” and was eager to borrow freely from its library of books.
The home itself was the most interesting aspect of the story at the Chateau de Mores Historic Site. The interior was a proper Victorian beauty that also subtly interwove design features of the northern prairie.
The immigrant story that played out in the Great Northern Plains of the Dakotas was one that everyone should be reminded of when all-too-common ugly immigrant stories of our day are splashed across public media. Our country was founded and enriched immeasurably by millions of immigrants who came here with dreams of a better life—the Germans and Irish in my family, and Slavic immigrants on Al’s side.
Despite having little in the way of worldly possessions, this hardworking immigrant bedrock of American society succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. This story was nicely told in Dickinson, where a flourishing Ukrainian-American community attracted Al’s attention due to his family’s Ukrainian heritage.
In downtown Dickinson, we had a delightful visit and chat with a woman at the Ukrainian Cultural Institute, who recalled stories about several families in Dickinson’s Ukrainian community.
She told us that the Institute strives to promote and preserve their Ukrainian-American history and customs, and then proudly pointed out some intricately decorated eggs typical of Ukrainian culture…
We left the Institute with two bags of frozen pyrohy—prune and potato—with thoughts of cooking up a few some night to see how they compare with the ones Al’s mom and grandmother used to make…
The pride of Dickinson’s residents in their service to America was touchingly displayed at the finest war memorial we have ever seen in small-town America. The names of those from Dickinson who “gave everything” in America’s wars over the last hundred years were carved into black stone pillars at a war memorial in the park. The design was clearly influenced by our nation’s Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
I might add that many, many of those names on Dickinson’s hallowed stone tablets were clearly from immigrant families…
Our final stop on our day out and about in Dickinson was a great one—at the Brew Coffeehouse.
The unique ambience inside this former Episcopal chapel where Teddy Roosevelt used to worship was well worth more than the price of two ‘cuppa joes.’
Our travels through the Dakotas thus far have led us through a land of vast grassy open spaces interspersed with imposing badlands. For us, it was not hard to understand why such a place could provide solace to a future president who was grieving two terrible losses in his young life. Al and I perfectly understood how a life deeply immersed in Nature could nourish the spirit, as well as dull the sharp edges of grief over time. Over the past eight years of nearly continuous travel, for us, the “tonic of wilderness” has been a powerful elixir.
Carol Galus
Photo-Blogger
