Historic Deadwood, South Dakota was the destination, and the city’s reputation for murder and mayhem brings out the supernatural in everyone. The town, they say, is filled with ghosts; in the streets, in the buildings, and particularly, in the Bullock Hotel: the very hotel in which we were staying!

“Ooh, you’re staying in the most haunted room in the hotel,” the lady at the front desk told me, her voice quivering slightly with both awe and fear. “I won’t go in there. Ever.”  And I have to tell you, I believed her.  Everyone at the hotel seemed a bit, um, uneasy?  Spooky?  Odd.  That’s the word.  Like the Adams Family were odd.  And though I don’t believe in ghosts, I do believe in being scared, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be staying in Super Supernatural Room.

Rob and I decided we should take the hotel’s ghost tour, just to see what we might be up against that night. We were not disappointed.

The head of the tour was a guy who looked like real-life Deadwood legend Seth Bullock.  Back in the late 1800s, Bullock was the sheriff of the town, and the original owner of the hotel from 1895. You may know him best as the lead character in the HBO series “Deadwood” from a few years back.

On the ghost tour, we learned only one very important ghostly fact: in 1919, Seth Bullock died in room 211 of this hotel at 2:30am! Guess which room Rob and I were booked into for the night?

The tour concluded, I turned to our guide and told him in jest, “See you at 2:30.”  He laughed. Of course, I never saw him again.  But, I wasn’t the only occupant of room 211…

Later that night, Rob woke me up with some sort of crazy commotion.  It was around 2:45am.  Most of the lights in room 211 were on.  So was the TV.  I asked Rob confusedly what was going on?  He responded, “Nothing. I’ll tell you later.”  Too tired to think it was anything other than an insatiable desire to watch American television, I fell back into a blissful sleep.

When morning came, I prepared for Rob’s explanation.  Apparently, while I slept, at 2:28am, the door handle to the room began to jiggle.  There were loud bangs on the door, and, most of all, the door to the washroom, which I had left open, slowly, slowly began to close.

Rob asked me if I had left the washroom door open.  Indeed, I had.  I don’t like closed washroom doors at night just in case one needs to visit that room. I didn’t think it would be a ghost.

The two of us walked around the room, knocking on walls, making ‘boo’ noises, checking the washroom door to see if it was rigged.  My philosophical training has given me an acute sense of what it takes to rig a room for supernatural experience.  I sensed none!   There is no other explanation except that THE GHOST OF SETH BULLOCK WHO DIED IN THAT ROOM AT 2:30am CAME TO VISIT THE ROOM AGAIN AT THAT SAME TIME OVER 100 YEARS LATER AND TRIED TO GET INTO THE ROOM BY USING THE HANDLE! THEN, UPON DISCOVERING THAT THE DOOR WAS LOCKED, HE DECIDED TO KNOCK LOUDLY SINCE IT WAS LATE AND WE WERE PROBABLY SLEEPING!!!  WHEN WE DIDN’T ANSWER HE THOUGHT WE WERE RUDE, SO HE USED HIS SUPER GHOSTLY POWERS TO CLOSE THE WASHROOM DOOR: SLOWLY!

There are no other explanations for how someone from a hotel who wanted to perpetuate the myth that there were ghosts (because ghosts attract tourists) could jiggle the handle of a door from the outside and bang on it, with the vibrations enough for the washroom door, which is framed over an inch off the ground and therefore precariously open, to close.  Slowly.  However…

During the ghost tour in The Bullock Hotel in Deadwood, we were encouraged to take pictures, especially in the mirrors, as there were reports of faces (not your reflection kind of faces) and other abnormalities sighted in there.  Oh, we laughed and snapped away.  Then we looked at one of the pictures.

Is it the ghost of Seth Bullock?  Teddy Roosevelt?  Michael Jackson?  Am I looking at the Man in the Mirror?

The motto of South Dakota: Great Faces, Great Places. Remember when I boldly exclaimed: “I’ll be the judge of that.” Well, the verdict is in. South Dakota: Bravo! Second. Best. State. Ever.

Ever wonder how roadside attractions got to be, well, roadside attractions?  Where exactly did they gain their popularity?  When will I stop asking you questions and start giving you answers?  Right now, my faithful friends!  And we’ll start at the beginning:  Wall Drug, in the town of Wall, South Dakota.

Beginning as a small pharmacy in a small town (the town population at the store’s founding in 1931 was 231), the wife of the store’s owner had what was, at the time, a revolutionary idea.  The store would capitalize on the new tourist rush towards Mt. Rushmore and offer travelers free ice water.  Without the benefit of coolers or bottled water, this stroke of genius caught on with travelers, and the store’s popularity grew exponentially.

Not being shy of self-promotion, Wall Drug placed billboards -both large and small- for hundreds of miles in either direction throughout South Dakota and its neigbo(u)ring states.

The popularity of these signs grew to the point where people would ask for copies of them to take home.  Eventually, signs promoting Wall Drug started to appear in Europe.  These signs are now scattered throughout the world.  Even at the South Pole; where, frankly, I find it hard to believe they really need ice water.  But I suppose you never really know when you’ll get a craving for it in non-snow form.

Today, Wall Drug is a dizzying shopping cent(r)er occupying several blocks of space.  Still serving up free ice water and coffee for a nickle, it also boasts many tacky souvenir shops, amusement park like games, a splash park, 400 seat restaurant (where you can order Buffalo and something delicious called Sour Cream and Raisin pie), a chapel where weary travelers can worship, and a six foot jackalope.*

The first roadside attraction is always the best!

*A jackalope is a fierce mythical creature in North American legend.  It is half jackrabbit, half antelope, and all man!  Which is probably why, if they did exist, they all died out.

Badlands National Park in South Dakota doesn’t live up to its name at all. I’m sure it’s ‘bad’ in the sense of “I wouldn’t want to live here”, but not so much in a “I wouldn’t want to drive through and take some pictures, especially at sunset when the scenery is just breathtaking” sort of way. 

Scientists believe that the badlands began to form during the late Cretaceous Period, 67 to 75 million years ago, through the geological process called deposition.  It continued for the next 30 million years or so, with different woodland rivers, seas, and tropical lands depositing (deposition-depositing, get it?) various amounts of sediments over these vast periods of time. 

The process of erosion (where sediment begins to be removed) began around 500,000 years ago, when the Cheyenne River began to take in the smaller surrounding rivers as they receded.  According to my previous paragraph, these river had previously been depositing the sediment.  Erosion now dominated the landscape, and the Badlands started to take the shape we know now.

Sadly, the Earth doesn’t know when to stop. It is predicted that the badlands and all its natural wonder and beauty will erode into nothingness within another 500,000 years.  My advice: we’re lucky enough to live in the million year period where this exists.  Go see it while you can.

Sometimes, we need to learn on this blog.  I hope my vast knowledge of ripping off information from other sites/sources* helped us all grow a little as individuals, and as science-loving rock people.

*In school, this process is known as Essay Writing.

During the ghost tour in The Bullock Hotel in Deadwood, we were encouraged to take pictures, especially in the mirrors, as there were reports of faces (not your reflection kind of faces) and other abnormalities sighted in there.  Oh, we laughed and snapped away.  Then we looked at one of the pictures. 

Is it the ghost of Seth Bullock?  Teddy Roosevelt?  Michael Jackson?  Am I looking at the Man in the Mirror?

Rob woke me up with some sort of crazy commotion.  It was around 2:45am.  Most of the lights in room 211 were on.  So was the TV.  I asked Rob confusedly what was going on?  He responded, “Nothing. I’ll tell you later.”  Too tired to think it was anything other than insomnia, I fell back into a blissful sleep.

When morning came, I prepared for Rob’s explanation.  Apparently, while I slept, at 2:28am, the door handle to the room began to jiggle.  There were loud bangs on the door, and, most of all, the door to the washroom, which I had left open, slowly, slowly began to close.

Rob asked me if I had left the washroom door open.  Indeed, I had.  I don’t like closed washroom doors at night just in case one needs to visit that room. I didn’t think it would be a ghost.

The two of us walked around the room, knocking on walls, making ‘boo’ noises, checking the washroom door to see if it was rigged.  My philosophical training has given me an acute sense of what it takes to rig a room for supernatural experience.  I sensed none!   There is no other explanation except that THE GHOST OF SETH BULLOCK WHO DIED IN THAT ROOM AT 2:30am CAME TO VISIT THE ROOM AGAIN AT THAT SAME TIME OVER 100 YEARS LATER AND TRIED TO GET INTO THE DOOR BY USING THE HANDLE ! THEN UPON DISCOVERING THAT THE DOOR WAS LOCKED HE DECIDED TO KNOCK LOUDLY SINCE IT WAS LATE AND WE WERE PROBABLY SLEEPING!!!  WHEN WE DIDN’T ANSWER HE THOUGHT WE WERE RUDE SO HE USED HIS SUPER GHOSTLY POWERS TO CLOSE THE WASHROOM DOOR: SLOWLY!

There are no other explanations for how someone from a hotel who wanted to perpetuate the myth that there were ghosts (because ghosts attract tourists) could jiggle the handle of a door from the outside and bang on it, with the vibrations enough for the washroom door, which is framed over an inch off the ground and therefore precariously open, to close.  Slowly.  RUN SCOOBY, RUN!

“Ooh, you’re staying in the most haunted room in the hotel,” the lady at the front desk told me, her voice quivering slightly with awe and fear.  She concluded, “I won’t go in there.”  And I have to tell you, I believe her.  Everyone at the hotel seemed a bit, um, uneasy?  Spooky?  Unbelievable?  Odd.  Odd is the word.  Like the Adams Family were odd.  And though I don’t believe in ghosts, I do believe in being scared, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be staying in Super Supernatural Room.

To offset any impending fear, the boyfriend and I decided we should take the hotel’s ghost tour because ghosts are the opposite of bees: if you ignore them, they will not go away. They just want your attention and love.  So we confronted them.

The head of the tour was a guy who looked like Seth Bullock.  He dressed like a cowboy and had the long hair and mustache seen in the many photos of Bullock that graced the walls of the hotel.

He also made a big point of telling us that he was Seth Bullock, relating all stories in the first person Seth.  I will tell you that the mystery and magic that a ghost tour can hold disappears just a little bit when you know the guide is a guy pretending to be a dead man whose ghost (which is him) is haunting the place where you are staying.

We didn’t learn much about ghosts, except for the most important fact: that Seth Bullock (our guide, or not, depending on what level of crazy you operate on) died in our room at 2:30am! Excellent!  We actually cheered.  We knew the history of Bullock from the show Deadwood, so it was actually fairly exciting to be a part of history.

The tour concluded, the guy pretending to be Seth Bullock stayed in character, talking about how he went to Mexico to get his brother’s body after the Spanish-American war, then left the building dressed as Willie Nelson.  The last thing I said to him was, “See you at 2:30.”    I never saw him again.  But, I wasn’t the only occupant of room 211…

It was a dark and stormy night…naw. In fact, the weather this whole adventure has been fantastic. Here in Deadwood, it’s quite blisteringly hot; but a dry, direct heat. It is, in fact, the perfect condition to see ghosts. Deadwood’s reputation for murder and mayhem has also brought out the supernatural in everyone. The town, they say, is filled with ghosts; in the streets, in the buildings, and particularly, in the Bullock Hotel. One guess where we were staying…

The Bullock Hotel is the oldest hotel in Deadwood.  It was built in 1895 by ex-pat Canadian Seth Bullock and his partner (in business, not life) Sol Star.  Bullock was born in what is now Windsor, Ontario, and if you have ever been to Windsor, you’d understand why he left for the new frontier to find adventure.

After serving in the Territorial Legislature of Montana, he became a lawman before the call of riches that the Dakota Territory promised proved too loud to ignore.  He headed out with his partner Star to start a hardware store in Deadwood.  The day after he arrived, fellow lawman Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back.  Bullock and Star opened up their business, but the murder of Hickok and the demand for a semblance of justice forced Bullock back into his role as a sheriff.  A sheriff who kept his day job, though, as his hardware store thrived.

Then it burned down.  So he built a hotel on top of the ruins.  That hotel, with some renovations, of course, still stands today.  On September 23, 1919, Bullock died of cancer.  Legend has it that he died in his beloved hotel in room 211.

Guess which room we were booked into the night we were in Deadwood?

Whether you are familiar with the HBO series* or not, Deadwood, South Dakota offers up a fascinating view of the lawless history of the settling of the West. 

Deadwood was originally part of the Dakota Territory granted to the natives, however, once General Custer and his men discovered gold in them there parts, all bets were off.  This gulch in the Black Hills quickly became ‘settled’ by fortune seekers, from both sides of the law.  And behind every fortune-hunting gunslinger, there is invariably a whole lotta hookers.  Prostitutes and prospectors: how could this town not succeed!?!

Deadwood was a place where people came to make money.  An illegal settlement not part of the United States Union, it quickly gained a reputation for its lawlessness; one which was well deserved.  The murder of former lawman Wild Bill Hickok – shot in the back while playing poker – was a prime example. 

But HBO kept the memory of the town alive in its show, bringing back to life all of the characters that once brought the town its infamy.  These are their stories…

Naw, just kidding.  But I will give you some highlights coming up so you’ll understand our encounter with the ghost of Seth Bullock!!!

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B909njPoX7k

Amongst the ever present gaze of the collective Presidential stare on the mount, lies a territory with vast foliage, mountains, and wildlife.  Mostly, I wanted to see a buffalo, and Rob wanted to drive up really small roads and through very narrow tunnels, straight into Custer State Park, right next to Mt Rushmore.

The park, as you can surmise, is named after General George Custer of the “Custer’s Last Stand” fame.  For those who may not know the story, this will help.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the park is a natural wildlife preserve, and, therefore, the perfect place for me to finally see a buffalo up close and personal.  It is worrisome to me that the only Buffalo with which I am acquainted is a place where I used to go clubbing* in my university years.

We drove for some time, and finally, I saw what I had come for.  A lone, sleepy buffalo lay in a patch of grass.  He was docile, unaware, and very un-entertaining.  I had waited all this time to see one of these great creatures, and this was a big disappointment.   Imagine cows, but with fur around their heads, and a more vacant look in their eyes.  That’s the mighty buffalo.  Well, at least the scenery was nice.

But nature never disappoints for long. Another five mintues of driving and we noticed the cars ahead of us all stopped.  And then, for everyone to see, was a herd of a hundred or more buffalo(e)s, charging down the path, seemingly obvilious to our presence. 

Truly, an awesome sight.  One can only imagine what the original explorers of the west first thought when they saw millions of them freely roaming across a vast open plain.  Umm…probably the same thing I did when I saw them earlier that day: Yea! Dinner!!!  And wouldn’t you know it, buffalo is now available in hotdog form!  That’s progress. Progress deliciously topped with some relish and a sweet pickle! 

*Back in the day, when crossing the border was about going to a club in Buffalo, NY because they accepted Canadian money at par.  And they were open until 3am.