The Badlands, Wall Drug and Wounded Knee

On Saturday we drove from Mitchell, SD to Interior, SD which is in the Badlands of South Dakota. Once you look at the scenery here you can understand why someone would call it the Badlands, especially if they were riding horses.  It would be impossible to cross this area on horses without going around the rock formation areas.  We are staying at an rv park that is located just outside the 244,000 acre Badlands National Park.  In addition to the scenery here this area is known for being one of the richest fossil beds in the world.  Where you don't see the rock formations you see prairie grass.  On our way to Wall Drug we saw a group of big horn sheep and several prairie dogs.  We are staying here two nights.  The rv park we are staying in is one of the few areas in the badlands were we have seen trees.  Our site has trees on both sides giving us a little shade.

Wall Drug is said to be America's favorite roadside attraction.  Over one million people stop there each year.  Wall Drug advertises primarily by bill board on route 90 starting some 600 miles away from the store.  They pay around $400,000 per year on bill board advertising.  During the Vietnam War there were 127 Wall Drug signs in South Vietnam.  They give away free ice water and sell coffee for 5 cents. The drug store is 76,000 square feet and has a restaurant that seats 506 people.  It all started in 1931 when Dorothy and Ted Hustead purchased a drug store that originally opened in 1909 in the town of Wall, SD which had a population of 326 people.  During this time the country was in the depression due to the stock market crash of 1929. They told themselves they would give it five years to get the business up and running well.  Toward the end of the five years the business was still going bad when Dorothy told Ted she was going to take a nap since he didn't need her to help him that afternoon in the store.  A few minutes later she came back up front from the apartment and Ted ask why she came back so soon?  She said she couldn't sleep due to all of the racket the cars were making on the highway.  She then told Ted about her idea of putting up signs offering free ice water in an effort to attract customers to their failing store.  Ted put the signs up and from that day forward the business has been thriving.  In 1981 they gave away over 20,000 glasses of ice water in one day. Today, during the busy season of the summer, about 20,000 people visit Wall Drug in a single day. They have annual sales of $5.5 million.

The Wounded Knee massacre occurred on December 29, 1890.  Wounded Knee, SD is located about 60 miles from where we are staying in the Badlands so we drove over to the site today.  The massacre involved the 7th Calvary who were moving the Lakota Indians five miles across the South Dakota prairie.  When they arrived at Wounded Knee they were in the process of disarming the Indians and the story goes one deaf Indian resisted giving up his rifle since he paid a lot for it.  A shot was fired and then the cavalry opened fire with four Hotchkiss Mountain guns that were mounted on the surrounding hills.  When the shooting stopped over 200 Indian men, women, and children were dead as well as 25 of the cavalry soldiers.   The actual burial and battle site were not much to look at in the way most historic landmarks are kept up.  In fact, the Indians here remind you of the panhandlers in Chicago.  As soon as you get out of your car the Indians descend trying to sell you dream catchers or just asking for money.  All of the houses in this vast area which is a part of the reservation are mostly mobile homes and are all junky looking. I found out the police are out in force on the reservation.  I was pulled over for doing 76 in a 65 by an oncoming reservation policeman.  I think he saw that I didn't have a South Dakota license plate on the front of our car but he just gave me a warning which was good. He asked me how fast I was going and I said around 70 or so.  I told him I knew I was going over the speed limit.  Five minutes later we came up on another speed trap where a policeman was waiting.on a stretch of road that had a posted speed limit of 35 mph.   I guess this was because there were two houses on one side of the highway.   Luckily I was going just over the speed limit. This highway was out in the middle of no where.  The only thing you could ever hit is the occasional oncoming car since there was nothing around but prairie grass 99% of the time. I haven't had a ticket of any kind in probably 20 years or more and could of had two in a span of five minutes on the Lakota Reservation..

Below are some pictures from the last couple of days.

These were taken on our trip between Mitchell and the Badlands

This is a field of sorghum that we saw a lot of.  Going through a little rain at this point.

This is a field of sun flowers that we also saw several fields of

The Badlands

Wall Drug in Wall South Dakota

The store takes up three fourths of the block

These are from our Wounded Knee visit

 This is the post office in Wounded Knee.  The ruts in the drive were so bad I thought I was going to tear something up on the bottom of the car.

 This is one of the better houses we saw on the reservation.  I am not sure what these people do to make a living.  You are probably close to 100 miles out in the middle of no where.  The town there consisted of one little grocery store and the post office.  I didn't even see a gas station.

These were taken at an Indian dance ceremony we attended at the rv park

Mitchell, South Dakota

Mitchell, South Dakota is the home of the one and only Corn Palace which is a popular site on route 90 heading west.  You can see the entire place in about five minutes.  Last year they changed the building that used to be entirely covered in ears of corn, from what I remember, to now only having murals made of corn.  The major lost his job over the renovation according to the locals,

We read reviews of a great Chinese restaurant in Mitchell so we gave it a try last night.  It sucked, should have known you couldn't get good Chinese food in the middle of South Dakota.

On Friday we went to the South Dakota State Fair which is located in Huron, SD about 60 miles north of Mitchell. We had a good time at the fair saw all of the animals being displayed by the 4h'rs and ate some awesome fair food.  I haven't had a corn dog in a long time until today.  This part of South Dakota looks a lot like Indiana.  You see plenty of corn fields and soy beans but they don't seem to be as high as what is grown in Indiana.  The land is mainly flat and very sparsely populated and very few roads.  I got off the main highway coming south from Huron on our way back to Mitchell and went 12 miles before coming to another paved intersecting road.

We did this trip when the boys were young but I don't have many pictures of that trip,  Here is one I found in front of Mt Rushmore where we will be in a few days.  I think they were around 10 and 12 years old here but I am not positive.

Here are some pictures of our visit this year to Mitchell and the SD State Fair.

 The corn palace has hosted many entertainers in this gym over the years

 

The state fair in SD is so big that all of the schools let kids out of school on Friday and Monday the week of the fair and some even include Thursday.  I guess because so many participate in 4H.

We need one of these holding contraptions so we can do our dogs. Yea right.  I don't think were going there again,

On sale for $189,000

 What we really came for

The bugs which I believe were grass hoppers are thick around here.  This happened going to Huron and back

Rochester, Minnesota Home of the Mayo Clinic

We have been here since yesterday afternoon and probably didn't need to spend two nights here.  As my friend Jim told me there is not much to see in Rochester, MN.

Rochester has a population of 106,000 people and pretty much everything you see around town has the Mayo Clinic name on it which is what Rochester is known for worldwide.  In fact,  you see the diversity of people in the town just by visiting the local grocery store or Walmart.  You see a lot of people wearing their Arab apparel etc.  In speaking to our neighbors at the rv park, who are here from Tulsa, OK so the wife can be treated at Mayo, the husband said you meet people from all over the world when at the hospital.  Today while visiting the Plummer house and gardens, which was built by one of the original founders of the Mayo clinic, along with the two Mayo brothers and others, the caretaker told us one of the largest hotel/condos downtown was built by people from Dubai.

Today we went to three places that were listed on the things to see in Rochester that were in addition to the Mayo Clinic.  One place was one of the Mayo brothers mansion but we couldn't actually see it because it is closed to the public unless you have an appointment.  The next place was the Plummer house who was one of the original founders of the Mayo Clinic.  Dr Plummer is known for integrating medical records by the patients name in a central location rather than each doctor keeping their own patient records. The last place we visited was Assisi Heights which is a convent for the Sisters of Saint Francis.  Like I said not much to see in Rochester.

Mayo Clinic facts.

Founded September 30, 1889

The Mayo clinic was born out of a tornado in 1883 that destroyed much of Rochester at the urging of the sisters of Saint Francis, The convent we visited this morning called Assisi Heights was originally built for the sisters of Saint Francis .  The Mayo brothers started St Mary's hospital after the sisters of Saint Francis raised the money.  Later they opened the Mayo Clinic after seven other individuals joined them..

It is in the nonprofit community health system category

1.3 Million people annually visit the clinic for treatment from all 50 states and 143 countries.

Staff physicians and scientists 4,200
Residents, Fellows, and others 2,400
Allied health staff 52,900 I believe these people are all over the world but not sure.
Total staff 59,500

Total patients 1,317,900
Hospital Admissions 128,000
Hospital days of patient care 612,000

Assets 6.974 billion (2010)
Revenue 3.137 billion (2010)

Every building you see downtown is either a Mayo Clinic building or a hotel for people visiting the Mayo Clinic.

Here are some pictures of Rochester