Journey – Dakota Vacation blog post #19

 Finally – our last full day in Rapid City, South Dakota, back in June! Appropriately enough to finish that part of our journey, we visited the Journey Museum. 

As we entered the museum, we were met with the night sky, perhaps the first view of the South Dakota area, before there was solid ground, but there was a “Wheel in the Sky” and a thousand stars. 

Just around the corner, we were meant with famous prehistoric creatures which first roamed the area. The dinosaurs. “Don’t Stop Believing” that they really existed. 

The topography of the Black Hills was just getting started. Those fascinating rock formations we saw along the Needles Highway? A place to find a “Stone in Love”, several million years ago.

Next, we learned about the earliest people in the Black Hills, the Clovis. 12,000 years ago, they hunted ancient mammoths and created rock art “Any Way You Want It” or they wanted it. 

The Lakota people, part of the Sioux Nation, ruled the Black Hills starting in the 18th century. The Journey Museum is home to the Sioux Indian Collection and proof that “Still They Ride”. 

From the Custer Expedition of 1874 to the Battle of Little Bighorn, the exhibits chronicle the western expansion of the 19th century. Some of those events were good, but others left us asking “Who’s Crying Now”? 

In 1972, the Black Hills Flood tragically took 238 lives. It was a lot to recover from, but all the survivors were met with “Open Arms”. 

Sorry that this is so dumb. But this “Girl Can’t Help It” that this was so easy.