07-13-13 Update

I have been procrastinating in writing my blog this week.  We have seen so much, but  I feel like I have just scratched the surface and that I don't have a good grasp of the area to be able to tell you about it.  I am usually not at a loss for words, so this is a bit frustrating for me.  At the same time, I am discovering things about myself that are difficult to express.  But I will do my best..............

We have spent most of this last week in Northwestern South Dakota. We have just barely begun to discover this area, but I know we can stay here for months and not see it all.  This area is so diverse and unique it is hard to pick a couple of things to talk about.  But I can say with certainty that there is more to see and do here within a 100 mile radius than anywhere else in the country.

We have been to Lead and Deadwood this week. Lead South Dakota..... What images does that conjure for you?  Any?  I didn't know Lead South Dakota existed until a few days ago but the instant we rode into this town, I loved it!  I am a fan of the beautiful City of San Francisco.  I have had the great fortune of living, for a short time, in that fantastic city.  I know that you will think that I have lost my mind, but my first impression of Lead reminded me of San Francisco.  The town was built in the late 1800's after Gold was discovered in the area. The homes are Victorian and are situated in the hills overlooking the small town.

The Homestake Mine in Lead (pronounced leed) was discovered and a claim was staked in April 1876, by June of 1877 George Hearst (William Randolph Hearst's father) bought the 4 1/2 acre claim for $70,000.00.  

While Mrs. Hearst (Phoebe) spent very little time in the Lead, she had a significant impact on the town. Her husband was 18 years older than she and when he died in 1891, she had sole control of his vast wealth.  Phoebe's primary concern was for the welfare of the people in the towns where her husband had mining interests.  This included Lead South Dakota, where in 1894 as a Christmas gift she founded a free library.  The library was maintained at her personal expense until her death in 1925, when all books, art objects and equipment were donated to the Homestake mining company.  Homestake decided to continue the library.

Phoebe was a generous and fascinating woman who believed in education for all.  The PTA (Parent Teachers Association), was her idea.  She had previously established kindergartens in other areas of the country and when asked in 1900 by the Lead's Womens group about starting one in Lead, she agreed to endow and support it.  She also encouraged women to become educated and to study medicine.  She started the Homeopathic Institute for Women and funded it until women were allowed to enroll in medical schools.

The Homestake mine, until it's closure in 2002, was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, producing more than 40 million ounces of gold.  The discovery of Gold............  What chain of events that started.  Western migration of white settlers, the near extinction of the Native Americans, the immigration of people from all over the world,  the melding of peoples and cultures that now make up the United States of America.  And that was only the beginning.............

The following text is from an article that I read and I am retyping it here for you.

The Article is titled "An Underground Universe" The former homestake gold mine in Lead has been converted into one of the world's most advanced physics laboratories.

The Sanford Underground Research Facility - or simply,  the Sanford Lab, provides underground laboratory space for ultra-sensitive experiments that require protection from the cosmic radiation that constantly bombards the surface of the earth.  Cosmic radiation - mostly protons traveling at very high speed - hits the upper atmosphere and creates a shower of secondary particles, including muons, which can overwhelm physics experiments on the surface.  A thick layer of rock can block that cosmic "noise".  Today, experiments in underground laboratories in Italy, Japan, Canada and China are looking for answers to fundamental questions, such as why matter exists and how the universe evolved.  That research includes experiments to explore the properties of subatomic particles called neutrinos and detectors searching for a mysterious substance called "dark matter," - the dominant form of matter in the universe, which so far, remains undetected.

I think Phoebe Hearst would be pleased that the Homestake Mine is providing leading scientists, engineers, educators and technicians a place to study the universe.   So maybe I am not crazy, maybe Lead SD is a bit like San Francisco.  I tell you it was my first thought when I saw the town and after discovering the impact of the Heart's and the Gold and the Physics Lab, I think my instincts were right on.

Also this week we took a motorcycle ride through Spearfish Canyon.  The ride starts in the small town of Spearfish and ends at a little fork in the road called Cheyenne Crossing.

The ride through the canyon is approximately 20 miles. The canyon was formed by the spearfish creek and the limestone is more ancient than the Grand Canyon.  It is said that the Colorado River began forming the Grand Canyon approximately 17 million years ago; the Spearfish Canyon formation began somewhere between 30 and 60 millions years ago.

This picture is of the lodge in the Spearfish Canyon.  The final scene from "Dances with Wolves" was filmed just beyond the Lodge.

As we were riding the motorcycle along this 20 miles route, for the first time, I  felt that I was an actual participant in my life and not just an observer.  If you are like me, than you get up each morning knowing what needs to be done.  Work..... that was mostly what I did.  Laundry... Grocery Shop...  etc., you have a home and kids and an existence - that was me and probably, like most of you.  But I did the scariest thing I could imagine, I sold my house, I quit my job and I said goodbye to everything that I had, all that I worked so hard for and headed into the unknown.  I can't begin to tell you how this has changed me.  I was a complete control freak and work-a-holic.  I was miserable and I didn't really know it,  not consciously anyway.  I did what I thought I had to do.  I thought I needed the nice house and the nice job and the ordinary life that most of lead.  Along this 20 mile ride, I saw a home, a beautiful one, with the creek running in front and the hill behind the house and the arch over the driveway that says "A little piece of Heaven"

That day, that ride, that sign, it has had a profound effect on me.  I am still trying to figure out what it means, but I know I have changed more in the last few months than I have in the last 20 years and I am looking forward to what this means for me now and for my future.