The United States is a nation of immigrants, and there are countless small towns scattered across the country (especially in the midwest) that were founded by one immigrant group or another. But it's hard to find a town that shows off its immigrant heritage as prominently or as proudly as the town of Pella, Iowa. 

Pella was founded in 1847 by a group of about 800 Dutch immigrants who were seeking religious freedom and greater economic opportunity in the New World, and many of today's residents are descended from these original settlers. One resident quipped that the "V" section took up half the phone book because there were so many names in Pella that start with the Dutch prefix of "Van." The town's Dutch heritage is readily apparent in town by the gabled architecture of the downtown storefronts, the Dutch windmills, and (if you visit in the spring) the multitude of tulips! 

One of the best times to visit Pella is during the annual Tulip Time festival, which is typically held on the first weekend of May so as to coincide with peak tulip blooming season. But Tulip Time isn't just about viewing Pella's 300,000 tulips; it's also an exuberant celebration of the town's Dutch heritage with parades, shows, music, dancing, crafts, food, and more! 

I visited Pella during Tulip Time 2014. Parking downtown is limited, but there are a few parking areas set up at the edges of town with convenient (and free!) shuttle services throughout the day. 

I got there bright and early so I would have plenty of time to do everything, and I decided to start my day with a tiptoe through the tulips! Or, rather, a walk on the sidewalks next to the tulips. Close enough. Like I said earlier, the town plants over 300,000 tulips. There are rows of them along most of the major streets in town, as well as larger flower beds in some of the city parks and gardens. I started in the small but pretty Sunken Gardens Park: 

The park had plenty of tulips in bloom, as well as its own adorable little windmill! Incidentally, that lake in the middle of the park? It's shaped like a wooden shoe (I'm standing at the shoe's toe in the above photo). 

Next I moved on to Central Park, which occupies the town's main square. The square's most prominent feature is the tall Tulip Toren ("tower") which is all decked out in the red, white, and blue of the Dutch flag and is surrounded by a set of 12 flagpoles displaying the flags on the Netherlands' 12 provinces. There's also another small windmill in the square - this one serves as the town's tourist information booth. And of course there were plenty more tulips to see - in just about every color you can think of! 

After my lovely stroll through the town square, I made my way to a building on the west side of the square called the Memorial Building to attend a "Dutch Demos" presentation. This fun hour-long diversion featured three presenters who spoke about different aspects of Pella and its Dutch heritage. First up was the local chocolatier, who talked about how he makes his chocolates. He also demonstrated his chocolate-coating machine which uses a conveyor belt and a delectable-looking chocolate waterfall to cover various types of candies with a layer of Dutch chocolate. Luckily for us, the ticket to the demos comes with a complimentary sample of his chocolate in the shape of tiny wooden shoes, or I may have felt tempted to storm the stage to try some! Next up was a demonstration on traditional Dutch clothing, with the assistance of 5 audience members to model some of the different garments. Each region of the Netherlands has its own unique styles of dress, so someone in the know would be able to look at someone's clothes and be able to tell which province (and sometimes even which town) he or she was from. A woman's clothing may also convey whether she's Protestant or Catholic (Catholics from Zeeland press their hats into a square shape, while Protestants wear rounded hats) or whether she's single or married. The last presenter talked about the town's tulips, and how the town manages the hefty job of planting over a quarter-million bulbs every year. No small task! 

Next up was a visit to the Scholte House for a little history on the town of Pella. This house was first built for the town's founder, Dominee Hendrik Scholte and his wife Mareah, who led a group of 800 Dutch immigrants to Pella in 1847. Mareah had a difficult time adjusting to life as a pioneer, but Hendrik promised to build her a home with all the comforts of her former life in the Netherlands, and the construction of this house was completed in 1848. 

The house was inhabited by descendants of the Scholte family all the way up to 1987, and is today cared for as a museum by the Pella Historical Society. The most notable room is the library, which still has all of its original furnishings and decor. 

The rest of the house has been faithfully restored to what it might have looked like in the Scholtes' time. There are also more displays scattered through the house containing items owned by various members of the Scholte family who occupied the house for over a century, including works of art by multiple generations of Scholtes. To add to the experience, there were also costumed docents in almost every room of the house to tell you about the home, the Scholes, and the town's history. One of the docents even mentioned that she was a descendant of the Scholtes themselves! 

One notable display contains a few items of Mareah Scholte's Delftware - a renowned manufacturer of hand-painted china (traditionally done in blue and white) from the town of Delft in South Holland. Mareah carefully packed her Delftware away before leaving the Netherlands, but when she unpacked the boxes a year later in her new home in America, she was sad to discover that a great many pieces had broken along the way. She saved what few intact pieces she could, and used the broken fragments as part of a walkway in her garden. 

One other interesting fact about Hendrik Scholte is that he was acquainted with President Abraham Lincoln. Scholte was active in local politics and was a fervent supporter of the anti-slavery movement. He even published a book against slavery, which was the only book on the topic published in Iowa before the Civil War. His activism brought him into the national political realm, where he met Lincoln, who referred to him as "my Dutch friend,"  and became involved in his presidential campaign. When Scholte attended Lincoln's inauguration, he coincidentally wore a shawl identical to the President's. Who wore it better?? Who's to say. But the famous shawl can still be seen in the Scholte house. 

Behind the Scholte house is another lovely garden featuring - you guessed it - lots more tulips! And the gardens are free to visit, so even if you decide not to visit the house you can at least take a stroll through the gardens! 

I had some time to kill before the 1:00 stage show, so I wandered around town for a bit. In a park a couple blocks west of the main square was a "Dutch Market." It was basically a craft show, with lots of stuff to buy from area crafters. Plus some inflatable bouncy things for the kids! 

One block southeast of the main square is an area called the Molengracht, a distinctly new-looking shopping area with a recreated Dutch-style "canal." There's even a Dutch drawbridge. 

By this time, I was ready for lunch. I intended to return to the Memorial Building to take advantage of their buffet-style Dutch Meal, but the line to get in was already out the door (and then some), so I decided to skip it. I did see a few people with plates of food from the Dutch Meal, and it looked good - just be sure to come early if you want to try it! Instead, I went to the food vendors in the southwest corner of the square. There were all the traditional festival foods available, like hot dogs and funnel cakes, but I decided to go local and try some Pella bologna, which was spicy and delicious and served with some gouda cheese. Very Dutch! I also tried some "Dutch Ribbons" - potato chips made from a spiral-cut potato. Though I'm pretty sure I've seen these at other festivals, so I'm not sure how "Dutch" they actually are. But they were still good. 

The last thing I wanted to try was a "Dutch Letter," which must be some kind of town favorite, because I had been hearing about them all day. There are two bakeries on the main square, but unfortunately at lunchtime they both had lines extending halfway down the block. But luckily I came across a small cart in the Molengracht selling the letters along with other baked goods. And I'm glad I did because it was delightful! It's a tube-shaped pastry filled with a sweet almond paste. Definitely a must-try for anyone visiting Pella! 

The day's main event, of course, is the parade. They actually have a total of 6 parades over the three days of the festival. One each day in the afternoon, and another illuminated parade after dark. As for parade seating, you have two options: buy a ticket (for $5 per seat) to sit in the grandstand, or bring a lawn chair and try to find free seating along the parade route. If you try to find your own seating... good luck! When I first arrived in Pella at 8:30, the perimeter of the main square was already lined with tarps and chairs of people who had already staked their claim for parade seating. The grandstand seating does have a few advantages: you're elevated on bleachers to get a great view, you'll get to hear the announcer explaining the floats as they're going by so you know what you're looking at, and you'll get to see the Grandstand Show, which begins an hour and a half before the parade. So if it's your first time to Pella, I'd definitely recommend grandstand seating to get the full experience! 

The first event in the grandstand show was a Dutch cheese market demonstration. Two guys came out representing the cheese seller and cheese buyer, and they demonstrated the traditional negotiation process of sampling the cheese, then clapping and handshaking when they agreed upon a price. Then teams of cheese porters came out and used special Dutch cheese-carrying tray-things (I'm sure there's a name for them, but I don't know it, so just see the photo below) to carry the cheese away. Then they had some shenanigans where the three teams of porters had a "race" to see which team was the fastest, but of course they all cheated and the cheese went rolling everywhere for comic effect. 

Next up was some traditional Dutch folk dancing, which was very cute. There were even some themed dances, including one that involved stomping with their wooden shoes. I think my favorite was the broom song, which they sang in a round, and whose lyrics, roughly translated, went something like: "What is a broom for? To sweep. What do we sweep? The floor." Songwriting brilliance.

Next up was the presentation of this year's Tulip Queen and her Royal Court. If I had come on the first day of the festival, I would have seen her actual coronation, but since I came on Saturday, they just processed up and were introduced to the crowd. 

After this came a little Dutch fashion show, where groups of people processed across the stage wearing the distinctive dress of each of the Netherlands' 12 provinces. 

And finally, the folk dancers came back to the streets for a final series of dances. Except this time, instead of there being 16 of them, there were hundreds. Clearly this is a popular extracurricular activity for Pella's schoolchildren! They even asked for audience participation for a couple of the simpler dances! 

Just one last order of business before the parade could start: scrubbing the street. I wasn't aware of this before I came, but apparently the Dutch have a strong reputation for cleanliness. I even heard stories about how the Dutch immigrants sped through the immigration screenings at Ellis Island and other ports of entry because they kept their ships so immaculately clean that there was little worry of them carrying diseases. Anyway, they announced that it was time for the scrubbing, and here they came. Some people with buckets who filled them from roadside basins and poured the water on the street, then even more people with push-brooms to scrub the street clean. And they were all in traditional Dutch attire. And then they just kept coming. Seriously, there must have been at LEAST a thousand people in this scrubbing procession. Probably closer to two. I've certainly never seen anything like it! 

With that, we're finally ready for the parade! Here are some of the highlights: 

My last stop of the day was to Pella's most prominent landmark - the Vermeer windmill, which is located in the Historical Village. The historical village consists of about half a city block and 24 buildings to show you what life was like in the early days of Pella. Some of the buildings have been on the site for 150 years, while others were moved to the site from other locations. They had various homes ranging from a rustic log cabin from the very earliest times of Pella to a larger multi-family rowhouse (which happened to be the very same house that a young Wyatt Earp once lived in). They also had commercial buildings like a general store, a grist mill, a blacksmith, and a wooden shoe-maker's workshop. There were also plenty of costumed docents on hand to give craft demonstrations and information about the village. 

One of the buildings was also a nice little museum. There were traditional clothes, musical instruments, and many other artifacts, but my favorite part (in the spirit of the festival) was the display of old brochures and souvenirs from the prior 79 years of Tulip Time, as well as the wall of portraits of every Tulip Queen that Pella has had. The portraits are nice in showing the charming variety of attire - I'm assuming that each queen dresses in the particular fashion of her ancestral province in the Netherlands. 

And at last, I come to the Vermeer windmill. This is the tallest working windmill in the United States, and it really does tower over the surrounding buildings (it has to or else the buildings would block the wind). And they do operate it regularly to grind flour - which you can buy in the gift shop! To tour the windmill, an elevator takes you to the top of an adjacent building where you can walk around on a little catwalk encircling the windmill's upper tier before proceeding inside. Inside you can see the mill's grinding mechanism. Stairs descend the four stories from here to the ground, where you'll pass through a recreation of the miller's living quarters and some displays on the mill's construction. There's also a series of trap doors extending from top to bottom that allows workers to haul things up and down easily - and lets you appreciate the height! 

And that ends my visit to Pella for Tulip Time 2014, and I had a blast! Between the parade and events, the town's many cultural and historic sights, and ,of course, the tulips, it truly is a unique town with a charmingly Dutch feel. I know I'll be coming back some day for another magnificent Tulip Time! 

Visitor info for the Historical Village, Scholte House, and Tulip Time can be found here: http://www.pellahistorical.org/

This is easily the most fascinating museum I've ever been to. There's just so much neat stuff to see! 

And before you say "Ugh, but art museums are soooo boring..."  A) I disagree, and B) this isn't your traditional stuffy, highbrow art museum! There's a world of difference between fine art and folk art. 

Folk art is produced by common, everyday people, and is typically made for a utilitarian or decorative purpose. Folk artists make objects primarily for use in their own homes or communities. This can be toys, miniatures, keepsakes, religious items, decorative items for the home, or even ceremonial items for use in local holidays or traditions. 

Folk art can also teach you a lot about other cultures. Every part of the world makes different sorts of objects and has their own unique artistic styles. So it's easy to see and appreciate all the differences (and similarities!) between various cultures simply by looking at their folk art. 

The wonderful thing about folk art to me is that it is accessible to everyone. Anyone can look at folk art and understand what it is, why it was made, and what it was used for. Everyone can relate to it. And since this is, after all, the world's biggest museum of folk art, so there's plenty here to satisfy everyone's interests! 

The Museum of International Folk Art is part of Santa Fe's Museum Hill, just a short distance southeast of downtown Santa Fe. Museum Hill actually contains four museums: the Museum of Folk Art, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. I was able to visit three out of the four museums (I didn't make it to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, though it does look interesting, and in retrospect I wish I had chosen to go there instead of the smaller Wheelwright Museum). I'd say that the other three museums are worth a visit if you have some extra time on your hands. But the standout star of Museum Hill is most definitely the Museum of International Folk Art! 

And here it is: 

The museum is divided into two parts. First is the IMMENSE Girard Wing, which houses permanent displays of world folk art, and second are four smaller galleries that host rotating temporary exhibitions. 

Your visit begins in the GARGANTUAN Girard Wing. Have I mentioned how big it is? It is HUGE! I mean, imagine the biggest warehouse you can think of -- 

-- uh, yeah, it's kinda like that. Except if someone had taken all the items OUT of every one of those crates and then put them on display. That's about the amount of stuff we're talking about in here. It's a big place, is what I'm saying. Check it out: 

You can hardly even tell where the back wall is in that picture. Make sure you grab one of the laminated guidebooks before you enter. Unlike your typical museum, there are no placards next to any of the items to tell you about what you're looking at. Instead, everything just has a number, which you can use to look up a description in the guidebook. It's nice because you can look up the information on whichever items catch your attention, or just wander through and look at all the pretty things without being bogged down with reading a bunch of text. 

A Bit of History: 
The Museum was founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett. As someone who had lived through both World Wars, it was her hope that a museum showcasing folk art from around the world would help to promote cultural understanding. 

The collection in the Girard Wing was donated to the museum by Alexander and Susan Girard. Alexander had been fascinated by toys and miniatures since childhood, and the couple began collecting items of folk art on their travels starting with their 1939 honeymoon to Mexico. Almost 50 years later, in 1978, the Girards donated their collection of over 100,000 objects from more than 100 countries to the museum. This single massive donation quintupled the size of the museum's collections! The donation also necessitated the addition of a new wing to the museum to house the new items. (And even with the new wing, there's still only room for about 10% of the collection to be displayed!) 

Since Alexander Girard was an interior designer and architect, he actually designed the new wing himself. And his displays are pretty creative! Items are displayed at many different elevations (including above your head), and the paths wind around so you can see the bigger displays from many different angles. 

Ok, enough history; on to the collections! With more than 10,000 items on display just in this one room, I can't possibly show you everything. So I'll just pick out a few of my favorite things: 

After leaving that gallery, there are still four more to see! But don't worry, they're much smaller. The remaining galleries each house temporary exhibitions. These exhibits change periodically, so the ones I saw may not still be there when you visit the museum. 

First up is the Hispanic Heritage Wing, which always displays an exhibit that relates to Hispanic culture. For my visit, it was the history of chocolate. They had recreations of Spanish colonial kitchens, as well as vessels used to prepare and serve chocolate. Sadly, they did NOT have free samples. 

Next up was an exhibit on Amish quilting. And I do love a good quilt. The Amish have a reputation for simplicity and plainness, and I was expecting to see that reflected in their quilts. And while many of the quilts were rather simple and straightforward, many others were much more vibrant and colorful than what I expected! 

The next gallery, entitled "Let's Talk About This," is dedicated to folk artists' responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Only by openly talking about HIV and AIDS can we end the shame and stigma that has long been associated with it. The gallery contains works by folk artists who are coping with the disease and their art expresses the effect that HIV/AIDS has had on their lives and on their communities. There is even a fragment of the original AIDS quilt on display. 

Let's end this post on a high note... with some high-flying kites! This final gallery is all about Japanese kites, which have become quite an art form. Kites actually originated in China 2500 years ago, and were brought to Japan by Buddhist monks about 1500 years ago. They were once used for more utilitarian purposes like weather prediction, fishing, and even construction! Today, of course, kites are primarily a recreational activity, which has given rise to some really colorful and fun designs! 

This isn't the world's largest folk art museum for nothing! There's so much to see in this museum that you could easily spend all day here. It was certainly a highlight of my trip to New Mexico! 

What if I told you that you could visit a real, active volcano right in the middle of the United States? You'd say I was lying, and you'd be right because Capulin Volcano isn't active and hasn't been for 60,000 years. But you can still visit a volcano right in the middle of the country! 

Capulin Volcano is considered one of the world's best examples of a cinder cone volcano. Its distinctive, nearly-symmetrical conical shape is relatively well-preserved, and has taught geologists a lot about how these types of volcanoes form. But even if you're not interested in geology, the great views and abundant plant and animal life will make this a memorable place to visit! 

Capulin Volcano is located in the northeastern corner of New Mexico, about halfway between the towns of Clayton and Raton. I approached from Clayton, and the volcano's distinctive cone rises up above the surrounding plains and is visible for miles. I visited in mid-August, and many of the surrounding fields were covered in sunflowers. I got this amazing view at a roadside historical marker on Highway 64 about 8 miles east of the monument. 

Your first stop should be the visitors' center, where you can watch a short video about Capulin's geology and history and view the informative displays on how a cinder cone is formed. A cinder cone is your classic sort of volcano, where a vent forms in the earth's crust and shoots lava and ash high in the air. The ash and cooling cinders fall to the ground surrounding the vent, and (since a greater amount of ash settles near the vent's opening) takes on the shape of a cone. Successive eruptions add layer after layer to the cone, causing it to grow taller and taller with each eruption. A crater usually forms at the top of a cinder cone because the force of the eruption blasts and erodes away the tip of the cone. 

Capulin Volcano is the most notable out of hundreds of smaller volcanoes in an area of northeastern New Mexico called the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field. Volcanoes are very common at the edges of continental plates, such as the Ring of Fire encircling the Pacific Ocean, but volcanoes in the middle of a continent like this one are much rarer. The most likely explanation for New Mexico's volcanoes is a small mid-continent rift. As geologic forces within the earth slowly pull a chunk of the American West away from the rest of the continent, certain other parts of the continent (known as "rifts") become stretched thin, like pulled taffy. One such rift runs through the center of New Mexico, and is actually part of a larger system of rifts extending all the way from New Mexico to Oregon. The thinner continental crust in these rift areas makes it easier for underground pockets of magma to break through to the surface in the form of volcanoes. 

On the opposite side of the parking lot from the visitors' center is the trailhead for the one-mile Lava Flow Trail. This easy, mostly flat trail takes you across an old lava flow from one of Capulin Volcano's previous eruptions, affording you some great up-close views of the volcano. 

The trail also takes you past massive hunks of rock like these, which were all ejected from the volcano during one of its eruptions. Imagine these huge boulders shooting out of the volcano, flying through the air, and landing where they still stand today! 

After you've explored the area below the volcano, the only way to go is up! A curving road leads to the edge of the crater on top of the volcano. On your way up, make sure to take a glance at the exposed subsurface rock in the road cuts, where you can see some of the many layers of volcanic ash that make up the cinder cone. 

The parking lot at the top of the volcano is perched right on the rim of the crater. You can look one direction and get a spectacular view across the surrounding countryside... 

and look in the other direction for a great view down into the crater itself. 

There are two trails up top. One short, easy trail leads down into the bottom of the crater, and gives you the unique perspective of standing right on top of this (now dormant) volcanic vent. Imagine molten lava spewing forth from the bowels from the earth mere feet in front of where you stand. Neat! 

A second mile-long path encircles the crater's rim. Fair warning though: it may not look it from where you're standing in the parking lot, but there's actually a sizable elevation difference from this side of the crater to the other. So at times, the path gets pretty steep! 

The views are definitely worth the steep climb! From the opposite side, you can really appreciate the size of the crater. And how much higher this side is than the other side! 

Encircling the crater rim trail also gives you 360 degrees of spectacular views across the surrounding countryside. If you look carefully you can even find one of the many other volcanoes that dot the landscape. Apparently, there are more than 100 dormant volcanoes in the Capulin region! Though very few are as large or as perfectly-shaped as Capulin, so most are not so obviously identifiable as this one. 

The plant and animal life at the volcano was also quite remarkable. Traveling to New Mexico in August, I was expecting most of the landscape to be relatively dry and barren, but that wasn't the case at all! Wildflower sightings started with the vast field of sunflowers on the roadside on the way leading up to the volcano, but the real highlight came at the rim of the crater. The volcano's elevation is high enough that it actually creates its own microclimate: the climate at the top of the volcano is different enough from the climate of the surrounding lowlands that it supports a different set of plant species that can't be found at the base of the volcano. The most noticeable example of this is that you'll only fine pine trees on the higher parts of the crater's rim; they won't grow below a certain elevation. But you'll also see a surprising diversity and variety of wildflowers as you move from the surrounding plains to the crater rim. 

There is also animal life to be seen. One of the strangest animal sightings was a few bushes that were absolutely covered with hundreds of ladybugs. Apparently at certain times of year, they swarm like this and all gather in one place. Crazy. 

Also spotted a mother deer and her baby darting across the crater, as well as a few hummingbirds, which pass through the region on their migration and are naturally attracted to the abundant wildflowers! I mean, it's a gorgeous place. If I was a hummingbird, I would definitely come here! 

Hot Springs, South Dakota has been a magnet for travelers for centuries. Long before white people built the town, the region's native people came here to enjoy the reputed healing properties of the many mineral-rich springs from which the town would get its name (and according to a sign, there are 170 springs in this valley!). When the town of Hot Springs was founded in the late 19th century, a new group of travelers started to come here to enjoy the waters, and many luxurious hotels and spas sprung up in town. 

Hot Springs retains its charms today. From its beautiful sandstone architecture to the gentle stream that flows through town, it's just a nice place to while away a few hours. Plus, it's very conveniently located to explore the attractions of the southern Black Hills, including Wind Cave and Custer State Park, which makes it a great place to base your Black Hills vacation. 

One of the first things you'll notice about Hot Springs is the many pink sandstone buildings. The dozens of buildings made from this stone, which was quarried just 4 miles from town, are more than a century old and date from the town's origin as a luxury resort destination. Some still house small hotels and spas, but many have since been converted to other purposes. The highest concentration of historic architecture is found along River Street, which I took in earlier this year on a quiet May evening. 

But it's not just the shops along the main street; you'll see the same stone cropping up all over town. It's in this church, and in this... castle? There are a bunch of grand looking sandstone buildings like this on the hills around town. Presumably, they were originally built as resort hotels, but I'm just going to go ahead and call this a castle. I mean, it has turrets and everything! It's totally a castle. 

The centerpiece of the town is the Evans Hotel. It's currently an apartment building, but a century ago it was the grandest, most opulent hotel in town. 

Another noteworthy sandstone building is the tourist information center, which is housed in the town's former train depot. During its operation from 1891 to 1938, this was the world's smallest union depot (a union depot, or union station, simply refers to a train station that services two or more different rail lines). It's... not big! 

Enough about architecture. What about the town's namesake springs? Well, one of the area's 170 mineral springs is found right downtown, right across the river from the Evans Hotel. There's a lovely walking path leading along the river that will take you right to it. The spring comes out of the wall behind this adorable gazebo (built in 1920), then flows through a series of little channels before being diverted into the river. There's even an informative plaque on the wall that tells you what minerals are in the water, for anyone nerdy enough to care. Apparently the water is beneficial for anyone having problems with their gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, or liver. Good to know! 

That path that leads past the spring and along the Fall River is actually quite scenic. Great setting for an evening stroll! 

Oh, yeah. Did I mention there's a giant waterfall in the middle of town? No? Well, there's a giant waterfall in the middle of town. It's right along that same path, just a very short ways south of the spring

There is certainly no shortage of little towns in the Black Hills for you to choose from as a place to stay when visiting the area. Each town has its own charms, but many of the more popular towns, like Keystone or Hill City, really felt like giant tourist traps to me. Fun for a quick stop to do some shopping, but I'm glad I chose to stay in Hot Springs instead. The town has a quiet serenity that makes for a perfect place to unwind and relax at the end of a long day of sightseeing. 

While you're in Hot Springs, you should check out the Mammoth Site! It's a fascinating archaeological site right there in town. 

Check out the city's website for other things to do in and around Hot Springs! http://www.hotsprings-sd.com/

To the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail in the 19th century, Chimney Rock was a very welcome sight and a cause for celebration because it marked a transition point in the long, difficult journey to a better life in the Oregon Territory. Chimney Rock is located just about 1/3 of the way between the trail's starting and ending points, so the travelers knew when they saw it that a third of their journey was now behind them. It also marks the start of a change of landscape on the trail - they would soon be leaving the open plains and moving into the more rugged lands leading into the Rocky Mountains. It's also highly visible; its distinctive shape can be seen from many miles away to the east. Imagine their feeling, after traveling across seemingly endless prairies for weeks and weeks, of seeing this famous milepost and realizing how far they've already come on their journey. 

Chimney Rock is located just off Nebraska's scenic Highway 92, a few miles south of the town of Bayard. It is visible for miles around, but there are a couple of nice viewpoints. If you travel west from the junction of highways 92 and 26, there will be a pulloff on the side of the highway with a historical marker that gives a really nice view (as well as a bit of history). 

From here, you can see the geologic relationship between Chimney Rock and the bluffs to the south. The rocks that form both are layers of sandstone, clay, and volcanic ash, that were originally deposited as one vast, flat layer of sediment after another. Over time, erosion has shaped the rock into the forms you can see today. The harder bits of sandstone in the spire of the "chimney" have protected the lower rocks and preserved the distinctive columnar shape. 

Travel about a mile south of the highway on a little side road to get to the small but informative Visitor's Center. Admission to the Visitor's Center is $3, but the views from the parking lot are free. The spire looks a bit more impressive from this angle. 

Inside the Visitor's Center, you can see a nice film about the Rock, and tour two rooms of exhibits about its geology and history. 


There are also plenty of historical sketches and photos of Chimney Rock over the years, and you can see how much (and how quickly) it has actually changed! When white traders and pioneers first came to this area, Chimney Rock was much taller and much more cylindrical than it is today. Erosion in the form of rain and the occasional lightning strike continually eat away at the monument, and it looks quite different today than it did 175 years ago. 

The museum also has a timeline that wraps around the exhibits showing notable historical dates and events that impacted Chimney Rock, often with supporting photos, drawings, or letters. One interesting tale from 1865 tells of the only person to ever climb to the top of Chimney Rock. An unnamed Indian did so to win a bet, but then fell to his death. Which is perhaps why there has not been a second person to climb to the top. 

There are also plenty of pioneer artifacts in the museum like yokes, bootjacks, and other quaint everyday items from pioneer life. Another fun display if you're traveling with kids (or, hey, even if you're not. I won't judge) is this model wagon. There are various supplies on the shelves, and kids have to decide what to pack in the wagon for their journey across the Oregon Trail. Green, yellow, or red lights will tell them whether or not the load is too heavy for the wagon, so they will have to prioritize which supplies are the most essential and which items they can do without. Makes you appreciate how much these families had to leave behind. Just don't forget the whiskey - for medicinal purposes! 

South Dakota's Badlands are best known for their scenery, but they also boast a sizable wildlife community featuring many of the animals that live in the nearby Black Hills. The Badlands are home to bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and, of course, prairie dogs. Several large prairie dog towns can be found on the western part of the park, which is where I saw this one. Its town was perched on a flat area right on the edge of the badlands wall. Doesn't it look like it's enjoying that view? 

The Mammoth Site, in the beautiful town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, is a truly unique place. What makes it so special is not the types of bones found here - mammoth skeletons have been unearthed throughout the Northern Hemisphere - but the sheer number of them. Over 60 mammoths have been found in an area that is only 36,000 square feet (that's a little more than half the size of a football field), and there are probably still more hidden below waiting to be uncovered. 

The bones in the site date to approximately 26,000 years ago, and were only uncovered in 1974. In that year, a construction company was commissioned to work on a new housing development on the southern edge of Hot Springs. As they were digging on a particular hill, they began to find some odd bones, which were soon identified as belonging to a mammoth. The land owner, thankfully, agreed to allow scientists to investigate the area, and more and more bones were discovered. Once the significance of the site was realized, it was saved from becoming a housing development and was turned into a museum, and excavation continues today. Over 60 mammoths have been found so far, as well as a few other animals like prehistoric camels, bears, wolves, llamas, and rodents.

Guided tours lasting about 30 minutes are available throughout the day, and are included in your admission price. Your tour guide will take you around the network of catwalks that surround the excavation sites and point out the notable finds. After your tour you are free to spend as much time as you like roaming around the site and to check out the small museum in the adjacent room. 

Even when you first walk in, you can see an impressive amount of bones. It's a big site! Some bones have been removed for study, but many others have been left where they were found so visitors can see them in their original positions and locations. The portions of the rock that have been left intact are covered with a prolific layer of bones, which really helps you appreciate the amount of mammoth skeletons that have been found here. 

But how did so many mammoths get preserved in one place? 

I'm glad you asked. Several geologic and environmental factors all came together to create the Mammoth Site, but it all started with a cave far below the earth's surface. The cave eventually collapsed from the weight of the overlying rock, creating a sinkhole. Soon, a spring formed below the sinkhole and warm, mineral-rich water bubbled up to the surface, creating a small pond. This pond appeared attractive to the diverse wildlife that roamed the surrounding plains, but it held a hidden danger. The surrounding rock was composed of shale, and the walls encircling the pond were rather steep and slippery. If the water level in the pond was low, a mammoth would have to lean pretty far down to be able to reach it. And if that mammoth slipped and fell in to the pond? Bad news. The walls of the pond are already very smooth and steep, and mammoths, like their modern elephant relatives, have flat feet that are not at all suited for climbing. So any mammoth (or other animal) that fell in would never come back out - they would die of exhaustion or starvation in the pond. The pond existed over a period of time that lasted between 350 and 700 years, and many mammoths would fall to the same trap over that time. Their dead bodies sunk to the bottom of the pond, where they were gradually covered with sediment and buried. Eventually, however, the spring dried up and the muddy lakebed could trap only footprints. The sediments were cemented with calcite and turned to rock. This rock was more resistant to weathering than the surrounding shale, so as the shale eroded away, the former pond bed became a hill. 

For anyone who doubts that mammoths would be clumsy enough to fall into a watery deathtrap like this, I present to you Exhibit A: 

Another interesting tidbit about the mammoths that have been found in the Site: every last one of them is male (as is the elephant in the above photos, by the way). And they're all relatively young. There's a simple ecological reason for this. Mammoths, like elephants, live in matrilineal social groups, meaning that females stay with the herd they're born into for their entire life. This provides some protection for young adolescent females because there are older and wiser elephants around to serve as role models and to prevent them from doing anything foolish. Male elephants and mammoths, however, leave their birth herd once they reach sexual maturity and spend much of their adult lives alone, only joining up with female-led herds for short periods of time to mate. A lone adolescent male doesn't have any older adults around to steer him away from dangerous watery deathtraps, so they are more likely to attempt to get water out of one, and thus more likely to accidentally become trapped. 

The moral of the story? Boys are dumb. 

Anyway, getting back to the tour, this is the bone that lets researchers know the sex of a mammoth from its skeleton - the pelvic bone. Females have a much wider space in the pelvic bone than males do, because females need to have enough room for a baby to pass through that opening and males, obviously, do not. So you can determine a skeleton's sex by taking measurements of its pelvis. 

The long curved tusks are the most recognizable bones, but you can also see leg bones, ribs, and even teeth, which have a distinctive ridged appearance similar to modern elephant teeth. 

Much of the site looks like a random jumble of bones, but there are a few skeletons that have been preserved relatively intact and with their bones still more or less in their correct arrangement. The top right photo above is one (its back end is closer to us - you can see the pelvic bone and femurs below the ribcage), as is this one, which comes with a nice diagram to help you understand what you're looking at. 

In addition to bones, there are also many footprints preserved as trace fossils. After the spring dried up and the lake filled with sediment, this became a safe, muddy place that many animals traveled across. Many footprints can be seen throughout the site, marked for easy identification with arrows or circles. This is one of the clearest sets of mammoth footprints. On the left one, you can clearly see the blunt, cylindrical shape of a mammoth's foot that sunk down into the muddy lakebed. 

This is still a working archaeological site, and you can peek in on an area that is currently under excavation. You can see tools and buckets full of rock awaiting analysis. If you come during working hours, you may even be lucky enough to see archaeologists digging!

The exit to the site takes you into a small museum where you can see many of the bones that have been discovered in the site. In the center of the museum is a mammoth skeleton, as well as a recreation of what the mammoth would have looked like with flesh and skin. They also have a skeleton of a giant short-faced bear, an extinct species of bear whose skeleton was trapped in the mammoth site. 

If you take the elevator down from the museum, you can actually visit the lab where people are busy at work analyzing the bones that have been found at the site. A row of windows lets you peek in and see what the scientists are doing. I was there late in the day, so there was only one person there, who was operating some kind of loud machinery that (I think) was cleaning bits of rock off the bones. There are work stations right on the other side of the windows, and some of the other workers had posted notes on the windows to let visitors know what they were doing. One note beside a large tray of small rocks and a high-powered magnifying lens said that the worker here had been picking through the debris looking for bone fragments from mice, rabbits, and other small mammals. Sounds like quite a job! 

All in all, it was a really neat place to visit. I mean how often do you get to tour a real working archaeological site? Especially one as unique as this one, with so many visible fossils. It's a fascinating addition to any Black Hills trip. 

The Mammoth Site

The Mammoth Site is in the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, which is actually a pretty cool town. Check out my post on it here. 

I was standing on top of Mount Rushmore's parking garage when I took this picture, which just goes to show you that spectacular views can be found just about everywhere in the Black Hills. I ended a busy day of sightseeing with a trip to the monument, which is open quite late in the summer months, and as I was walking around there, the sky was already starting to show patches of pink and orange in the west. As I was heading back to my car about an hour before sunset, and the sky was a lovely orange color, and storm clouds were beginning to move in. The timing worked out great for me, not only because it made for some great photography, but also because it didn't start raining until after I was safely tucked away in my motel room. 

Rapid City's newest museum just opened earlier this year, and is dedicated to telling the story of the Great Plains' most iconic resident: the bison. The museum chronicles the history of North America's largest land animal from their evolutionary origins 5 million years ago to their modern struggles for survival. 

It's a pretty unique museum; I can't think of another museum that's dedicated to one animal species. But it fits in well in the Black Hills since the bison has been such an important part of the region's history. 

The Bison Museum is located in the heart of Rapid City's charming downtown, at 6th and St. Joseph (nearest to Jimmy Carter's statue). Admission is free, although there is a donation box. 

I visited in May of 2013, just a few weeks after their grand opening. A few exhibits were not quite in place yet - the small upstairs area that will house a photo and art gallery was still closed - but the main exhibits that tell the bison's story were in place, as well as a nice area in the back for kids, and a pretty extensive gift shop selling jewelry, books, shirts, and much more. 

There is a short film you can watch to give an introduction to the museum, and there are video screens scattered throughout the museum that make your experience much more interactive. 

There is also a nice room in the back of the museum for children (though there is plenty for adults to learn as well). There is a digging station where kids can unearth bison bones in a sort of sandbox, and there is a tracking station, where kids can learn to identify Black Hills wildlife by the tracks and droppings they leave behind. 

There are also a couple of nice interpretive exhibits back here. A hay bale is there to represent the amount of grass that one bison will eat in a day. Then there is a wheelbarrow full of buffalo chips. These droppings, which blessedly did not have an odor, were vital to the early pioneers as a source of fire fuel in an area where trees are scarce. 

The bison's story begins 5 million years ago in tropical southern Europe, where the first ancestors of the modern bison evolved. Over time, they gradually started to spread across all of Europe and much of Asia. Three separate waves of migrations brought various species of ancient bison into North America starting about 2 million years ago over the Bering Land Bridge, which once connected Alaska with Siberia. They spread through much of the continent, reaching as far south as Mexico. 

The direct ancestor of North America's modern bison is Bison antiquus, which lived between 80,000 and 8,000 years ago. The museum displays its skull alongside that of the living species Bison bison so you can compare the changes. 

There are actually two subspecies of bison in North America: the wood bison, which is found in Canada's far north, and the plains bison, which is the more abundant species found in the US and southern Canada. There is also a bison species that still survives in eastern Europe: the wisent bison. 

Native Americans who lived on the plains developed a very close relationship with the bison, as the bison was a major food source. They also used other inedible parts of the bison like the hide, bones, and organs to make useful items like bags, bows, and tipis. Native peoples were very mindful of the herds, killing only as many bison as they needed to ensure the herd would endure to provide food to future generations. 

When the first white people arrived on the plains, they found massive herds of bison thousands strong. Lewis and Clark described seeing herds with so many animals that they "darkened the whole plains," and as late as 1869 pioneers described herds so large that "we never saw the other side." These huge herds, however, were not to last. 

The decline of the bison by organized hunting began as early as the 1840's. Fur trappers had driven the beaver to the brink of extinction and needed to turn to other sources of fur to satisfy the demands of European and American consumers. They turned to the bison, and buffalo robes soon came into fashion as a symbol of the American west. 

Once the railroads came through, hunting bison and transporting their hides back east became much easier, and the slaughter intensified. As a novelty, railroad companies even began offering buffalo hunts to their passengers, allowing them the opportunity to shoot bison from the train. 

The bison fur trade reached its zenith between 1872 and 1874. During those years an average of 5,000 bison were killed by hunters every day. The hunters took their hides and left the rest of the carcass to rot. 

In addition to being hunted for their fur, bison were also a casualty of the US government's war against the continent's native people. The US wanted the Native Americans to move off of their ancestral lands and onto reservations so that their land could be given to white settlers. The US military commanders soon realized the great importance of the bison to the Native Americans' way of life, and they reasoned that the easiest way to defeat the Native Americans was to eradicate their food supply, which was, of course, the bison. General Sherman, the famous Civil War leader, even convinced President Grant to veto a bill that would have protected the bison from hunters. 

By 1889, the herds were all but wiped out. And as the herds declined, the Native people who relied upon them for so much found it harder and harder to carry on with their traditional way of life. 

This map illustrated the bison's decline. The red line outlines the area once inhabited by bison; the blue line shows their range in 1870, and the green line their range in 1880. Red dates list the year that bison were eliminated from a particular locality. The green numbers show the locations and numbers of bison remaining in 1889: 550 in a small area in far northern Canada, and only 275 in the US, split between five different locations. 

Once the bison herds were decimated, the former bison hunters need to seek other employment. Some turned to the entertainment business and began operating Wild West Shows. These shows featured sharpshooting, trick horse riding, cattle roping, dances, reenactments and other performances that introduced the rest of the country to a romanticized version of the American west. The shows became wildly popular and toured across the eastern US and even as far as Europe. 

The first, and most famous, of these shows was started in 1883 by Buffalo Bill Cody. Buffalo Bill rose to fame as a buffalo hunter for the transcontinental railway, where he personally killed 4,280 bison in a year and a half. His reputation had already made him a celebrity, and he parlayed that fame into a successful career in showbusiness that lasted 30 years. His show, and the many others like it, created a national passion and sense of nostalgia for the historic western culture. 

We often think of the West as a male-dominated arena, but the museum does a great job of highlighting the women who starred in these shows. In fact, many of the most popular performers were women, who did all the same things the men did like riding, roping, and shooting. Most of us still know the name of Annie Oakley, famous as a sharpshooter, but there were countless others. May Lillie, a celebrated horse rider, loved nothing more than taming a bucking bronco. The Parry twins, Ethyle and Juanita, were among the best trick riders of their day, and even earned the nickname of the "Cossack Girls" for being as skilled with horses as the famed Russian Cossack cavalry. 

Despite the fact that many of the impresarios of these Wild West Shows rose to fame as buffalo hunters, they ended up doing a lot to help the bison later in life. Many of them maintained herds for use in their shows, which gave a refuge for a sizable chunk of America's remaining bison. One former bison hunter, Charles J. "Buffalo" Jones, would come to feel great remorse for hie role in the decimation of the bison species, saying: 

One of the bison's chief advocates was William Hornaday, a taxidermist for the Smithsonian. In the 1880's, Hornaday decided to do a census of the remaining bison in the plains. He was alarmed at how few were left and decided to take action. In 1888, he established the first captive herd at the National Zoo with the intent of preserving the species. In 1905, he established the American Bison Society, which was dedicated to preserving the country's remaining bison. There were initially only 14 members, but one of them was President Theodore Roosevelt, who proved to be a valuable supporter. Efforts were undertaken to relocate bison to protected government lands, such as the recently-established Yellowstone and Wind Cave National Parks. Buffalo Jones, Buffalo Bill, and many other western buffalo advocates soon joined the Society. Buffalo Jones was instrumental in rescuing the remnants of the southern bison herd from the Texas panhandle and returning them to his own Kansas ranch. These bison would be the basis for many of the public herds that would be established in the early 20th century. 

Their efforts, and the efforts of many others, have paid off. At the end of the 19th century there were estimated to be less than 500 bison remaining, and today their numbers have increased back up to 400,000. 

The bison has even evolved into a powerful symbol of the american west. Many companies in the early 20th century capitalized on its growing popularity by using bison imagery in advertising and marketing. A fitting tribute to the one-time master of the plains. 

Visit the Bison Museum's website here. 

Visiting Rapid City? Check out downtown's presidential statues while you're there! 

Mount Rushmore is easily the most famous tourist attraction in the Black Hills, but it's not the only place in the area where you can come face to face with the nation's presidents. To see all of them together, look no further than Rapid City. And, I mean, come on, isn't seeing all 42 former presidents better than seeing just 4 of them? Serious missed opportunity there, Mount Rushmore - you should have left room for 38 more faces up on that mountain!! 

Rapid City's presidential statues occupy the corners of 12 intersections in downtown (which, incidentally, is a surprisingly cool area, with lots of neat shops and restaurants) between 4th, 9th, Main, and St. Joseph Streets. Their locations make them really easy to see - you can just start anywhere and make a big circle to see them all and end up right back where you started. 

The statues are all life size, right down to Li'l James Madison who was only 5'2" tall, which helps to give you a great idea of what they really looked like. But more than just showing their appearance, the statues actually show you a bit more about who each president was as a person. The various statues are all found in different poses and are in the midst of different activities, which all convey something about the presidency or the personality of each figure. Their true-to-life size and depiction in normal, more casual poses almost gives the feeling that you've just walked up to this person on the street and said hello. 

I'll just highlight some of my favorite statues here. I was going to include all of them, but then I thought that would be too many photos for one article, which would take forever to load on your computer, right? 

Anyway, if I leave out your favorite president, you can go to this page on Rapid City's website to see photos and a short description of each of them. There's also a map of everyone's locations at the bottom of the page. 

One of the most iconic statues is that of Harry Truman. Unless you completely slept through history class, you should recognize his pose from the famous photo of him on the day he was re-elected holding up a newspaper that erroneously announced his defeat. 

Several other statues also depict notable historic events, such as Jefferson's statue, which shows him writing the Declaration of Independence with a grand quill pen. 

Andrew Johnson, who took over the presidency after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, looks sufficiently overwhelmed and exhausted by the many challenges of his term in office. Chief among these challenges, of course, was to heal the divided nation, as symbolized by the two halves of a torn map he is holding. 

Another rather unhappy-looking president is Herbert Hoover, who had the misfortune of becoming president shortly before the Great Depression began, and bore much of the blame for it. 

Many presidents who rose to fame as military commanders are depicted in their uniforms. William Henry Harrison, a veteran of the War of 1812, is decked out in his fancy uniform, which comes complete with cape and plumed hat. Nice! Ulysses S. Grant is in his Civil War uniform, and stands beside a column listing the battles he fought in. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as Allied Commander in World War II and was in charge of the D-Day assault on German-occupied France, is shown standing over a map of the English Channel with one foot on England and the other on France. 

Next we have James K. Polk, who ALMOST led the US to war in the 1840's. One of the major issues of his presidency was a border dispute with the UK regarding the exact location of the border between US and British possessions in the Oregon Territory. Polk won the presidential election on a campaign promise to ensure that the US acquired all the Oregon Territory up to the border with Russian Alaska, which was at a latitude of 54 degrees, 40 minutes. The banner on the barrel next to him reads "54 40 or Fight," which became a popular slogan in the media during his presidency: in other words if the UK didn't agree to set the border there, it would mean war. Many Americans, however, including many Congressmen, didn't relish the idea of going to war with the world's strongest power, and Congress negotiated for the border we still have today at latitude 49 degrees. 

There are also a few noteworthy presidential firsts depicted in the statues: Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to address the American people over the radio, and William Howard Taft, an avid athlete in his youth, was the first president to ever throw the opening pitch of the major league baseball season. 

Many of my favorite statues are those that convey a president's personality, and not just his accomplishments. All sorts of different types of people have become president over the years, and that range is reflected in the statues. On one side of the spectrum is James Monroe, who was incredibly charming and gregarious, was always impeccably dressed and always carried a cane. He is shown raising his hat as if to wish you a good morning. Millard Fillmore, on the other hand, was very introverted. He is depicted sitting with his finger marking his place in a book and looking slightly perturbed that you have interrupted his reading. 

Then of course there's Richard Nixon, who is doing his best Montgomery Burns impression like the mastermind he is. 

Some presidents are depicted engaging in some of their favored leisure activities. Calvin Coolidge, who enjoyed horseback riding (and even vacationed in the Black Hills), is shown wearing cowboy boots and a stetson hat and standing next to a custom saddle that was made for him by a Rapid City saddlemaker. Rutherford Hayes was a very active man, and went for a walk every day; his statue shows him mid-stride. Benjamin Harrison, a very introverted man, enjoyed finding a bit of quiet solitude while feeding the birds in his garden. 

Two of the presidents, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, are depicted with their young sons. 

I'll close this post with our most recent ex-president: George W. Bush. It's one of my favorite statues, actually. And not for any reason other than I think he just looks cool in his long coat, carrying his dog under his arm, and giving the thumbs up to passing motorists. It's like he and the dog are out for an evening stroll and he sees you drive by and he's like "Heeey, that's some niiiiice driving!" Thanks, W! 

And that's that! I feel like I learned something today, don't you? Who says travel can't be educational! 

Visiting Rapid City? You should also check out the Museum of the American Bison!