Road Trip Day Six: A simple Stone of Remembrance

Sunset last night in Wright, Wyoming

I left Wright, Wyoming at about 7AM and traveled south on the 59 to the 450 east.  Just off the 59, the 450 passes the Black Thunder Coal Mine.  It is a surface mining operation and one of the largest in the world.  Indeed, it boast being the most productive in the U.S., providing about 8% of U.S. coal.   I saw the longest train I have ever seen lining up and receiving coal.  The general area also boasts a uranium mine and at least six active oil/gas drilling sites.  I learned most of this last night

Wicked Espresso, Custer, SD

listening to the staff at the hotel interact with the miners coming off-shift. 

The Wright Hotel was clean, quiet and well-maintained, but it obviously caters to the energy industry that drives the area.  While most hotels serve their complimentary breakfast beginning at 630AM, the Wright starts at 4AM; for the various workers headed off to long shifts.

Crazy Horse Monument

As the 450 approaches Newcastle Wyoming, the landscape begins to change from the high plains endless vistas of rolling grasslands, to greener and pine tree dotted and hilly countryside.  I stopped briefly in Newcastle and got a cup of gas station coffee.  Sometime after leaving Newcastle, I crossed into South Dakota.  I must have missed the sign saying Welcome to South Dakota, but the increasing elevation and now thick pine forest and green meadows showed me I was approaching the Black Hills National Forest. 

After Newcastle I drove Highway 16 and dropped down into the town of Custer.  It looks like Custer is the beginning of the cluster of towns and hamlets that cater to the South Dakota summer vacation travelers.  There are camps, hotels, trail rides essentially, anything you might want to do in the Black Hills Forest.

The gas station coffee had left a sour taste in my mouth so I decided to seek out a better cup of coffee.  My trusty cell phone told me there was a coffee place called “Wicked Espresso” on Highway 16 (Alternatively referred to as Mount Rushmore Road).  I saw the place, made a u-turn and drove down a small gravel driveway to the rear lot.  As I walked around front I saw a number of obvious turistas sitting on the front wooden deck, sipping fancy coffee and surfing the net. 

Mount Rushmore

I order my coffee and the older fella behind the counter (older, being about my age) asked where I was from.  After I reply, Bob tells me his father started a cabinet making business in La Verne which he took over and ran for many years.  He lived in and around San Dimas most of his life.  Here we are, 1,245 miles from San Dimas, talking about Roady’s.  After the cabinet business, Bob bought the Purple Pie Shop in Custer, South Dakota.  Sold that to his son and then opened “Wicked Expresso” next door.   The coffee was great, the staff (including Bob) were friendly and location is real convenient.  I left Bob and followed the signs to Mount Rushmore.  Not far out of town I saw the “Crazy Horse Monument.” 

Wild Bill's Grave

What the heck, I am here.  I paid $15 to enter the parking area.  As I drove up the hill, I saw the throngs of people waiting for a bus to take them to the actual monuments.  That is an additional fee, crowded, probably time consuming and looked like a Variant D rich environment.  Parked the car, snapped the pic, back on the road.

Mount Rushmore was just as crowded, but it was only $5 and they do park very close to the monument.  After reviewing my picture, I must have been standing where every other photographer has stood to take the picture.  I didn’t go to much further into the venue because like Crazy Horse it was just too crowded.

Lane Signs Boaz and Jachin

Back on the road for Deadwood.  The 45-minute drive is splendid.  You enter from this direction between the towns of lead and Deadwood.  It would take a full day to explore all the shops, restaurants, saloons and museums.  Like the previous locations, it was packed.  I decided the single stop I would make would be the cemetery. 

The Mount Moriah Cemetery is located on a wooded plateau just above Deadwood Gulch.  I am not a Biblical scholar, but there are several Old Testament references to Mount Mariah.  The first being the location that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son; the second as the location that the Temple of Solomon was erected.  You can look that up for yourself and go down the rabbit holes associated with debates on translation and geography. 

Stone Masonic Altar

It is fairly certain, however, that the people who constructed the cemetery chose the name in reference to the Temple.  The lanes between sections have names like Solomon, Hiram (probably in reference to Hiram of Tyre, one of the kings who provided materials for the building of the Temple), Jachin and Boaz (the names of the bronze pillars that stood on the porch of the temple).  Deadwood was formed around 1876 and the Cemetery sometime around 1878.  The formation of a cemetery as an early public area in Deadwood make sense given the mortality rate in a frontier gold town.

I paid the $2 for the self-guided tour.  Walked up the hill with the intention of viewing the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.  As I walked up the hill and read the pamphlet I was very surprised to learn the cemetery’s Masonic Connection. In 1887, the Deadwood Masons purchased an additional 1.5 acres for the departed Brothers.  Over time, additional expansions to the cemetery made the section almost dead-center to the overall cemetery. 

Then, in 1914, the Deadwood Mason undertook a project to revamp their section.  They created an outdoor representation of a Lodge room.  It is situated east to west, with a Masonic Altar in center.  The called it the “Mount Mariah Celestial Lodge.”  As you stand in their stone outdoor Lodge you can see the various stations you would see inside a Lodge room.  Moreover, the names Solomon, Hiram, Jachin and Boaz are significant in Masonic Lore. 

The full carving on the stone Altar reads “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.”  This is from Ecclesiastes 12:1, and an important passage in Masonic lore.  I noted the small rocks piled on and around the base of the Altar.   Typically, this is Jewish customer of remembrance.  Again, you can go down a number of research avenues to explain this custom.  I, however, like the simple explanation.  Flowers and the like wilt, but a small stone of remembrance will last a very long time.  I placed mine on base of the Altar, remembering my parents as well as the Brothers I know who have journeyed to that undiscovered country.

Back on the road with an overnight stop in Rapid City.

Tomorrow is a power drive day.  I intend to journey to Madison, Wisconsin.  About 12 hours, 772 miles.