Long overdue picture post 9: Presidents on a hill and a real Country Store in a Ghost Town

The drive from Fort Collins to Keystone, SD (the closest town to Mount Rushmore), was as poster-child of a cross-country drive as it could possibly get. Long stretches of lonely, empty roads. The train line, with Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) trains carrying some primary resource or the other - outbound; and containers with (possibly Chinese) manufactured goods - inbound. And long stretches of seeing no one. The landscape in Wyoming and South Dakota was dotted with abandoned farms. Very different from (also) abandoned farms in the North East. One of the chief differences being wind-mills that stood rusting alongside the homesteads. There was very little agriculture, mostly grazing. The vistas were long and wide and the views dramatic. Perhaps not the same scale as in, say, Arizona or Nevada. There were too many rolling hills in this part of the country. But still large expanses.
The story of Mount Rushmore itself was fascinating. There is a lot available on it. What was fascinating to us, though, was going there in February. Keystone, the closest town, had a population of 311. In summer that swells to 6000, not counting the tourists. Only two hotels were open. And no places to eat. Not even a McD.
The innkeeper, instead, suggestd that we go to the only place that could serve us something to eat at 8 in the evening - the Country Store. This place turned out to be quite a relic. It has been functioning non-stop, in the same place since the 1920s. There is even a gas dispenser "grandfathered" in, that sits on the verandah in front of the store. The current owner, Walt, "knows the Black Hills like the back of his hand". I wish we had a little more time to hang out with Walt, probably go out to real ghost (mining) town, together. He is a unionized iron-worker, who is from the area and has come back there after having roamed around some. You will see pictures of Walt farther down this post. And of his wonderful pizza-maker.

Not quite on the hill-side, yet.

Irreverence, in the face of monumentality.

The gents.

A collapsed mine shaft, at an abandoned mine, at the edge of town.

Ghost town, mainstreet of Keystone SD, with nary a soul in sight. Thankfully that meant easy parking and no lines. Apparently not the standard in summer.

Walt's pizza maker. He brings it out, "all the time", he said. A little service he provides. You can stand and chat while this is going on.

Not the kind of Indians, Walt was used to seeing.

The gas dispenser.

I was not kidding about the population. This swells to 20x in summer.

Night vision.

The traffic light at Lusk. The store in the center of town was...a Radio Shack.

Beautiful and rugged Wyoming. Except that I got a ticket, the only one on the entire trip, right around here.