Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD

Place: Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 66/91F
Route: From Keystone, SD 78 miles southeast on SD-40 E and BIA Hwy 41.

Significance: The Pine Ridge Reservation was originally part of the Great Sioux Reservation set aside in the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868.  The Pine Ridge Reservation, mostly in its current size, was made in 1889.  That same year a new movement started - called the Ghost Dance - started by a Native American prophet, Wovoka in present day Nevada. His vision was that by doing a type of "circle dance" that all evil could be swept away, leaving only love and faith in the world. The dance was meant to be a reunion of the living and the dead - which led to it's name.
In the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation the meaning of the dance was modified - in that by washing away evil - that must include the invading European Americans.  The dances frightened the U.S. forces - as they believed it was preparation for a new war.  In the neighboring Standing Rock reservation, Sitting Bull was arrested for not stopping his people from practicing the Ghost Dance. During his arrest there was a skirmish and he was shot and killed. A Lakota chief Spotted Elk left Standing Rock to go speak with leaders at Pine Ridge. On his way he was intercepted by the U.S. Army, who forced his followers to give up their weapons. One of his followers refused and during a struggle his weapon fired - the army then started firing indiscriminately. Some of the Native Americans were able to get back their weapons and defend themselves - but it soon became a massacre. 151 Native Americans, over half women and children were killed in what would be known as the Wounded Knee massacre.
The current state of life on the reservation is that 97% of inhabitants live below the national poverty line - it is one of the poorest areas in the U.S..

Website: National Historic Site of Wounded Knee.

Image:

Wounded Knee Memorial (from roadsideamerica.com)

Black Hills National Forest, SD

Place: Black Hills National Forest, SD
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 58/79F
Route: From Scotts Bluff National Monument 191 miles north on US-26 W, NE-71 N, US-385 N, SD-79 N, SD-40 W.

Significance: People have been living in the Black Hills for 11,500 years. Its written history started in the mid-1700's when the Lakota moved west from Minnesota. It was a place of spiritual importance for Native Americans. In the 1850's-60's the Lakota were generally successful in fighting other tribes in the area and the U.S. Army. In 1868 the U.S. government decided that there needed to be a new treaty in order to stop the violence occurring regularly in the area.
The 1868 Treaty of Laramie, whose signatories included the famous civil war general William Tecumseh Sherman, stated that the Black Hills would be protected from European settlement "forever." Well, "forever" lasted about 6 years until a U.S. Army expedition led by George Armstrong Custer discovered gold there.
The Black Hills War, which included the defeat of Custer at Little Bighorn, was eventually a victory for the U.S. government. By 1877 the Lakota had surrendered - however they never accepted the U.S. takeover of the Black Hills and in 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government had illegally taken the Black Hills from the Lakota.  However the court ordered a payment, rather than the return of land - which the Lakota did not accept.
The Black Hills are best known to most Americans as the home of Mt. Rushmore. The area also includes an unfinished monument to the Lakota leader Crazy Horse, the "wild west" town of Deadwood, and the motorcycle mecca of Sturgis.

Website: Black Hills National Forest

Images: 

Needles formation (from blackhillsbadlands.com)

Mt. Rushmore (from blackhillsbadlands.com)

Scotts Bluff National Monument, NE

Place: Scotts Bluff National Monument, NE
Weather: Mostly Sunny 56/86F
Route: From Chautauqua 199 miles NNE on US-36 E, I-25 N, US-85 N, NE-92 E.

Significance: The California trail, Oregon trail, Pony Express trail, and Mormon trail all passed nearby to this bluff. Many of the pioneers made note of the promontory, which was the first large geological feature they would have seen traveling west.  It marks where the Great Plains end and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains begin.
The westward expansion of the United States is a large part of our story.  Over the next few days we'll visit places where we can discuss some of the moral questions of that expansion, but today we will focus on the experience of those travelers heading west.
By the time they reached Scotts Bluff they would have traveled over 500 miles from the starting point for most emigrants, St. Joseph, Missouri.  Many of them had 1,500 miles yet to travel - but seeing these bluffs must have been encouraging - as it certainly has a different look from where they came.

Website: Scotts Bluff National Monument

Images: 

Scotts Bluff (from desert.com)

Colorado Chautauqua (Boulder, CO)

Place: Colorado Chautauqua
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 51/77F
Route: From Denver 35 miles NW on I-25 N and US-36 W.

Significance: The first Chautauqua was organized in 1874 on Chautauqua Lake in New York.  Soon it became a movement across the country. It could be thought of as a more wholesome form of vaudeville - focused on entertaining the masses with music, theater, and lectures by famous people.  They were usually set up in rural areas with many recreational activities nearby.  Theodore Roosevelt called the Chautauqua movement the "most American thing in America."
The Colorado Chautauqua started in 1898 and is one of the handful of Chautauqua's still operating in America.  It's auditorium, built in 1898, is still in use. The nearby trails are why many people come to the park, which includes access to the famous flatirons.

Images: 

View of flatirons from Chautauqua Park (from bouldercolorado.gov)

Chautauqua Auditorium with flatirons in background (from tripadvisor.com)

Denver, CO

Place: Denver, CO
Weather: Mostly Sunny 52/81F
Route: From Colorado Springs 70 miles north on I-25 N

Population: 727,211 (2019)
Nicknames: The Mile High City, Wall Street of the West
Places to Visit: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Art Museum, Molly Brown House Museum, Red Rocks Park.
Personal note: Kendra and I lived here for over 3 years - moving to Milwaukee at the beginning of March. Overall we've been focused on our new jobs and making Milwaukee our home - but looking at pictures of Denver and Colorado Springs the last few days does make me miss those amazing views and the great people we got to know there.


Images: 

The skyline and Mt. Evans from City Park (taken by me)

Red Rocks Amphitheatre (taken by me)

Colorado Springs, CO

Place: Colorado Springs, CO
Weather: Partly cloudy, 49/79F
Route: From Dodge City 314 miles WNW on US-50 W and I-25 N.

Population: 472,688 (2018)
Nickname: Olympic City USA
Places to Visit: Garden of the Gods, United States Air Force Academy, Olympic Training Center, Pikes Peak.



Images:

Downtown Colorado Springs with Pikes Peak in background (from coloradosprings.gov)

Air Force Academy campus (from cpr.com)

Garden of the Gods (from tripsavvy.com)

Dodge City, KS

Place: Dodge City, KS
Weather: Partly Cloudy w/ PM showers, 54/79F
Route: From Osawatomie 298 miles west on US-50 W.

Population: 27,329 (2018)
Nicknames: Cowboy Capital of the World, King of Cowtowns, The Wickedest Little City in America.
Significance: Many things that we think of as being part of the "Wild West" occurred over a relatively short time period.  For example, the Pony Express only happened for 18 months.  The Dodge City of the TV show "Gunsmoke" was only around for about 10 years from the mid 1870's to the mid 1880's.  Meaning the TV show was actually around for twice as long (20 years) as the wild west it depicted. The reason that it became such a popular place was that it is right on the 100th meridian, which was the furthest east that the cattle drives from Texas were permitted to go due to illnesses that ranchers in eastern Kansas didn't want their cows to get.
Two of the most famous wild west lawmen, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp did spend some time in Dodge City - but Dodge City's reputation was solidified by exaggerated news stories in eastern publications more focused on selling newspapers than getting the story right.  Today you can tour a rebuilt Dodge City, watch reenactments of gunfights, and visit old west wax museums.

Images: 

Photo of Dodge City's Main Street including the famous Long Branch Saloon taken in 1874 (from legendsofamerican.com)

The "Dodge City Peace Commission" including Wyatt Earp (second from left front row) and Bat Masterson (furthest right back row). (from fordcounty.net)

Video:

Kansas Tourism video on Dodge City

Osawatomie, KS

Place: Osawatomie, KS (John Brown Museum)
Weather: Thunderstorms, 63/81F
Route: From Kansas City 51 miles SSW on I-35 S and US-169 S.

Significance: We've already come across John Brown once on our trip in Harpers Ferry.  That was the end of his story, but his notoriety started 1,000 miles west in 1856. Two years earlier Kansas became a territory through the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which stipulated that the territories would become free or slave by vote of the inhabitants of each territory.  Centrists in congress hoped that Nebraska would vote free and Kansas vote slave - therefore keeping the balance between free and slave states.  However, abolitionists in the northeast, saw this as an opportunity to move their cause forward and many funded like-mind people to move to the new territory.  Brown's adult sons were among the thousands of people from the northeast to move to Kansas.  His sons were concerned that the "free-soilers", as they were know, were not prepared to defend themselves from "boarder ruffians" coming in from the slave state of Missouri.
Brown decided to move to Kansas to help protect his sons and other abolitionists.  After pro-slavery men destroyed newspaper offices and a hotel in abolitionist Lawrence (known as the "sacking of Lawrence"), Brown and his sons killed 5 pro-slavery men in what was known as the "Pottawatomie massacre."  Over the next 3 months 29 people were killed in various battles and raids.  Brown became most famous in the Battle of Oswatomie, which was actually a defeat for Brown - but where he and his men killed 20 pro-slavery men and wounded another 40.
In November 1856 Brown left Kansas to raise money in the east.  Three years later was his raid on Harpers Ferry.  The site in Osawatomie includes the log cabin where Brown lived, with a museum that tells the story of the battle and abolitionist activity in the area.

Images:

John Brown Museum - the cabin is inside the museum (from kansastravel.org)

Mural in the Kansas Capitol Building depicting Brown (from kansastravel.org)

Kansas City, MO

Place: Kansas City, MO
Weather: Isolated Thunderstorms, 66/82F
Route: From St. Louis 248 miles west on I-70 W.

Population: 491,918 (2018)
Nicknames: City of Fountains, Paris of the Plains, Heart of America
Places to Visit: World WWI Museum and Memorial, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Image:

Union Station and skyline (from nationalgeographic.com)

St. Louis, MO

Place: St. Louis, MO
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 62/80F
Route: From New Harmony 143 miles west on I-64 W.

Population: 302,838 (2018)
Nicknames: Gateway to the West, Mound City.
Places to Visit: Missouri Botanical Garden, City Museum, Gateway Arch, St. Louis Art Museum, Old Courthouse Museum of Dred Scott Case.




Images:

Gateway Arch and skyline

Statue of Dred and Harriet Scott outside the Old Courthouse (from thedredscottfoundation.org)

New Harmony, IN

Place: New Harmony, IN
Weather: Partly Cloudy 56/71F
Route: From Mammoth Cave National Park 137 miles NW I-165, US-231 N, IN-66 W.

Population: 789 (2010)
Significance: New Harmony is an example of something very American - the idea of making a Utopia. The Harmonists were a religious group from Germany, who broke off from the Lutherans in Southwest Germany. Their founder was George Rapp. At its height, the Harmonists had over 10,000 members in Germany. They attracted the attention of the local authorities and felt that they needed to move to the United States in 1804. Their first settlement was in western Pennsylvania. In 1814 they moved to this site in Indiana with the hope to be in a more isolated environment, where they could practice their faith without interference.
After 10 years they decided that the location was too far from eastern markets and moved back to the Pittsburgh area.  They sold the town to a Welsh textile manufacturer and social reformist, Robert Owen.  Owen's social ideas started in New Lanark, Scotland - where he co-owned a mill.  His focus was on child education and treating his workers with much more generosity than other mill owners at the time.
His ideas included the inhabitants living in a large building, as depicted in the painting below. The community only lasted two years, but many scientists, artists, and social reformers came to New Harmony in that time and Owens children became important leaders in science and education in the United States.

Website: Indiana State Museum

Image:

Painting of Owen's ideal New Harmony (from libertarian-labyrinth.org)

Video:

1970's documentary on New Harmony from Indiana University

Mammoth Cave National Park, KY - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Place: Mammoth Cave National Park, KY - UNESCO World Heritage Site
Weather: Mostly Sunny 63/84F
Route: From Louisville 85 miles south on I-65 S.

Significance: Longest known cave system on earth (>400 miles), with every kind of cave formation known, and over 130 species within the caves.
Animals: Salamanders, cave crayfish, eyeless cave fish, cave crickets, roundworms, bats, snakes.
Websites: UNESCO World Heritage Site, National Park Service.







Images:

Stalactites and stalagmites (from nps.gov)

Entrance to cave (from nps.gov)

Louisville, KY

Place: Louisville, KY
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 60/79F
Route: From Dayton 153 miles SSW on I-75 S and I-71 S.

Population: 620,118
Nicknames: Derby City, River City, Gateway to the South.
Places to Visit: Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Kentucky Derby Museum, Muhammad Ali Center.








Images:

The Skyline (from aecom.com)

Churchill Downs (from churchhilldownsincorporated.com)

Dayton, OH

Place: Dayton, OH
Weather: Scattered Thunderstorms, 59/74F
Route: From Fallingwater 296 miles west on US-119 N, PA-381 S, PA-43 N, and I-70 W.

Population: 140,640 (2018)
Nicknames: The Gem City, Birthplace of Aviation


Places to visit: National Museum of the US Air Force, Wright Cycle Company Complex, Huffman Prairie Flying Field.

Significance: It's amazing to me that just outside this mid-sized midwestern city is the world's first airport. The Wright brother's were at first ridiculed for claiming that they had successfully flown the first airplane. The local newspaper even ignored them because they thought they were crazy or lying.  Although the first flight was at Kitty Hawk, it was here that many of the early flight records were made - and where the Wright brothers taught the first generation of pilots.

Website: Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

Image:

Huffman Prairie Flying Field (from nps.gov)

Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Place: Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA
Weather: Scattered Thunderstorms, 58/76F
Route: From Pittsburgh 67 miles SSE on I-376 E, I-76 E, PA-381 S.

Significance: Likely the most famous house in the United States, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed abode is an amazing place. I first visited here as a child because my mom is a big Wright fan.  I remember being amazed how the natural rock was integrated into the interior of the house. It is a place of a child's dreams - seemingly floating above the water fall. 
In 2019 UNESCO named the architecture of Wright as a World Heritage Site. We will visit at least one other of his designs later in the trip.



Image:

from franklloydwright.org

Video from fallingwater.org after it was named to UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Pittsburgh, PA

Place: Pittsburgh, PA
Weather: Scattered Thunderstorms, 59/75F
Route: From Marysville 200 miles west on I-76 W.

Population: 301,048 (2018)
Nicknames: City of Bridges, Steel City, City of Champions.
Places to Visit: Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Andy Warhol Museum, August Wilson House.

Images:

Downtown skyline and rivers (from post-gazette.com)

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (from carnegielibrary.org)

Marysville, PA

Place: Marysville, PA
Weather: Scattered Thunderstorms, 60/78F
Route: From New York 172 miles West on 1-78 W to I-81 S to US-11 N

Population: 2,553 (2018)
Genealogy: Marysville is a small town on the Susquehanna 7 miles upstream from the capital of Pennsylvania - Harrisburg.  There is no reason to stop here except that it is the place of one of the more interesting stories I've encountered on my research into my own genealogy.  On June 17, 1863 my great-great-grandmother Anna Elizabeth Alsop was born here. It was quite a time to be born in this part of the world. It was in the middle of the Civil War. On the day that she was born the Army of Northern Virginia under the leadership of General Robert E. Lee was moving to invade the north.  His objective was to capture Harrisburg and then move towards other large cities in the north.
Lee was successful in making it into Pennsylvania - getting as far north as Sporting Hill, 2 miles from Harrisburg on June 29th. From July 1-3 the sounds of the guns in Gettysburg, 40 miles south, could be heard from Harrisburg and Marysville, marking the end of the threat.  Many citizens of Maryland and Pennsylvania rushed north to escape the invading army in late June. The Alsop's were likely unable to do that due to Anna's birth.  But they had another reason to be frightened of the Confederates. The Alsop's were people of color. In the 1860, 1870, and 1880 census records Anna's father Bazel was listed as Mulatto or Black.  At least 40 African Americans were captured by the Confederate Army in Maryland and Pennsylvania during this campaign to be sent back south into slavery.
The first record I have of Bazel is from 1860, when he lived in Harrisburg. I even have an address for him in 1860 - he lived across the street from the AME church - a well known stop on the Underground Railroad.  I do not know for sure that he was an escaped slave - but he did list Maryland as his birth state - which was a slave state through the end of the Civil War. He moved to Marysville by 1863 to work as a forgeman at a foundry.
So what became of Anna?  She grew up in Marysville, but the family had moved to Philadelphia sometime in the mid 1880's. As a young woman she worked at Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, one of the first department stores.  Sometime in late 1888 or early 1889 her brother Oscar was on a train and met a man Frederick Froelich - a first generation German-American produce dealer who lived in a small town in eastern Iowa. Oscar and Fred got along so well that Oscar invited Fred home for dinner, where young Anna (12 years Fred's junior) caught his eye.  They wrote letters to each other after Fred returned to Iowa and by 1889 they were married and Anna had moved out to Iowa.  More on the Froelich's in a few weeks when we're in Iowa.

Images:

Bazel (spelled also Basil or Bazal on different documents) Alsop

Young Anna and her brother Oscar.

One Place New York, NY - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like DC, picking one place to visit in New York is very hard. I've been lucky to be able to make several trips to New York with my wife on her work trips over the last 10+ years. The place I would pick if you could only go to one place in New York is The Met.  First, it's a huge beautiful museum on the east side of Central Park. The contents of the museum can only be matched by one or two other museums on the planet.  It includes a complete Egyptian Temple and important examples of art from every culture and time period since the beginning of recorded history. That's not an exaggeration. And a ticket will get you in  a few other properties owned by the Met including the Cloisters on the northern tip of Manhattan. Click on the link below and you can tour the Met virtually.

Websites: Met Museum, Virtual Met Visit.

Images:

Front of the museum (from nyc-arts.org)

Temple of Dendur (from metmuseum.org)

New York City, NY

Place: New York City, NY
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 44/64F
Route: From Newark 10.6 miles on east on US-1 and US-9.

Population: 8,398,748 (2018)
Nicknames: The Big Apple, The City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice, The City That Never Sleeps, Gotham, The Empire City.
Places to Visit: Statue of Liberty (UNESCO World Heritage Site), The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met Cloisters, American Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Modern Art, Frick Collection, Ellis Island, Tenement Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art.

Images:

New York skyline (from streeteasy.com)

Central Park (from architecturaldigest.com)