7th August - Train ride & inside a nuclear missile silo

Today we took the steam-train trip from Keystone to Hill City and back. It was relaxing, idyllic and fairly slow. We went past some old mines and miners houses. One was still occupied until the 70's. No running water, no electricity or inside toilet. Talk about living rough. We saw a few deer in the forest and one woodchuck (not sure what type of animal that is, but it looked fairly small)

The Black Forest and the Badlands had been reserved for the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes but in the late 1870 a military expedition force came here and they discovered gold. Very quickly 1000's of gold diggers, outlaws etc flooded in to the area. 

The Black forest is a state forest (not the same as a state park) but there are private land scattered through the forest. This is land that miners claimed during the gold rush. They were able to sell that land and if they didn't and they either died or moved away the land reverted to the state.

When we were standing in the queue to get back to Keystone we struck up a conversation with 2 couples. We heard them talking about Cadillac (that is the city, not the car) so we asked them about Cadillac and they told us that it is a beautiful a place and that they go up there (from Indiana) every year. They go during the winter to ride snow mobiles. They wondered where we came from and when we told them and how long it took us to get here, they were gobsmacked... It had taken them 12 hours to ride on their bikes from Indiana to Sturgis. That just 1 third of the time it took us from NZ.

After the train ride we went to the Ellsworth Air Force Base for a tour. How exciting is that!!! Go on to a American Air Force base that has Minuteman Missiles. Part of the tour is that you actually enter into to the missile silo and see the missile that is inside it. Of course the missile doesn't have a warhead so it is safe to be there. They have about 150 missiles in 30 silos scattered around the wester part of South Dakota. The base is like a small city, with their own hospital, movie theater, supermarket, church, swimming pool, gym etc.

During the 60's to the 80's there were 10,000 people at the base. Now it is about 4000. The guide also told us that up to the mid 90's 1/3 of all bomberplanes in the USA was in the air and 1/3 on stand by at all times. So that they could respond if Russia decided to attack. At the base they had 3 command airplanes (1 was always up in the air, 24/7) that was in constant contact with the President and if anything happened and the President was injured or dead the General on the plane could declare war. It is quite scary scenario.

The tour guide was stationed at the base 1955 to 1957, so he must be in his 80's now. and still working. He does 4 tours a day.

Tomorrow is our last full day here before we travel

back to Sioux Falls. It's getting closer to meet the cousins. Getting excited (and a bit nervous..). Will be interesting to check out if the American arm of the family is similar to the Swedish... Also will be really interesting to hear stories about my uncle.