Our Fall Vacation To South Dakota: Day 3, Part I, Mt. Moriah Cemetery

 This is a continuation of a travel series to South Dakota.  To start at the beginning, go HERE.  The rest of the posts in chronological order are  HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Before leaving Deadwood, South Dakota for a day of hiking to seek out waterfalls in Spearfish, we stopped at Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  Old cemetery's are great places to learn more history of the area.  But we found out that Mt. Moriah was not just a great place for history lovers, but nature lovers as well.  It also offered scenic views of the town of Deadwood as it sits high on top of a hill overlooking the town below.

The name of the cemetery and its street names have a religious affiliation with the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah.  The real Mount Moriah is located within Jerusalem.  The symbols on the cemetery gateway represent The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Freemasonry, and the Star of David.

With the exception of a few of its wealthier or most notable citizens, most of the tombstones in this cemetery are simple or non-existent.  There are three "Potter Fields" or final resting places of Deadwoods "early-day indigents, prostitutes included".  This tombstone caught my attention because of the brevity of the life and it's faded engraving.

Even if you are not a history lover and/or find cemeteries creepy,  you must take the time to stop and visit this cemetery for the view alone.  Because we were there early in the morning, we caught the sun lighting up the city of Deadwood below.

The land for the cemetery was purchased in 1878 and is located on a mountainous plateau overlooking Deadwood Gulch.

What a beautiful spot for a final resting place, eh?  Too bad the cemetery is now a "closed cemetery". It closed in 1949, but there are some plots being held for various families and individuals for future use.

My husband and I enjoyed seeing this view after we had spent a full day in Deadwood.  It was fun to locate and see all the places we had been, like the Franklin Hotel seen below.

It was so sad to read this sign and I tried to imagine how difficult life was back then for the early settlers.  I wondered, "Did they really value and treasure life, because it could be so brief" or "Were their hearts hardened because they had seen and experienced so much death?"  I just don't know.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about visiting this cemetery was seeing all the wildlife.  This cemetery was filled with deer!  You could get fairly close to them too before they ran away.  If you have a chance to visit this cemetery I strongly suggest going early in the morning so you can see all the deer.  We were there around 8:00 am.

There are 3,400 people buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery.  The grave sites of many of Deadwood's most famous residents are located here, the most famous of them all "Wild Bill Hickok"!

Other famous people buried in this cemetery include "Calamity Jane", "Potato Creek Johnny", and Seth Bullock.

The rocks left on the grave act as a remembrance to this deceased.  When rocks are not available, coins, and bits of glass are sometimes used. 

Because my husband and I are Christians, we love Jewish history and we really enjoyed learning all about the Jewish immigrants to Deadwood and how they contributed to make Deadwood a prosperous and thriving city.

We also loved seeing all the biblical street names in this cemetery.

There is a small charge of $2.00 to visit this cemetery.  It is open from May 15 to October 15 every day from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

And that concludes my final post of the city of Deadwood, South Dakota.  Next week I'll share my first post in a new area:  Spearfish!  Believe it or not, there are waterfalls in South Dakota!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Fall Vacation To South Dakota: Day 2, Part II: The Historic Adams House In Deadwood

 This is a continuation of a travel series to South Dakota.  To start at the beginning, go HERE.  The rest of the posts in chronological order are  HERE and HERE. 

I can't believe I haven't written a travel post since November.  I'm so sorry guys!  The holidays just really overwhelmed me this year.  I have so much more to share from my fall vacation to South Dakota I'll be lucky if I get it all in before I leave on my spring vacation,  but I'm gonna try.  I'm picking up this series exactly where I left off, in Deadwood.  If you missed that post, you might want to click the last link above and read it because this historic house that I'm writing about today is located in that city and it's always important to learn about the city the home is in.

Whenever we visit a city or town my husband and I love to tour at least one historic home.  Historic home tours teach us so much about the families that have contributed to the city and we also get more in-depth knowledge of the city through a home tour.

The Historic Adams House in Deadwood was built in 1892.  It is a Queen Anne Style with oak interiors, hand painted canvas wall coverings, and stained glass windows.

My favorite details of the structure of this old home is the large front porch, the brick foundation and first floor walls, and the corner turret and dome.

The Historic Adams House tells the stories of two of Deadwood's founding families:  the Franklin's and the Adam's Family.

The home was built by merchant/business entrepreneur Harris Franklin. He was a Jewish immigrant who made his fortune in wholesale liquor and gradually diversified into cattle, gold mining, and banking.  This home was unique at the time because it had all the modern conveniences like central heating, electrical lighting,  and indoor plumbing.

In 1920, the Adams family purchased the home.  W.E. Adams was a prosperous business owner in Deadwood.  He owned a store on Sherman Street that was the size of an entire city block and four stories tall!  He also was very active in the community, serving six terms as Deadwood's mayor and he made great improvements in the city's economy.  His largest contribution to Deadwood was the Adam's museum.  He financed the lot and construction of the building, which sat directly across from his city block store.

After W.E. Adams died in 1934 the house sat silent for more than 50 years.  This ended up being a good thing for historians because everything was left in tact when Adam's second wife left the home.  The furniture, decor, personal items like medicine, sheet music on the piano, books, even cookies were left in the cookie jar.  Because everything was left the same as when the Adams Family lived in the home, we are able to get a great glimpse into their lives in the early 1900's.

This is a garage on the side of the house.  It's obviously been renovated, but at one time probably served as a carriage house.  Now it is used as a small gift shop and also where you can buy your tickets for the tour.

They do allow photography inside this home, but it must be non-flash, so I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos.  Like most historic homes, they keep it very dark inside to preserve everything and without a flash, most of the pictures turned out grainy and blurry.

This is the first room on your left when you enter the home.  The doors have a stained glass transom.

Almost every room in this house has a fireplace.  This is the fireplace in the formal parlor where guests are entertained or the family would congregate.

The staircase is a beautiful oak and curved around to the top landing.  It is in full view right when you walk in the front door.

My favorite room was the music room which is located to the right of the front door.  It is so stunning not only because it located inside the turret, so it is round, but I loved the pink walls and I found the hand-painted floral design absolutely breath-taking.

Isn't this white marble fireplace gorgeous?

 Here is a close up of some of the detail of the crown moulding and floral painting.

Even the ceiling was painted in a delicate floral design.  Oh, it just pains me how difficult this must have been for the artist.  The detail is amazing!

This dark room was the office or study of the home owner.

The dining room, with a view into a small sun room added to the house at a later date.  Notice the gorgeous stained glass transom above the doorway?

This is the upstairs landing and hallway.  The end of the stairs leads to another staircase down to the kitchen.  I love the arched transom above it.'

Upon construction, the house had ten rooms.  This is one of the bedrooms.

One of the unique aspects I found about the bedrooms was that they all had their own bathrooms with the prettiest sinks I ever did see.  I loved this pink marble one with a floral basin.

This room also had a beautiful fireplace.

Another bedroom with yet another pretty sink.

Like most historic homes, the house is filled with personal photographs and journals of the people who inhabited the house.

The second family to inhabit this home suffered so much tragedy here.  In one year, they lost three loved ones.  W.E.'s wife, Alice got terminal cancer.  She went to visit her daughter in California who was seven months pregnant at the time.  Alice ended up dying in her daughter's home and it caused her daughter so much grief she went into premature labor.  Both the daughter and the baby both died. Isn't that one of the saddest stories you've ever heard?

Yet another beautiful marble sink with a old fashioned tub in the bathroom.

It is very rare to find an old fashioned kitchen in an old home as most kitchens are always remodeled for modern conveniences.  But because this house was abandoned for fifty years, the old condition complete with all the china and cookware was left in tact.  Gotta love the open shelving and farm house sink.  Now this look all back in style isn't it?

There was even an old stove and an ice box!

I loved this old farmhouse style kitchen!  I wouldn't change a thing (well, except for adding a modern stove and refrigerator).

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about the Historic Adams House.  Next week I will finish my tour of Deadwood with a stop at Mt. Moriah Cemetery:  another place where one can learn all about a town's history!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Fall Vacation To South Dakota, Day 2, Part 1: Deadwood

This is a continuation of a travel series to South Dakota.  To start at the beginning, go HERE.  Post two is HERE.

On day two of our vacation to South Dakota we went to the historic wild west town of Deadwood.  We did so much in a day and a half in this town that I couldn't possibly cover it all into one post, so I am dividing Deadwood into three posts: Part 1 will cover the town of Deadwood, Part 2 will cover the historic Adams House, and Part 3 will cover the Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Deadwood originated as a gold mining town when in 1875 pioneer Frank Bryant was hunting deer and instead found a sparkling metal.  Miners in search of a fortune followed establishing a town in 1876. 

Today the gold is long gone,  and Deadwood is now a tourist town loaded with history for lovers of the Old West.

We arrived in Deadwood very early in the morning, when most businesses were still closed.  We decided to take advantage of the serene morning and took  a lovely paved nature trail that was located behind the Deadwood Chamber Visitor Center.  The trail ran along Whitewood Creek.   It had two very pretty bridges with views of the "mountains" in the distance. 

The Chamber Visitor Center is housed in a gorgeous building.  It contains all the usual information every Visitor Center provides, but there are also displays explaining Deadwood's rich history. It is a must stop before you begin exploring Deadwood.

By the time we were finished touring the Visitor Center and walking the nature trail, the stores were opening up, so off we went on a walking tour of Deadwood.

Most of the businesses in Deadwood are casinos or bars.  There are some stores, but most are souvenir gift shops.  As much as I enjoyed admiring the western architecture of the town, I was disappointed that there was not a lot of shopping.  My husband and I don't gamble or drink, so other than taking the walking tour and learning the back history of the buildings, there was not much else to  do on the historic main street.  We were also surprised that there weren't any cute shops to eat or drink anything other than alcohol.  There were no chocolate shops, ice cream parlors, bakeries, etc.; the typical stuff you see in most tourist towns.  Every business was either a bar, a casino, or a souvenir gift shop.  

This is an old gasoline station renovated for wine tasting.

 Even if gambling and drinking aren't your thing, Deadwood is worth a stop for it's stunning architecture alone.  The entire city is a National Historic Landmark District.   The buildings are so well preserved, and each building has a story to tell.

Deadwood's past is well-known for its rough and rowdy crowd.  It was a place where miners came to drink, gamble and spend some time with "ladies of the night".  This bar/casino played up on that heritage by placing scantily clad mannequins in the upper story windows.

You can take a guided bus tour of Deadwood for $20.00 per person.  We did not take this tour.  We picked up a brochure at the Visitors Center and did a self-guided walking tour instead.  There is also a trolley that charges only $1.00 per person or $5.00 for an all day pass.  It runs at regular intervals between all hotels, motels, and other key stops.

 There are a number of gorgeous historic hotels still operating in Deadwood.  We stayed at a new hotel/casino just on the edge of the town(The Lodge), but we did pop in and check out the lobbies of a lot of these beauties.

They really love to play up on the old west theme in Deadwood, coming up with a lot of creative titles for their establishments.

The Franklin Hotel is the grandest old hotel on the historic main street.  We went inside to check out the Victorian architecture of their lobby and it was stunning!  There also have great food and restaurants here,  guests can eat on the veranda pictured below or inside at one of their other dining options.  Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, and John Wayne are a few of the famous guests who stayed in this hotel.

This hotel used to be a Homestead Slime Plant in 1906.

 I just loved the western flair of this town.  This is not a style one sees in the state of Wisconsin.  We are more about log cabins, forests, pine trees, and deer.

  The Bullock Hotel is Deadwood's oldest hotel and is rich in ghost history.  The ghost of Seth Bullock has been reported to be seen by many guests and hotel workers.  The hotel offers ghost tours for the paranormal fans.

Perhaps Deadwood's most favorite resident was Wild Bill Hickok, who was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 at this saloon.

You can walk in and just take pictures of the saloon, but they ask for a small donation or store purchase if you do.   They also offer paid, guided tours.

 And of course the place they captured the assassin of Wild Bill is important too!

After taking the walking tour we were pretty hot and tired and thought it was time to cool off in the local museum.  The Adams Museum is free admission but they do request a donation.  It felt wonderful to enjoy some air conditioning and read about all the wild characters of the town like Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, and Potato Creek Johnny.

For a free, little museum, it was actually quite impressive.  It told you anything you could possibly want to know about the town's history and it's famous residents.

A narrow gauge railroad was established in 1888 to serve the interests of the mining companies.  In 1902 a portion of this railroad was electrified to carry passengers.  In 1930 the railroad was abandoned but there is a historic train station still in Deadwood today that now serves as a Visitor Center.

When we were done touring the museum and we were refreshed and renewed, it was time to head over the Historic Adams House for a tour (more on that next week).  On the way there we saw a few more historic buildings of interest.

Historic Federal Courthouse 1907

Lawrence County Courthouse

And that concludes Part 1 of our visit to Deadwood.  If you love historic homes, be sure to come back next week when I will be sharing stories and pictures of the Historic Adams House.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!