Classic Bike Ramblings General Sturgis..........Minutemen and a horse called "Comanche"
father to honor his son who had fallen in battle. You see many vendors had sprung up around “Camp Mr. 500 & Desiree We are going into the in the "dog days of Sturgis" (Now Ft. Meade) August" my new friend told me at the bar. The to help support the troops hottest and most sultry days of summer which and to "scoop" some money up from the soldiers usually occur between the end of July and the stationed there, in fact at one point in history it middle of August, named for the "dog star" Sirrus carried the nickname "scooptown". Many ranchby the ancient Romans who thought July and ers and homesteaders started placing farms and August were particularly hot due to the "heat" large cattle ranches around the outlaying flatbeing given off by this star rising and setting lands and rivers. Gold had a brief influence in the with the sun during these months in ancient town’s life but it, like so many times, but we my new age things in life it did not last. pals know summer and Sturgis was incorporated these dreaded " dog days" as a village in 1912, the town are caused only by the tilt of then grew from the railroads, the earth on its axis. the stores and pool halls, it’s She then stated to me ranching and farming implethat she was making her tenth ment business flourished. trip to a small town in South 1930 saw a huge building Dakota. A small town with a boom that slowed quickly due population of 6,600 or so for to the recession. War would 51 weeks of the year, but its come and go in the 1940's that one week, usually the first but the town would continue full week of August, those hot to grow so that there wasn't sultry "dog days" of August, a vacant building on Main when this small towns popuStreet. lation increases to 400-700 In the 1950's a huge cement thousand people depending block manufacturing firm on what year you pick. Officially would move in along with a the mayor of Sturgis, S.D. says cement tile and culvert comit's impossible to physically pany, this would lead to an determine how many attend influx of people and busithe yearly Motorcycle Rally. The nesses. The little town first Rally was held August 14th. was now well on its way. 1938 by a local motorcycle Sturgis now had a club, who still own and operate the race tracks, population in excess of 850. There were 250 hill climb and much of the open areas used for homes in town and the housing situation this week long extravaganza of bikes. First called was described as "scarce". Daily bus service The Blackhills Classic it was a single race with a and our love affair with cars and motorcycles field of nine bikes and about as many spectators. would move more and more people into our While the focus of the rally was originally racing small outpost in the West. There was a landand stunts it was expended in 1961 to include ing strip but a large timber mill took over the hill climbing and motorcross. Sturgis bike week site and it would be many years until an airport has been held every year with exceptions during of any size would service this remote locale. The World War II. My good reader’s I’m not going to go military has had a huge presence in and around into the complete history of this legendary bike this legendary motorcycle town both in the past week, you all know it already or can find it on toand in the present. Camp Sturgis (Fort Meade) day’s amazing information highway. No I wanted was originally established in August of 1876 as to see what interesting history lay in and around a temporary “peacekeeping" post for the US 7th. this motorcycle Mecca in the west. The town of Calvary shortly after the Battle of Little Big Horn Sturgis South Dakota was named by a military (235 miles away). The Fort has endured for over
a century and transformed itself to survive time and time again and is now used as a Veterans Hospital and training center for the South Dakota National Guard. Originally called Camp Sturgis it was named in honor of Lieutenant J.G. "Jack" Sturgis who fought and fell with General Custer on the hills overlooking the Little Big Horn in 1876. The town has kept the name that his father gave it. The Secretary of War designated the now permanent post "Fort Meade" in honor of George G. Meade of Civil War fame. Its first Commander would be Col. Samuel D. Sturgis, of the 7th. Calvary whos son Jack had fallen in Custers last stand and whos names are honored by Sturgis S.D. In a very interesting note my friends of history; it was here that the Star Spangled Banner first became the official music for the Military Retreat Ceremony (When the flag is lowered at days end on a base), long before it became the National Anthem. You see in 1892 the post Commander Col. Caleb H. Carlton, of the 8th. Calvary began the custom of playing the Star Spangled Banner at Military Ceremonies and requested that all people rise and pay it proper respect, long before our nation adopted it; it was playing through the land Sturgis, S.D. would occupy. It was also here to Fort Meade a mile outside what we now know as Sturgis that one of the most famous horses of all history would be brought to. On June 25th, 1876 captain Myles Keogh of the 7th. Calvary was riding this 15 hand mixed mustang/morgan, a horse he had named "Comanche". And on that fateful day in June, at Little Big Horn, General Custers entire detachment would be killed by a combined force of the Lakota’s, Cheyenne’s and Arapaho Indians, and it would be two days later that Comanche would be found badly wounded hiding in a ravine. He was 21 years old at this time and would have seven severe bullet and arrow wounds, four in his back, one through the hoof and one on either hind leg. He would be nursed back to health and in 1879 Comanchee was brought
to Fort Meade, home of the 7th Cavalry where he was treated like a prince before being moved to Fort Riley, Kansas in 1888 when the 7th Calvary moved there. What I found amazing though was this following order, General order number 7, issued by Col. Samuel D. Sturgis, it is as follows (1) The horse known as "Comanche" being the only representative of the bloody tragedy of the Little Big Horn, June 25th. 1876, his kind treatment and comfort shall be a matter of special pride and solicitude on the part of every member of the 7th. Calvary to the end that his life be preserved to the utmost limit. Wounded and scarred as he is his very existence speaks in terms more eloquent than words, of the desperate struggle against overwhelming numbers of the hopeless conflict and the heroic manner in which all went down on that fatal day. (2) The Commanding officer of company one will see that a special and comfortable stable is fitted up for him and he will not be ridden by any person whatsoever, under any circumstances, nor will he be put to any kind of work. (3) Hereafter, upon all occasions of ceremony of mounted regimental formations, saddled, bridled and draped in mourning and led by a Mounted Trooper of company one, will be paraded with the regiment. This ordered by Command of Col. Sturgis, 7th. Calvary. One interesting thing about Comanche other then his fondness for beer that he picked up at Ft Meade, was that in 1890 at the time of his death he would be one of only two horses in US history to be buried with full military honors. Sitting 30 miles or so below Sturgis is another more modern military installation called Ellsworth Air Force Base, home of the 28th. Bomb Wing and one of the two bases in the USA that have B-1B Lancers (35 total). The 28th's mission is to deliver decisive combat power for a global response. The Air Force Base was built in 1941 and known as Rapid City Army Base. It was a training field for the B-17 bomber units going to Europe fighting for Americas freedom in WW II. It would be July 15th. 1945 that the installation would be placed on standby status. The base went
through many changes and upgrades including a few name changes. But in 1950 the base was adapted to use the new Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" Strategic Nuclear Bomber, but then in 1953 they would lose an entire crew of 23 men returning from a training mission in Europe and the base would be renamed in honor of Brig. General Richard E. Ellsworth Commander of the 28th. Strategic Reconnaissance Wing who lost his life in this peacetime B-36 crash in Newfoundland. In 1958 all the bases B-36 Bombers would be replaced by the new B-52 Stratofortress which to this day is still a formidable bomb delivery vehicle but dated by its years. Ellsworth would also become a huge player in the Cold War and in America’s missile and nuclear defense triad. Originally 50 Nike/Ajax surface to air missiles and their underground silos were built to defend America from incoming Soviet nukes and to protect our long range bombers from a nuclear first strike, but it would be in 1960 that Ellsworth would enter the space age and the missile silos would become "offensive" in their delivery. The Titan ICBM's would arrive, and then my 102 loyal readers came the Minutemen missiles and Ellsworth would become known as the "Show Place of the Strategic Air Command” and this would continue for decades as the nuclear race would escalate. But the 80's and 90's brought huge changes to Ellsworth as the aging B-52 fleet would be phased out and the B-1 Bomber would blast onto the scene and become Americas go to bomber for SAC. In the late 80's the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Unions demise would lead to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and between 1992 and 1994 all ICBM's would be pulled from their silos around Ellsworth AFB. It's an interesting note my patriotic pals that one silo (designated L5) that held a LGM 30B Minuteman II missile and its 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead was located 3.5 miles from Sturgis's Main Street . Two silo sites have been turned over to the National Park Service to be used as a point of national interest display It would be June 1999 that B-1B's from Ellsworth would fly over 100 combat missions to Kosovo dropping over 1260
tons of ordinance. And after Sept. 11th. 2001 the Ellsworth group would be deployed to Diego Garcia, and while stationed there they dropped 39 percent of the total tonnage of bombs in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Well my fans of the great west this short story would not be complete if I did not include one amazing site very near this little town of history. Laying 50 miles below Sturgis, S.D. is a site that has been parodied, used in movies and been the subject of much controversy and I am speaking of Mount Rushmore, so named for a prominent New York lawyer who in 1885 was in the Blackhills of S.D. to check the titles for a mining company client. One day he was returning to the mine company’s headquarters with four of its executives, as they neared the large granite mountains soon to bear his name, Rushmore asked one of the passengers what its name was? And the man replied jestingly "Never had any, but it has now, we'll call the thing Rushmore" and that my wonderful readers is part of history The year would be 1923 when South Dakota historian Doane Robinson would think up
Mount Rushmore to promote tourism in the Black Hills Region of S.D. A year later Robinson convinced sculptor Gutzon Borglum to travel there to make certain it could be done. Borglum would abandon the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, Georgia to begin work on the four presidents. The 60 foot heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln would be carved into the Granite Mountain so chosen because of its rock quality composed of smooth fine grained granite which only erodes one inch per 10,000 years, and the fact that it faced the Southeast and enjoyed maximum sun exposure both to aid in construction and for it to be seen by all near and far. Between Oct. 4th. 1927 and Oct. 31st 1941 Borglum and more than 400 workers sculpted the massive granite presidential heads. Situated on the highest peak in the region at 5,725 feet the looming memorial park covers 1,278 acres. Thomas Jefferson was originally to appear to Washington’s right but the rock became unstable and was dynamited clear and was then sculpted to Washington’s left. On July 4th. 1934 Washington’s face was dedicated, then Jefferson’s in 1936 and Abe Lincolns on Sept. 17 1937. In the same year a Congressional bill was introduced to add Susan B. Anthony as a fifth sculpting but hit a funding snag. In 1939 the face of Theodore Roosevelt was dedicated. Gutzon Borglum died from an embolism in March
of 1941, His son Lincoln Borglum finished up the project. It had been intended that the Mount Rushmore presidents would be carved head to waist but lack of funding also ended that idea. The entire project cost $989,992.00 and for such a massive undertaking of stone chiseling, working at heights and with over 450,000 tons of rock dynamited away, no workers died during the carving. Controversy swirled around the heads of our four presidents from the beginning. Native Americans looked poorly on it as the four presidents depicted had all been a big part in annexing Indian Land (including Mount Rushmore). Borglum himself is at the forefront of much controversy as he was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. Over two million visitors a year, many from the Sturgis bike rally have made Doane Robinson’s idea the number one tourist attraction in South Dakota. So there you have it my iron horse riding buddies, an amazing amount of our great nations history lays within hours of what has become the world’s most foremost gathering of people and motorcycles. Have I been? No, but I assure you I will be there one day and it wont have to coincide with that epic first week in the "Dog Days" of August. I’m pretty sure I won’t be bored.........and there should be some very interesting "Ghosts" to have a cocktail with in this uber cool little-big town in the west. Robert "Stumblin In" De Moss
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