Rockerville

I remember a stop in Rockerville, SD in May 1968. My senior class and our chaperones spent a little time walking along the boardwalk, shopping for trinkets, maybe buying an ice cream cone. A stagecoach with attached horses stood in the street waiting for tourists to purchase a ride. None of us did, but I have a photo in an album of the stage coach and horses.

According to Wikipedia: 
It was a tourist town in the 1950s and 1960s, because of its key location on US Highway 16 between Rapid City and Mount Rushmore National Memorial, with a variety of tourist attractions, including a "Mellerdrammer" (Mellodrama) live theatre, a "Ghosttown" of various buildings with tourist shops and small amusements, "It's a Small World" Museum (featuring an 1880 Tiny Town model and other miniature collections), a motel, campgrounds and RV parks. However, in the conversion of US Highway 16 to four-lanes in the mid-1960s, the original townsite was placed literally between the two separate roadways, as there was no way to widen the original highway through the town without completely destroying it. Despite the construction of at least three exits into the town from both directions, the town virtually died because travelers on their way to and from Mount Rushmore never saw the town when whizzing past at 55 mph. Every business closed, and many remain abandoned to this day, although the "Gaslight Saloon" remains a local restaurant and attraction.

Since reconnecting with a cousin of Hubbys while at Hart Ranch the last few years, the four of us often drove the few miles to Rockerville to eat at the Gaslight Saloon & Restaurant. The food was good and the service was good and we were always seated right away. 

We heard from friends on Monday evening about a fire in Rockerville. On Tuesday we drove through Rockerville to find a geocache. Indeed, there was a fire.

Several firefighters and a truck were there monitoring the 

smoldering remains of The Gaslight Saloon & Restaurant,

the ONLY remaining business in the Ghost Town.

Originally established as a mining camp, it was named for the "rockers" which were used to separate placer gold from stream gravel. - Wikipedia

Very ghost-like

Rockerville was a booming mining camp in the 1870’s. The town consisted of 100 buildings and 800 -1000 citzens in 1880. The camp’s name came from the cradle-like wooden rocker used to collect gold flakes found in the gravels and soil. The Black Hills Placer Mining Company built a 17 mile wooden flume to direct water from Spring Creek to this dry gulch in 1878. It cost close to $300,000 and leaked so badly that manure was used daily to help seal the leaks. When the placer mines played out the miners moved on and the flume was abandoned. Rockerville was probably a tourist attraction longer than it was known for it’s gold rush.

In 1968 the stagecoach & horses were in front of 

this now abandoned building.

Even though there wasn't much left to the community,

it is sad the one prosperous business is now gone.

People without jobs.

Locals without a hangout.

No more meals at The Gaslight Restaurant & Saloon.

~Ghost Town~