Next Stop ~ Purple Pie Place

After completing the check list in Hot Springs, we headed north to the next requested stop - Custer. Our first stop was...

...Purple Pie Place

We were still very content after the Red Shed Smokehouse lunch, but we also know, the choices of pie become slimmer as the day gets shorter.

So we stopped as we drove into town, and ordered our selections to go.

Hubby and I chose Strawberry Rhubarb, and OFD chose the last slice of Banana Cream. In fact, it was the last of their cream pies. We enjoyed the pie later in the evening, and it was just as delicious as lunch. Well worth the stop.

We needed to walk off the pork lunch, so OFD and I checked out the shops and painted buffalo (bison) on the corners of Main Street.

The idea for the painted buffalo came about in 2005 when then Gov. Rounds threw out the 2010 Initiative which challenged communities to come up with ways to broaden economic development in their communities. Concerned Custer citizens realized the need to develop some event that would bring visitors into town for a longer period of time. 

Custer citizens wanted something that would complement the buffalo roundup in Custer State Park held the last Saturday in September. The roundup brings roughly 10,000 people to the area each fall. Bringing people into Custer would be a boost to the town's economy. 

According to my google research, the display of painted bison has done just that as they are mentioned in many travel blogs of Black Hills visitors. We did our part to add to the town's economy!

The sculptures are made of fiberglass with a polyurethane shell. Each sculpture is nearly 8 feet long, 2-1/2 feet wide, and slightly more than 5 feet tall at the hump.

It started as a bison art show, showcasing the talents of 20 artists from SD, MT, WY, ND, NM and NE using a variety of mediums and art forms.

Now there is a herd of sixteen painted bison, half of which migrate from Colleen Hennessy's yard in Custer around Memorial Day weekend to the corners of Main Street. The herd is rounded up and brought back to her yard after the Custer State Park's Buffalo Round-Up.

Hennessy owns many of the herd of statues. Each statue is unique in it's design. Most depict some Black Hills history, story or significance.

my favorite

I liked the mask wearing horses I saw on our way out of town. As an aside, we wore our masks when we were out and about, as did many other people; not all of them, of course, but many of them. Some stores had signs asking everyone to wear a mask. The gift shop at Mt. Rushmore handed them out as you entered the shop, along with a squirt of sanitizer. If we ate out, it usually was outdoors or at a time that wasn't typically a meal time. Some places had a lot of visitors and other places, not so much. Overall, we felt it was a good "second choice" vacation location.

On our way back to the campground, we stopped to see the Crazy Horse Monument.

OFD commented Crazy Horse did not have a nose when she last saw him, so I guess there are changes to the monument. We just don't notice those changes as we see it almost every year.

The end of another day playing tourists in the Black Hills. This was the sunset we enjoyed while enjoying our Purple Pie choices.