Mobridge

 At age 92 my Mom is no longer driving the distances she used to drive, so when we stayed with her last week, we took her for a drive to the community she often visited for appointments and groceries. Some new geocaches had been placed in Mobridge since we last visited and an Adventure Lab was placed by our friend ruthav. Mom has gone along with us on some road trips when we have stopped to geocache. We thought it might be a fun outing for her as she might see things she has not seen in Mobridge.

I had read about the John Lopez fish sculpture in Mobridge. I finally got to see it. You can read about his sculptures and how sculpting from metal scraps became his passion. John Lopez

Jeremiah Smith Monument

An interesting story about Smith not on the plaque:

"Smith and his party were the first Euro-Americans to explore the southern Black Hills, in present-day South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. While looking for the Crow tribe to obtain fresh horses and get westward directions, Smith was attacked by a large grizzly bear. Smith was tackled to the ground by the grizzly, breaking his ribs. Members of his party witnessed him fight the bear, which ripped open his side with its claws and took his head in its mouth. When the bear retreated, Smith's men ran to help him. They found his scalp and ear ripped off, but he convinced a friend, Jim Clyman, to sew it loosely back on, giving him directions. The trappers fetched water, bound up his broken ribs, and cleaned his wounds. After recuperating from his bloody wounds and broken ribs, Smith wore his hair long to cover the large scar from his eyebrow to his ear. The only known portrait of Jedediah Smith, painted after his death in 1831, showed the long hair he wore over the side of his head, to hide his scars." ~ Wikipedia

The first bridge across the Missouri River at this location opened in 1924, but the building of the Oahe Dam in the late 1950s would flood the original bridge connecting East River and West River in the northern part of the state. The building of the dams along the Missouri would actually flood and destroy 5 other bridges built in the 1920s. The current bridge was opened in 1959 and rebuilt in 1980.

Sacajawea and child

Sacajawea Monument across the river

near the Sitting Bull Monument

"After his death in 1890 in a shootout with Indian police at his home on the Grand River, Sitting Bull's body was buried at Fort Yates on the North Dakota end of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation." 

"Tatanka Iyotaka, better known by the English translation Sitting Bull, was a Hunkpapa Teton spiritual leader who organized a concerted resistance movement to United States expansion on the treaty-reserved lands of the Lakota in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Years after he surrendered to the United States in 1881, Sitting Bull was shot to death December 15, 1890, by Indian police executing an arrest warrant issued by Indian Agent James McLaughlin to prevent the Lakota icon from attending a Ghost Dance revivalist ceremony.

Sitting Bull was originally buried at Fort Yates, but a group of businessmen from Mobridge, South Dakota, endeavored in the 1950s to move the gravesite to their town to attract tourists. They obtained the support of the son of one of the Indian police officers who arrested Sitting Bull, Clarence Grey Eagle, who was also a relative by marriage of the Lakota leader. Although the Fort Yates gravesite had been woefully neglected by the state, North Dakota officials refused to allow the expatriation of the remains. The South Dakotans then obtained an opinion from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the descendants of Sitting Bull should determine his final burial site. On April 8, 1953, the South Dakotans used the BIA letter as justification for sending a team of men to dig up Sitting Bull's bones.

Less than five months later, South Dakota dedicated a memorial to Sitting Bull on the site of the relocated remains, sparking a long-running controversy between the two Dakotas and among competing memory groups, including descendants of Sitting Bull. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski agreed to create the memorial only after a heated argument over the exploitation of Native Americans, the consent to the project of Sitting Bull's heirs, and a commitment not to exploit the monument as a tourist site. Creating further controversy, the artist boycotted the dedication of the monument because he felt that South Dakota Governor Sigurd Anderson was exploiting the ceremony for political gain.

The monument at Mobridge now stands on a hill overlooking the Missouri River, the bust of Sitting Bull resting atop a nine-foot pillar of granite. The statue is in an isolated area that, while serene and impressive, has suffered from both neglect and vandalism. A competing monument at Fort Yates, a boulder on a platform with a large plaque on the side, was built in an attempt by North Dakota to reclaim part of Sitting Bull's memory. It has since been turned over to the Standing Rock Reservation for management.

The Mobridge site was purchased in 2005 by the Sitting Bull Monument Foundation, which launched a $12.7 million fundraising campaign to create a more fitting memorial. After a life and death marked by controversy and conflict, Sitting Bull's final resting place thus became equally contentious as a result of competition between different memory groups. It seems that at last, both monuments are in the hands of those who genuinely wish to maintain Tatanka Iyotaka's historical legacy."--Research by Curtis Johnson, HIST 489, NDSU, Spring 2007

There may have been a huge fund raising to develop the area, but I can tell you it looks no different than it did in 2013 when I last visited the Sitting Bull Monument. It is a sadly neglected area with a beautiful view of rolling grass covered hills on the west side of the Missouri River, near his original home area.

Sitting Bull's view of the river

I was thrilled to see all the green grass covered hills in late September. It along with the bright blue water and the blue sky just filled my soul.

some horses along the road to the monuments

another group of horses farther north

at least there is signage

another view of the Highway 12 bridge

Because of the Adventure Lab (geocaching) I saw some things in Mobridge I did not know about prior to our visit. It was a good day for all of us. 

Pre-Fall or September before the 20th

 Book club discussions, coffee dates, chiropractic appointments, dermatology appointments, soccer games, and a wee bit of geocaching. And rest and recovery from the three week camping and caching adventure. That was the sum of the first three weeks of September. 

M's soccer games

he had three games

Hubby and I were each awarded an opportunity to create another Adventure Lab for geocaching. We each had already had two; his in Watertown and Florence AZ and mine in Sioux Falls and Superior AZ. We knew area geocachers would also be awarded another AL, so we quickly decided on our locations and began creating.

I chose De Smet, Little Town on the Prairie and home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. It was a rainy dreary day for our visit to town. My photos are not some of my best, because of Mother Nature. I chose 5 locations important to Laura and the town.

The House that Pa Built

roadside advertising

Hubby chose Brookings as the location for his five Adventure Lab stops.

it rained all afternoon

the SDSU flower bed needs some TLC

We made a second trip to the communities a week later, but it rained that day,  too! So colorless sky photos it is! Both Adventure Labs are active and ready for geocachers.

Miss W had a couple of soccer games

more games for each of them next month

Wall Lake

our first visit

for a couple of geocaches

enjoyed  the walk to the cache

signs of fall

Gilby Gone Wild

 I chose this particular weekend for our road trip to Gilby because the community was hosting their second Gilby Gone Wild event. I knew of the event last year but it wasn't until I had visited with a group of the organizers (at the MINGO event in May in Kansas) it became the September road trip for 2021. Hubby was skeptical of another road trip to northeast North Dakota, but I know he is willing to return next year. He had so much fun and met so many cachers he knew. 

okay, but how do you open it????

Factory Outlet

my other favorite cache on this trip

a post with lettered outlets on all 3 sides

and several electrical cords with plug-ins

it didn't take Hubby long to figure out what to do 

and...

the platform rose and the log book appeared in a plastic container

a Gilby farmer creates spinning metal works

and free standing metal sculptures

this one is for you Sherry & Jon

metal works of all kinds for sale

some horses near the road on another farm

Little Strong Man

no pounding necessary

hmmmm...how to open

this group had gathered at Strike Zone which wasn't working

we supplied the ladder to climb the tree trunk to reach the lever

that released the container when hit with the attached softball on a wire

the wire cables had a few kinks which were 'unkinked' with a pliers

it worked when we all left

town mural

some of the city park signage

cachers gathering for the group photo and raffle prizes

the schedule for the day

The Gilby community has a new community center; a place to gather for coffee or play games or cards, to socialize with others in the community. They (folks from the community) offered a $10 lunch of hamburger or hot dog, salad, chips, soda, and a cookie. It was so appreciated because there is NOWHERE to get food for miles and miles. (The bar did have toaster oven pizza which we did eat on Friday.) The cost for lunch was a fund raiser for the community which supports all the geocachers who come to visit.

cachers from CA, WA, ME

and places between

most were from the tri-state area

no Canadians this year

however, they did gather on their side 

of the border for a group photo

event host Trycacheus on the left and right-hand man on the right

vivacious helper Ariel in the middle

most of the crowd for the group photo

drone photo of the Gilby Gone Wild gathering

Hubby's door prize win

wireless water resistant speaker

my first raffle drawing win

my second raffle ticket win

a great haul of caching tools

in a very awesome bag

just one of about 20 raffle prizes

the Gilby Gone Wild geo-coin

back side

It was a great event gathering. The small community out in the country meant we were not fighting traffic or crowds. The 150-200 attendees (maybe more) was just the right size. If we saw somebody we knew, it was easy to find them and chat. We met folks from Facebook groups I follow. One of the attendees had attended one of my Watertown geocaching events in August 2016. I remembered him because he was from San Diego visiting his sons in Britton SD. We visited with geo friends from MN and our caching family from Sioux Falls, and friends from Aberdeen (the two Adventure Labs we completed last week in Aberdeen and Mobridge). The Fargo/Moorhead and Grand Forks geocaching community are so supportive of the event as is the community of Gilby. I, like our host Trycacheus, hope it doesn't become a MEGA event.