The Black Hills of South Dakota are a beautiful sight to see, and for me they hold a long family history. I was hoping to find the general area where my Grandmother had lived in a cabin in Spearfish Canyon 60 plus years ago, with little knowledge about where that would be. We stopped at a S.D. visitor's center to use the bathroom before heading into Spearfish and then the Hills. What a nice surprise when one of the volunteers behind the desk asked me if I had any questions she could answer. I paused and replied...'Yes"! Have you ever heard of the town of Elmore. I heard it is a ghost town now, but I could not find exactly where it was located." She took a map, and showed me where to find it. She let me know it was just summer homes now, but the sign for the town was still up. So off we went.
Highway through Spearfish canyon
View point at Bridal Falls
The Black Hills are so amazing, Spearfish Canyon being created by the creek that runs swiftly through it. The highway follows the creek, and we enjoyed stopping to take in the sights along the way. Joel decided it was his favorite place in all our travels. Eventually we came near the end, and I was thinking we had somehow missed the Elmore sign when up it popped. Elmore!
We stopped to take it all in the history, the beauty, the legacy............my grandmother did not live in town, she lived alone up against a hill in a cabin with no running water, just a well out front. There are stories told of when my mom and oldest sister stayed there and coyotes were scratching at the door to get in. And the time a bear was trying to enter and my grandmother shined a light in his face and yelled at the top of her lungs, scaring him away. It took a lot of courage to live alone in such rugged country. The beauty was almost overwhelming. We absolutely loved it!
My grandmother Laura Lou standing by her well
at the cabin she lived in
up against a hill.
This was before I was born.
She was born in 1880 and died
in 1950 when I was two years old.
A couple of side notes......Much of my childhood is locked away in a vault somewhere in my head, so It often rely on my older sisters to fill me in. Finding the area where my grandmother lived gave me pause and I felt some deep connection that led us to Minnesota to her grave before going home after our trip. I had asked my sisters for any info they had on this part of our history and was given two names. One was "Whispering Pines" of which I found nothing, and the other was "Elmore", a town that no longer existed. Unbeknownst to me, my sister Jan, who lives part time in South Dakota, had been to Spearfish Canyon and the Elmore area just a few weeks before we were there! She knew where it was, but do to a lack of communication ("What we have here is a failure to communicate!") somewhere, we did not discuss this in our texts. I am grateful God sent me to the right person who was able to direct me to the right part of the canyon!
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