Center of the Nation

Monday, July 20, 2020 – Custer State Park, SD to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

Time to relocate. After “one-nighters” the first two nights of this trip, it was nice to set up camp and leave it up for a couple of days this time. But, alas, it was time to move on. It took a little longer than usual since everything was wet, but I was still happy that we were dry. I am really happy with our tent.

Our campground at Custer State Park was ¼ mile down the road from the Game Lodge, which was Calvin Coolidge’s Summer White House in 1927. Dwight Eisenhower also stayed there while he was President.

The Coolidge’s arrived with an entourage that included two collies and a pet raccoon.  The executive offices were set up in the high school of nearby Rapid City. The President enjoyed hiking and fishing while in South Dakota. He was presented with a complete cowboy outfit, including a ten gallon hat, neckerchief, chaps, boots and spurs for his birthday. He routinely changed into his cowboy outfit after his work day was finished.

Before we hit the road we stopped in the lodge to have a look around. It’s a guest lodge now and has been expanded with a wing of hotel rooms, a dining area, and the obligatory gift shop. But the original building is intact with the lobby area, few historical guest rooms, and a nice little bar. It is a beautiful old building like so many park lodges of the early 1900s. Beautiful, but smaller and simpler than something you would think of as “Presidential” today. Game Lodge

We were in search of a good, hearty breakfast and found it in Custer at Baker’s Bakery and Café. We avoided the donuts and other sweet treats in their bakery case and got a table in the café where we enjoyed a stack of pancakes. Baker’s Bakery

Fueled with pancakes, we started heading north. We stopped at Pactola Lake, passed through Deadwood, and made our first grocery stop of the trip at the Wal Mart in Spearfish, SD. As we approached Belle Fourche, SD we started seeing signs for the “Geographic Center of the Nation Monument”, so of course we had to stop. With the addition of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959, the geographic center of the United States moved from Lebanon, KS to Belle Fourche, SD. Well, not really Belle Fourche, SD. It’s actually in a field about 20 miles northeast of Belle Fourche, but Belle Fourche is the closest town and they are making the most of it. They have a monument in a park right off the highway, a visitor center, and of course, a gift shop where I assume you can buy a Center of the Nation T-shirt. We didn’t feel the need to enter the gift shop, so I can’t confirm the T-shirt availability. It was an interesting stop, but we didn’t take the 20-mile detour to visit the actual geographic center. It seems that few do – most are content with knowing they were that close. Center of the Nation

Eventually we arrived at Medora, ND, the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We stopped at the visitor center to pick up a map and get oriented for the next few days, then went on to set up camp. The campgrounds in the National Park were closed, so we had a reservation at Sully Creek State Park, about 2 miles away. We had a very nice, shady, and secluded campsite. There are not a lot of woods and trees on the North Dakota plains, but Sully Creek State Park is on the bank of the Little Missouri River and our campsite was in a stand of cedar trees near the river. The Maah Daah Hey Trail follows the Little Missouri and runs through the park. It is a popular trail with mountain bikers and equestrians, and both use the campground extensively. It was nice to walk by the equestrian campsites and see the horses in their corrals. Sully Creek was a great home base for the next few days. Sully Creek State Park.