FSB Travelers Tour South Dakota

Jerri McBay, Paula Wade, Anna Steele, Annette Brannan, Loy Newberry, Doris Casey, Mozelle Mayes, Aline Sanderson all enjoying the visit to Mt. Rushmore as part of their tour of South Dakota. While the number one goal for most travelers was to see Mt. Rushmore, everyone learned there were many more sites to explore and enjoy.

The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary is 13,000 acres where hundreds of wild horses can roam in freedom. This fact is all due to Dayton Hyde who began working in 1988 to secure a preserve for these horses. The travelers had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hyde at the end of the tour of the sanctuary.

The ride on the 1880's steam engine allowed the group to experience riding the rails as Americans did in the late 19th Century in search of a new future.

The entire city of Deadwood is a national historic landmark. Gold, gambling and gunpowder were the three key ingredients that created this town in 1876. The travelers saw several locations that claim to be the very spot where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. A tour of the town included a trip to Mount Moriah Cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried.

A visit to TaTanka, Kevin Costner's "Story of the Bison," was enjoyed by all. Melissa Two Crows, a member of the Lakota tribe, introduced the listeners to some history of her ancestors and guided everyone through the grounds which included a tepee showing how her people lived in years past and sculptures of a buffalo hunt.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest sculpture still in progress. The projected completion date is 2074. The film that visitors watch as they enter the cultural center introduces them to the background of the memorial and its importance to our history.

The rock formations on the Needle Highway, tours of Custer State Park and Badlands National Park allowed the visitors to witness the diversity in the countryside of South Dakota. The travelers experienced riding on a bus through a tunnel with about six inches clearance on each side, being close enough to buffalo to almost reach out of the vehicle and touch them, and understand where the area called "Badlands" got its name.

Walking down the Presidential Trail and seeing President George Washington, President Thomas Jefferson, President Theodore Roosevelt, and President Abraham Lincoln carved into a mountain was the true highlight of the tour. "A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated. We are not here trying to carve an epic, portray a moonlight scene, or write a sonnet; neither are we dealing with mystery or tragedy, but rather the constructive and dramatic moments or crises in our amazing history," reports Gutzon Borglum who is the sculptor responsible for the planning and carving of the monument.

Those who participated in this tour are: Annette Brannan from Groesbeck, Anna Steele from Marlin, Aline Sanderson from Mexia, Mozelle Mayes from Coolidge, Doris Casey, Loy Newberry, Paula Wade, and Jerri McBay from Fairfield.

FSB Travelers is a travel group whose members are customers of The Farmers State Bank located in Groesbeck, Thornton, Wortham, Mexia, Fairfield, Kosse, and Jewett. The travel coordinator is Jerri McBay from Fairfield. The September trip will be to hear the Vocal Majority in Richardson, and the October trip will be a shopping adventure to Grapevine Mills.