A South Dakota Rendezvous: the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Races

Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. A South Dakota Rendezvous: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Races Carlton L. Bonilla The fur trappers of the early nineteenth century were hardy men, spending months isolated from the civilized world. Each summer, however, these aigged individuals gathered at a designated location to trade pelts, garner supplies, and celebrate. Their unique gatherings, known as rendezvous, were spectacular events, bringing together trappers from throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Today, a new breed of frontiersman has appeared, a modern-day "mountain man" who has replaced tlie pinto of the trapper with die "iron horse of Milwaukee"—the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Their gathering takes place each year in Sturgis, South Dakota, with all the grandeur and excitement of the original assemblies. Known variously as the Black Hills Motor Classic, Sturgis Rally and Races, or simply, "Sturgis," the event is the rendezvous of the twentieth century, bringing together people from all over the world for cama- raderie, commerce, and entertainment. The traditional rendezvous began in .1825, when William H. Ashley, a fitr-trade entrepreneur from Saint Louis, took a supply train to the central Rockies after broadcasting the time and place of arrival to trappers in the mountains for months beforehand. Upon reaching his destination, Ash- ley provided the trappers with a year's worth of supplies Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 124 South Dakota History Vol. 28, no. 3 in exchange for their beaver pelts, which he shipped back to Saint Louis to sell at a pn)fit. Tlie rendezvous system increased traders' profit margins by reducing the need for perma- nent fur posts and allowing trappers to work in the mountains year round rather than traveling east to trade. Within a few years, the American Fur Company, Hud- son's Bay Company, Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and smaller concerns began taking supplies west to trade for the trappers' furs. ^ As more men filled the mountains and talk of the rendezvous spread, the event grew in popularity. One observer called it "a general jubilee" as the rendezvous site came to resemble a frontier town, half of whose residents were women and children. While the rendezvous was primarily a commercial activity, it was also a social gathering where "whisky went off as freely as water, . and all kinds of sports were indulged in."^ The Sturgis Rally and Races began in a similar manner. In 1938, J. C. ("Pappy") Hoel, owner of an Indian motorcycle shop in Stui^s, worked widi the local Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club to organize races for motorcycle enthusiasts in die Black Hills of westem Soudi Dakota. Close to eighty attended the first rally and races held at the Sturgis Fair- grounds in August 1938. As the rally grew in popularity, other events were added, including scenic rides through the surrounding pine-covered mountains. From its hum- ble beginnings as depression-era entertainment, Sturgis has blossomed into the world's largest motorcycle rally.-^ Since 1938, the rally and races have taken place every year, with the exception of two years during World War II. In August 1998, the western South Dakota town will l.Fred R. Gowans, Rocky .Mountain Rendezmtis: A Hu;túr:}'nf the Fur Trade Rendezvous, 1825-1840 {LiyUm, Utah: Perej^rine .Smith, 19«5), pp. 12-13, 65, 2. Thomas D. Bonner, Tbe Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Intro,, Notes, and an Epilogue by Delmont R. Oswald (Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press, 1972), p. 75. 3- Gerald Foster, Sturgis: Guide to tbe World's Greatest Motorcycle Rally {Osceola, Wis.; Motorbooks Internationül. 1993). P- 7; Clement .Salvadori, "Sturgis '94; Tlie Tliird Generation " Rider 22 (Feb. 1995)t Ó8. Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. from diit-lrack races drauiiif» hikers un Hurley-Davidson and Indian nuilorcydes (uboi'e), the SturgL^ rally and races quickly grew in ¡xiptilarity In the lS>40s. sponsors added new events like scenic tours of Ihe Black Hills. Below, thejackpine Gypsies assembled on the main street ofSturfiis in 1953 to lead a tour to Mount Rushmore. Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 126 South Dakota History Vol. 28, no. 3 host the event for the fifty-eighth time. Sources estimate that well over two hundred thousand bikers will attend. This number pales, however, when compared to the three hundred thousand bikers who came to the quiet ranching community for the fiftieth anniversary rally in 1990, out- numbering the town's residents by a ratio of fifty-seven to one. In that year, more than half of all Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the United States were assembled at Sairgis. According to one participant, the bikes, if lined up single file, would have fomied a parade 1,057 miles long, the distance from the Missouri River bridge in Kansas City to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.'* like the fur-trade rendezvous, the rally is commercially important to its sponsors, but more importandy, it continues die tradition of the original rendezvous as a unique social gadiering. When people imagine a town full of motorcycle enthusiasts, they conjure images of Hells Angels destroying buildings, kidnapping women, and looting property. Like the biker, the fur trapper or mountain man before him was labeled a coarse individual, both unintelligent and dangerous. The image arose from a distinct group of individuals known as free trappers. These men "prided dieinselves on their hardiliood anci courage; even on ¿leir recklessness and profligacy," wrote Frances Fuller Victor in her biogra- phy of the famous trapper Joe Meek. The free trapper, who owed loyalty to no company, "took what route he thought fit, hunted and trapped when and where he chose."^ The free trapper was not necessarily representative of the group, however, and the mountain man's reputation was not always deserved. Most trappers had company allegiances and worked with a brigade under a company lieutenant. "Even the rudest and most boisterous of the 4. Beau Allen Pacheco, "Sturgis at 50: It's Un believable!." Rider 17 CDec. 1990): 34. 5. Frances Fuller Victor, 7i?e River of the West: The Adventures of Joe Meek, Z vol.s. (Mis- la, Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing, 1983), 1:50. Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Fall 1998 South Dakota Rendezvous 127 mountain men were fundamentally honest, just and kind," noted fiir-trade historian Robert Glass Cleland.*' In My Sixty Years on the Plains, W. T Hamilton observed, "It was always amusing to me to hear people from the East speak of old mountaineers as semi-barbarians, when as a general rule they were the peers of the Easterners in general knowledge."'^ Historian William H. Goetzmann has argued that the mountain men were actually civilizers of the West. Rather than being social misfits, these men typified the enterprising capitalists of their era. By seeking their fortunes in the West, they helped to pave the way for American settlers and institutions and to influence nation- al policy toward the region.^ The motorcyclists of today have inherited myths similar to those of the trappers. From Marlon Brando's The Wild Ones to Brian Bosworth's Stone Cold and Charlie Sheen's Beyond the Law, Hollywood has led us to believe that bikers are dangerous. This image is personified in the outlaw biker, the "One Percenter." The term arose in the 1960s, when the American Motorcyclist AsscKiation sought to counter tlie bikers unsavory reputation with the idea tliat 99 percent of all motorcyclists rode for recreation and resem- bled the people next door: clean, wholesome, and hard- working. The biker gangs latched on to the concept and began identifying themselves as members of the remain- ing 1 percent. Belonging to motorcycle clubs such as the Hell's Angels, Sons of Silence, Bandidos, and Pagans, the One Percenter occupies the periphery of'•normal" society, often relying on intimidation and crime to cement his image. These individuals allow nothing to stand in the way of freedom and adventure. They make their presence known at Sturgis by wearing their colors and distinctive 6. Roben Gla.ss Cleland. This Reckless Breed of Men: The Imppeis and Fur Traders of the Sauthu^st <New \brk: Altk-d A. Knopf. iy63), p. 51. 7. Quoted ibid.. p. 5ü. 8. William H. Goeizinann, Exploration and Empire.- The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American lPi-.s(<New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), pp. l{)6-9- Copyright © 1998 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 128 South Dakota History Vol. 28. no. 3 One Percenter patches on denim vests and black leather jackets, and they almost always travel in packs. But they make up a minority of those in attendance, and the tone of the rally is calm, Sturgis has long been considered neu- tral territory, where opposing gangs put grievances aside in deference to the party atmosphere.'' Even though popular myth portrays motorcycle enthusiasts as outlaws, one writer discovered that, in tmth, "99% of the bikers at Sturgis turned out to be very much like the people next door."'" A survey conducted by Black Hills State University during the fifty-second annual rally in 1992 backed the writer's conclusion with hard figures. Two-thirds of survey respondents were between thirty- one and fifty years of age, and 57 percent were married. Just over one quarter had college degrees. The respondents' incomes averaged around thirty-five thousand dol- lars a year.

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