BLACK HILLS PIONEER | 2020 Visitspearfish.Com 1 Spearfish
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BLACK HILLS PIONEER | 2020 visitspearfish.com 1 Spearfish... Adventure abounds; find yours! This magazine presents only a small portion of the treasures waiting to be discovered by our visitors year-round. We look forward to seeing you in town; we will be sure to offer you a warm welcome. Mistie Caldwell Executive Director, Visit Spearfish, Inc. Bicycling ................................................................................... 42-43 Birdwatching ................................................................................. 25 Black Hills State University Activities ............................................ 56 INDEX Camping ........................................................................................ 47 Climbing ................................................................................... 28-29 D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery ........................................... 19-21 Dining in Spearfish ................................................................... 60-61 Disc Golf ........................................................................................ 40 Downtown Spearfish ..............................................................12 &13 Fall Colors ..................................................................................... 39 Fishing ........................................................................................... 54 Golfing ........................................................................................... 49 Geocaching ................................................................................... 46 Group Event Planning ................................................................... 57 High Plains Western Heritage Center ........................................... 23 Hunting ......................................................................................... 55 Lodging in Spearfish ..................................................................... 58 Marathons ..................................................................................... 45 The above photos were submitted by readers inspired Matthews Opera House and Arts Center ................................ 15-17 by the beauty and community of Spearfish. Motorcycle Riding ......................................................................... 27 If you have a Spearfish photo you’d like to share, Nightlife in Spearfish ..................................................................... 62 please remember to tag Visit Spearfish! Off-Road/UHV Trail System ........................................................... 41 Outdoor Lifestyle ......................................................................6 & 7 Parks & Recreation ........................................................................ 52 #SpearfishSD #SpearfishCanyon #HiFromSD #VisitSpearfish Snowmobiling ................................................................................ 31 Spearfish Area Hiking ............................................................10 & 11 Welcome to Spearfish is a special publication of Spearfish Canyon Self Guided Tour & Map ............................. 33-35 the Black Hills Pioneer in cooperation with Spearfish Community Map ....................................................66 & 67 Visit Spearfish. © 2020 Black Hills Pioneer Spearfish Creek ............................................................................... 9 For more information about items in this publication: Spearfish Introduction ...............................................................4 & 5 Visit Spearfish • 603 N. Main St., Spearfish, SD Spearfish Sasquatch: Expedition League Baseball........................ 48 (605) 717-9294 • www.visitspearfish.com Waterfalls of Spearfish Canyon ..................................................... 36 Produced and published by: Waterpark ...................................................................................... 53 Winter Sports ................................................................................ 30 BLACK HILLS PIONEER Worship in Spearfish ...................................................................... 63 14 4 315 Seaton Cir., Spearfish, SD 57783 YEARS Visitor Information ......................................................................... 64 Since 1876 (605) 642-2761 • www.bhpioneer.com A special thank you to photographers Les Heiserman and Heidi Watson for their contributions to this publication. Publisher: Letti Lister; Editor: Mark Watson; Layout: Melissa Barnett; Front cover photo (main) - Allen Meyer Photography; Smaller photos (L-R) - Les Heiserman, SD Tourism, Jake Servaty; Back cover photo (main) - Les Heiserman; Smaller photos - SD Tourism 2 visitspearfish.com Photo by Heidi Watson/Watson Photography SPEARFISH by the numbers THE Spearfish is known as “The Queen City.” There are three peaks surrounding the valley that form the crown: Lookout Mounain to QUEEN the east; Spearfish Mountain to the CITY south; Crow Peak to the west. ELEVATION TALLEST 3,640 ft PEAK (1,109.47 m) 5,760 ft (1,700m) CROW PEAK Did you know? Spearfish Creek is one of the only bodies of water in POPULATION the world that freeze from 15,105 the bottom up? CITY REC. PATH PRECIPITATION (YEARLY AVERAGE) 7.4 mi. (11.9km) 22” 40” rain snow SPEARFISH CANYON AREA HIKING 70” TRAILS snow over 50 mi. (80.4km) TEMPERATURE (DAILY AVERAGE) SPEARFISH CANYON SUMMER 78˚F 19 mi. WINTER 40˚F (30.5km) Spearfish holds the world record for fastest recorded temperature change. It was set in 1943 when a 49˚ temperature swing occured in just two minutes. Photo by John Mitchell visitspearfish.com 3 SPEARFISH Its natural setting connects to its colorful history BY PAUL HIGBEE falls, towering spruces, Ponderosa pines, anywhere in sight. After the town of FOR THE BLACK HILLS PIONEER aspens, birches, burdocks and box Spearfish took root that same year, To say nature awaits you in Spearfish elders. One-hundred-thirty bird species Toomey harnessed the creek’s water is an understatement. Nature asserts call the canyon home, including eagles power and built a flour mill. The mill itself here, grabs you by the senses, and that glide the gorge’s wind currents, remained a successful Spearfish indus- in some cases never lets go. and dippers that submerge themselves try far into the 20th century. Also eye- It gets into your blood by way of in the creek to feed on aquatic bugs. A ing the creek for the first time in 1876 pine-scented breezes, bugling elk, the good place to experience this abundant was Irish-born Robert Evans, a self- feel of icy creek waters numbing your nature in full glory can be found next to taught engineer who devised a means feet on hot summer days, and silvery Spearfish Canyon Lodge, 13 miles up of irrigating the wide valley where moonrises that turn Lookout Mountain the Canyon highway from Spearfish. Spearfish sits. He and friends dug an aglow. From the lodge, two easy hikes along ingenious web of irrigation ditches and Nature surrounds Spearfish, but it the Canyon floor lead you to Rough- correctly calculated that the valley’s seems to flow especially from Spearfish lock Falls and Spearfish Falls. A more steep drop to the north would carry Canyon, a deep gorge descending from strenuous hike brings you to the high water to distant fields. Robert Evans the northern-most reach of the Black rim at Buzzard’s Roost. and his wife, Rebecca, Spearfish’s first Hills. Also flowing from Spearfish Spearfish Creek created this setting teacher, grew grains and fruits not only Canyon is Spearfish Creek, a mighty over millions of years, and it has also for Spearfish, but for Black Hills towns 40-mile mountain stream that drops splashed its way through human history in high, rocky locations where farming 3,000 feet over its short course. in recent centuries. Flowing strong even was next to impossible. The creek carved Spearfish Canyon, in the driest years, the creek drew plains In 1893 railroad tracks were built a place of high limestone cliffs, water- natives who regularly camped along alongside the creek in hopes that min- its low banks. Brooklyn-born Daniel ing would develop in the Canyon, and Toomey traveled west to hunt buffalo in 1899, a federal trout hatchery took and first saw Spearfish Creek in May, form along the water on Spearfish’s 1876, with no man-made structures south side. The hatchery pro- Photo by Heidi Watson/Watson Photography 4 visitspearfish.com duced trout for sportsmen not only in 1933 flood. After 125 years, Homestake the Black Hills, but across the West. dug out its last gold in 2001. But the Early in the 20th century, Spear- creekside fish hatchery is now the ar- But how is it that I’ve heard so fish Creek made possible one of the chival, interpretive and educational site little of this “miracle and we, great American engineering projects for the entire federal fisheries program. toward the Atlantic, have heard so of the era. Homestake Gold Mine The Homestake power plants still stand much of the Grand Canyon when of Lead built two hydroelectric pow- in tribute to the great mine and the one this is even more miraculous. er plants in the Canyon and another in Spearfish produces some power for All the better eventually ... on Spearfish’s southern edge, for the the community. Robert Evans’ irriga- that the Dakotas are not on the purpose of bringing electricity to its tion system works today as well as it through line to the Coast ... mine. Homestake’s success turned the did 140 years ago and keeps Spearfish mine into the western hemisphere’s