Belle Fourche
We retire early on the night of the third and are on the road early the
next morning, headed for Belle Fourche over U. S. 16. At Whitewood we go
over another gigantic ridge of hills which taxes our heavily loaded car.
At Spearfish we take U. S. 85 and gradually leave the mountains for the
more level northern plains.
We arrive in a very busy Belle Fourche. The streets are lined with
people, refreshment stands, side shows and various other gala sights.
Parking room is scarce. The whole town reflects the western spirit. The
predominating costume is that of the cowboy dressed up. Broad rimmed,
high crowned hats and bright silk neckerchiefs are everywhere.
[Illustration: President Coolidge at the Roundup
Rise Studio, Rapid City, S. D.]
Probably a Scotch visitor would not exactly appreciate the reception.
The Roundup is a gala affair. The people come there to spend money.
Those running the various amusements and refreshment stands seem to
understand this perfectly and render all possible assistance. In the
West the celebrations are not marked with the conservatism of the East.
We enjoy the day after we get our bearings. We have lunch after a couple
of hours of “seeing Belle” and then go out to the Roundup. The road is
packed; we have started none too soon. True to the training of school
teachers, we try to conserve on costs as much as possible. We have paid
a dollar apiece for general admission and now we decide a fifty cent
seat will be nearly as good as one for a dollar or more.
[Illustration: An Exciting Ride
Bill Pawley on a high one.
Cody Stampede, 1921]
We get excellent bleacher seats, but somehow they get surprisingly hard
during the three hours and over that we sit there. The sun is
uncomfortably hot and the folks climbing up and down are none too
careful at whose expenses they get the dust brushed from their shoes. We
can not see the events very plainly in some cases, but we are not
cheated out of very much of the performance at that.
The clown car opens the day. Of course it is a Ford. But the clown has
done his duty and the affair brings forth more than forced smiles. The
Rapid City Bugle Corps, the Cavalry Band (mounted) from Fort Meade, and
the C. & N. W. Band from Chicago are outstanding attractions.
The cow pony race comes next, then roping and the cowboy relay. Those
cowboys can certainly change saddles from one pony to another in a hurry
and also ride. Following this comes exhibitions in horseback hurdling by
cavalrymen. Then comes a contest of cowboys riding steers. The man who
stays with his steer longest wins. Some of those fellows get pretty hard
spills. The broncho riding contest is just as lively. The horses try
hard enough to unseat their riders and many of them succeed. The clown,
in enormous red “Shaps,” rides a bucking steer upon which he is mounted
backward.
[Illustration: Steer riding]
The cowgirl race is a close one, the winner almost having to win by the
proverbial sticking out of the horse’s tongue.
After this comes stunt riding and trick riding. The men, and women, too,
ride at a gallop doing head stands on the saddle, standing upright, at
right angles to the horse, clinging beneath the horse’s neck, seated
backward and in various other ways. They do gymnastics on the horses in
full gallop. One juggles balls in the air while riding, standing on the
saddle at full gallop. One lies on his back whirling a rope while the
horse beneath him runs. The clown rides a bucking Missouri mule.
[Illustration: The Horse Wins
Dug Walker off Ripvanwinkle
White River Frontier Days
O’Neill Photo]
For deviation, songs are sung amplified so that the crowd can hear them.
One is “Black Hills Rosebud.” Governor Bulow gives a short talk, too.
Bulldogging steers, or riding up beside them, grasping them by the
horns, at full run, dismounting and throwing them upon their backs seems
to be the most popular sport. The record time is under nine seconds.
The cowgirl relay is another exciting event. A cowgirl then puts on a
highly applauded solo dance. After this comes the calf roping contest.
This calls for real action. Riders, mounted on two horses, one foot on
each, furnished the next race. One girl is entered.
[Illustration: Orman Dam, Belle Fourche]
Mabel Strickland, famous woman rider, puts on a steer roping exhibition
and the bucking mule riding contest follows. Then comes the wild horse
race. During the whole performance Clyde Ice of the Rapid Transit Co. is
hovering over the fairgrounds with his tri-motored Ford passenger plane.
The last event is an exhibition by one of the girls riding a bucking
horse. The horse throws the young lady before leaving the corral shute.
Accidents occasionally occur in this rough play, though they are rarely
fatal. All in all, the performance is very good.
[Illustration: U. and I. Sugar Plant, Belle Fourche, South Dakota
O’Neill Photo
This is one of the large plants for making sugar from beets located in
the midwestern states. This plant is supplied with beets from the Belle
Fourche Valley, irrigated from the great irrigation project administered
by the United States Government, and located north of Belle Fourche.
Needless to say this is one of the major industries of this part of the
state.]
After the program there are twenty thousand people trying to leave the
grounds at once and soon after the roads from Belle Fourche receive a
goodly share of these people. We follow the southbound stream as far as
the tourist camp, a mile or two out.
Belle Fourche has a modern camp, although it is just in the process of
construction and not yet as complete as some of the others. They have an
outdoor dance floor, which is very popular on the night of the Fourth.
The morning of the fifth we drive back through Belle Fourche and east
over U. S. Highway 212 to the “U. and I.” sugar plant. This is another
of the Black Hills industries. We are given a pamphlet telling us that:
the plant covers eight acres; the main building is five stories high;
the length of the factory and warehouse is 587 feet; the capacity is
fifteen hundred tons of beets each twenty-four hours, and the output
3600 hundred pound bags of sugar every day. Three hundred men are
employed during refining season.
A guide takes us through. We first see six 400 horsepower boilers and
two 1200 horsepower generators. These are enormous affairs. They develop
the power for the plant. We proceed to the place where the beets are
unloaded and conveyed through an open flume, through a trash catcher to
the washer.
[Illustration: Spillway, Orman Dam]
From here the beets are taken by an elevator to the top of the plant.
There knives cut them into small strings less than a half inch in
diameter. These chips or “spaghetti” are run into diffusion tanks. They
first go to a liming station, then through sulfur stoves, a bleaching
process and on into evaporating tanks. Here the solution is concentrated
from 12 per cent sugar to 65 per cent pure. Then the sugar is put
through a centrifugal crystalizer and through a hot air blast dryer. It
takes just twenty-four hours from beets to sugar. All machinery is
electric.
The factory produced 183,000 bags of sugar last year or over eighteen
million pounds. About one-fourth of this is in the warehouse when we
visit it. The beets were grown on 11,000 acres in 1927 and the total
crop was 35,000 tons of beets.
[Illustration: An Irrigation Canal]
We go further east on the highway 212 to the byroad leading north to
Orman Dam. The dam is a gigantic affair, holding back a tremendous
amount of water for use in irrigating land for sugar beets and other
crops. The water is so clear that we can see the fish swimming beneath
its surface.
The Belle Fourche Reclamation Project is one of the wonders of the
western part of South Dakota. It is not in the “Hills” proper, but is
well worth going to see. We drive on to Nisland, observing the effects
of irrigation as we go.