The Berger Family Album

South Dakota



Mandy the Wonder Dog

Alex wrote:

My dog's name is Mandy. She is so smart that she can almost talk if she was human she would play in many dramatic plays. She is the size of a coyote but much prettier. Her hair is a silky black. Her nose is as black as a moonless night It feels like a newly bought sponge but looks like ostrich skin. She has a white stripe on her nose like you would find on a brand new race car. Her eyes are brown like a river after a great rain but her heart is like gold.. She has a white band of fur around her neck and her red collar fits just perfectly. She is as strong as a race horse right before a big race. It looks like her paws have gloves on them. They are white with black chocolate sprinkles on them. She loves to cross her front paws when she is laying down.

Mandy is only four. She is very dramatic not to mention brilliant for a dog. When she wants to go for a walk and can't, she gives you a look that makes you feel hypnotized. When she runs in deep grass the white tip of her tail looks like a banner.

The Berger Brothers Head West on the Oregon Trail

Alex wrote:

The Oregon Trail led from Missouri to California. It began as an Indian trail and was then used by fur trappers. Later on, it was heavily traveled by pioneers heading to a new land. Their journey was a long and strenuous one full of hardships and smashed dreams. It took them about 8 month of straight travel over a 2,000 mile stretch. The trail was blazed through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and finally ended in Oregon. You can still see remnants of the old wagon trails not far from Guernsey Wyoming. On a hill top you can still see the ruts made by the wagons. The ruts are about five feet deep in some places. In 1842, some 1,000 pioneers traveled the trail. The amount of traffic on the trail grew steadily until about 1869 when the Pacific Railroad was completed and open for business. This cut down the amount of traffic on the Trail.

Early Settlers Carved Their Names on Register Cliffs

Alex wrote:

Another remnant of the Trail is Register Cliff. It is located one mile and a half from the town of Guernsey. This is a place where the people who were traveling stopped and carved their names into the rocky cliffside. The earliest signature we saw was 1820. It must have been carved by an early trapper. In the cliffside there is also a small cave carved out of the sandstone which I think people stayed in during the winter.

Jo wrote:

Met an interesting retired gentleman with a grey "american gothic" beard. He just spent 6 weeks walking along the Mormon Trail. He participated in a 150 year re-enactment of a typical pioneer journey. There were 6 of them walking along pushing a handcart that carried their stuff. The person in the center, in the traces if you will, was called the mule. The other 5 had handles along the edges of the cart that they held on to and used to push/guide the cart overland. We will be checking out more details about the route as we go. Nate and Alex are playing the computer game Oregon Trail...I just drowned in a flood.

Mount Rushmore

Nate wrote:

After a great week of visiting with Gram and Gramp we headed north towards Mount Rushmore and the Oregon Trail. We had been traveling for two weeks when we reached South Dakota. We found a campsite, parked, and got set up. Then we went to Mount Rushmore where we saw how they carved the faces of the four presidents from solid granite. They had to remove a lot of rock. They used giant metal drills and sledge hammers to drill holes in the granite to hold the sticks of dynamite. After they blew off the big chunks, they polished the granite with smaller drills and jackhammers. The workmen had to be lowered down to work on the faces on a little seat held by two ropes. They had to hold their jackhammer into the rock with their boots. It was very dangerous and hard to do. You had to have a lot of skill. We also went to see Crazy Horse. It was half made and the family of the artist who began the project was still working on it even after he died. Seeing these great assets to mankind inspired me to carve stone.

A Sculptor's Model for Crazy Horse Mountain

Ed wrote:

Turbulent wind's pummel our trailer as we head north across the Great Plains in the heat of the day. We begin this journey with so much to learn. The past whispers. The plains drift around us. We feel small and insignificant as we cross these wide expanses. The landscape is a rolling sea bed full of prarie grasses that tickled bison.

We park the Conestoga for the night near Custer State Park. The morning begins cool and clear. We unhitch and head for Crazy Horse Memorial. We have mixed feelings: what will we find? The mountain is visible long before we enter the set-aside. It is private, no Park Service here. We pay to enter, a little concerned that we are being taken. Then, inside, all of that melts away. This place is real! Earthy? At least, natural, even though it serves millions of visitors. The facilities are just rough enough so that they don't distract. The displays are interpretive and warm; human, not stone-cold, sterile, as Rushmore's new facilities.

Crazy Horse Mountain is one of the man-made wonders of the world, taking form! Getting out, the figure's face and part of his arm are reaching towards Korczak Ziolkowski's dream. We are involved on a level deep with meaning. The Rushmore faces are truly wonderful. Crazy Horse Memorial is beyond common experience. We had no idea.

The story of Korczak's life and work is as inspiring. His work, even when a boy, leaves one with a sense of awe. Here, then, in these beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, is a story and record of human accomplishment. The life of this self-educated man makes us examine our own contributions.
We seek the beauty of Custer State Park. The road is narrow and tunnels tickle the mirrors on the Chevy. We stop near the rock monoliths and gape. Pungent pine sap. Clean air. Views of the land as it was before the coming of the "termite people" (our culture). The Needles. Lakes nestled into pine and rock outcroppings. Mandy needs a break. We stop and she plunges into a narrow creek, jumps through the water and then chases an imaginary prey. I lean against the back of the truck, admiring my family as they tramp the tall grasses.

An inner voice tugs at my attention prompting me to think about safety, mechanical things, moving six tons along winding roads...it makes me check the tires. Drat! The rear tire is separating. This is the second flat and we have barely begun our journey. Two lousy tires from General! AmeriSteel? Let's make that AmeriSteal. What if we were pulling the rig down the highway when the tire lost its tread? Two times my vigilance has served us well. It's important to pay attention to those intuitions! Thanks to the Good Fairy Gwendlyn who protects us on our journey.

We interrupt this idyllic scene to load-up and head to Rapid City to get a new tire. The wonders of Custer State Park will have to wait. Rapid City! A K-Mart. A Burger King. A place to get a tire and an oil change! Out of there. Soon we are back on the wildlife loop within Custer State Park. Bison, Burros, Antelope, a massive Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Wild turkeys... Something that looks like the head of a coyote or a ... Mountain Lion?

Beauty heals the tire(d) and the mechanically oppressed. I love this land. It's easy to see why Teddy Roosevelt made it the sight of his summer White House.

The Remains of a Giant Mammoth

Nate wrote:

There was an inland sea and it deposited mud and sand making the Spearfish Shale. The black mountains rose up and broke the Spearfish Shale so a cavity formed. As the limestone above the water eroded, it collapsed, forcing the water to rise to the surface. This made a sink hole. The grass and food for the mammoths was always near the sinkhole, even during the winter, because the water was so warm it would heat up the ground and would not freeze over. The water temperature in the sink hole was 98 degrees in the winter. It was 100 degrees in the summer. The mammoths came to the sink hole and saw the ‘salad bar' and ‘swimming pool'. Since the mammoth liked warm water and grass, they would wander into the sink hole and get stuck. The Spearfish Shale was very, very slippery when it was wet and the mammoth could not climb out.

When the mammoth died, the bones were covered in sediment deposits. 26,000 years later the bones were discovered when a bulldozer operator was clearing a field and his blade hit pieces of a mammoth skeleton. He jumped down off the bulldozer, grabbed the bones, ran to the owner of the property and showed him the bones!!!!! The owner took the bones to his son who was studying paleontology, and his son knew they were mammoth teeth. Then the owner stopped construction and protected the site. To date, scientists have uncovered over fifty mammoth skeletons on the site.