Sturgis, South Dakota

32 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

• The Horse That Survived Custer's Last Stand · 0.3 mi · Things to Do

  After the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 soldiers found a badly wounded buckskin horse standing among the dead. His name was Comanche and he had carried…

• Sturgis: Nine Riders and the Birth of a Legend · 0.3 mi · Historical

  The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally began in 1938 when nine riders competed for a $500 prize on a half-mile dirt track — today it draws hundreds of thousands of riders annually to the Black Hills.

• The Treaty That Was Broken for Gold · 0.3 mi · Things to Do

  The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie promised the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux for as long as the grass shall grow. Six years later Custer's expedition found…

• The First Rally T-Shirts Were All Maroon · 0.3 mi · Things to Do

  In 1940 just two years after the first Sturgis Rally someone had the idea to sell printed t-shirts advertising the event. Every single shirt was maroon. There…

• Every Cavalry Regiment Served Here · 0.3 mi · Things to Do

  During the great western expansion nearly every cavalry regiment in the entire United States Army rotated through Fort Meade outside Sturgis. The post was one…

• Nine Riders and a Race That Changed Everything · 0.4 mi · Things to Do

  In 1938 a motorcycle dealer named Pappy Hoel gathered nine riders for a race through the Black Hills outside Sturgis South Dakota. That was the first Sturgis…

• When They Lit the Streets on Fire · 0.4 mi · Things to Do

  In the 1970s the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally had a wild streak that would be hard to imagine today. At the end of the 1975 event riders doused the streets of…

• Pappy Hoel and the Indian Motorcycle · 0.4 mi · Things to Do

  Clarence 'Pappy' Hoel ran an Indian motorcycle dealership in Sturgis and loved racing more than selling bikes. In 1938 he founded the Jackpine Gypsies…

• The Colonel Who Never Saw His Town · 0.4 mi · Things to Do

  The city of Sturgis is named after Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis who commanded the 7th Cavalry at Fort Meade. Sturgis had a personal grudge against the Lakota. His…

• The Cavalry Post That Guarded the Gold · 1.8 mi · Things to Do

  Fort Meade was built in 1878 just east of Sturgis to protect the illegal gold settlements in the Black Hills. The irony was thick. The Army was guarding miners…

• Fort Meade (South Dakota) · 1.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

  From the Indian Wars to World War II, Fort Meade played a pivotal role in the history of the American West. Established in 1878, the fort's original purpose was to protect the growing white settlements in the northern…

• The $40 Motorcycle Wedding · 2.3 mi · Things to Do

  If you want to get married at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally all you need is forty dollars in cash and a valid ID. Both parties must be present which is probably…

• Black Hills National Cemetery · 3.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb

  Pay your respects at this solemn site, the final resting place for over 29,000 veterans. This land became a national cemetery after World War II, a response to the growing need for burial space for those who served. In…

• Bear Butte · 5.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb

  This sacred butte isn't just a landmark; it's a living testament to the enduring spiritual connection between the Plains Indians and this land. Long before European settlers arrived, tribes like the Lakota and Cheyenne…

• Bear Butte: Sacred Mountain of the Plains Tribes · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

  Bear Butte, a laccolith rising 1,200 feet above the surrounding prairie near Sturgis, has been a site of prayer, fasting, and vision quests for the Cheyenne, Lakota, and other Plains tribes for thousands of years.

• The Lost Chinatown Beneath Main Street · 10.4 mi · Things to Do

  By 1880 Deadwood had the largest Chinatown east of San Francisco with over 200 Chinese residents packed into a stretch of Main Street. There were grocers and…

• Deadwood, South Dakota · 10.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb

  Get ready to turn back the clock! Deadwood wasn't just a town, it was a lightning strike of gold fever that ignited the Black Hills. It all started in 1876, when gold was discovered in Deadwood Gulch. Suddenly, the area…

• The Sheriff Who Befriended a President · 11.0 mi · Things to Do

  Seth Bullock first met Theodore Roosevelt in 1884 while hauling a horse thief named Crazy Steve across the Dakota range. The two became lifelong friends.…

• The Two-Headed Calf at the Adams Museum · 11.1 mi · Things to Do

  The Adams Museum in Deadwood houses one of the stranger collections you will find anywhere in the West. Right alongside Potato Creek Johnny's gold nugget sits…

• Boot Hill Above the Gulch · 11.1 mi · Things to Do

  Mount Moriah Cemetery sits on a steep hillside above Deadwood where the famous and infamous rest side by side. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried…

• Aces and Eights · 11.2 mi

  Deadwood is the Black Hills gold-rush camp where the Old West wrote one of its most famous death scenes. On August 2, 1876, gunfighter James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok was playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. 10…

• Deadwood: Where Wild Bill Drew His Last Hand · 11.2 mi · Historical

  On August 2, 1876, James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok was shot in the back of the head while playing poker at Nuttal and Mann's Saloon, holding what became known forever as the dead man's hand.

• Wild Bill's Dead Man's Hand · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  Wild Bill Hickok had only been in Deadwood three weeks when Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head at Nuttal and Mann's Saloon on August 2 1876. Hickok…

• The Illegal Gold Rush That Built a City · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  Deadwood should never have existed. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie guaranteed the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux forever. But when Colonel Custer's 1874…

• Deadwood · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  Wild Bill Hickok was shot here playing poker. The whole town is a National Historic Landmark.

• Calamity Jane's Wild Ride · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  Martha Jane Canary showed up in Deadwood wearing men's clothes and carrying a rifle which was about as scandalous as it got in 1876. She worked every job the…

• The Double Jeopardy Murder Trial · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  Jack McCall shot Wild Bill Hickok in broad daylight and a Deadwood jury actually acquitted him. But here is the twist. Deadwood was an illegal settlement on…

• The Night Deadwood Burned · 11.2 mi · Things to Do

  On September 26 1879 a fire broke out in a bakery on Sherman Street and within hours most of Deadwood was gone. The town had been built from the very dead…

• Potato Creek Johnny's Giant Nugget · 11.3 mi · Things to Do

  In 1929 a tiny old prospector named Potato Creek Johnny pulled a 7.3 troy ounce gold nugget out of a creek in the Black Hills. It was one of the largest…

• Homestake Mine: The Richest Gold Strike in the Western Hemisphere · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

  The Homestake Mine in Lead operated continuously from 1876 to 2001, producing over forty million troy ounces of gold and reaching a depth of 8,000 feet, making it the deepest mine in North America.

• Lead, SD: Not the Metal You Think · 13.4 mi

  You'd swear this Black Hills town was named for the soft gray metal, the stuff of pencils and pipes. It isn't. The name isn't even pronounced like the metal. It's said "leed," and it comes from a mining term: a "lead"…

• Spearfish Canyon: The Temperature That Rose 49 Degrees in Two Minutes · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker

  On January 22, 1943, a Chinook wind caused the temperature in Spearfish to spike from minus 4 degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit in just two minutes — the most extreme temperature change ever recorded.