Monument Valley (Navajo: Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, meaning valley of the rocks) is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor. It is located on the Arizona–Utah border (around 36°59′N 110°6′WCoordinates: 36°59′N 110°6′W), near the Four Corners area. The valley lies within the range of the Navajo Nation Reservation and is accessible from U.S. Highway 163.
Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Director John Ford used the location for a number of his best-known films, and thus, in the words of critic Keith Phipps, “its five square miles [13 square kilometers] have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West.” (Wikipedia)
J. G. Rees & Sons, Groceries, Meats, and Feed, Topeka, Kansas.
Grocery store specializing in feed and seed. Topeka, Kansas. 1938. Oct. Photograph retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997003677/PP/. (Accessed April 03, 2017.)
Vachon, John, photographer.
Call Number: LC-USF33- 001241-M2 [P&P]
Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
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Back in 2007, the day we decided to visit Deadwood, South Dakota, turned out to be during the “Kool Deadwood Nights” festival. We had no idea that there was anything special going on until we got there. When we had trouble finding a place to park, we almost decided to head on down the road to see other places and sights. Deadwood’s Main Street was filled with the chairs of people who were planning to attend the night’s entertainment. We have no idea who was performing that night and we were not prepared to stay that late.
Kool Deadwood Nights: Car lovers come together for four days full of classic cars, classic music and classic fun. It’s a 50’s and 60’s sock hop—Deadwood style. Enjoy parades, show and shines and FREE concerts on Main Street featuring the biggest names in rock ‘n roll history.1
Deadwood, named for dead trees found there when it was established, was illegally settled in the 1870s in territory granted to native tribes in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. An expedition led by George Armstrong Custer in 1874 announce the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. The news, of course, triggered a gold rush, and gave rise to the lawless town of Deadwood. The town’s early history forms the basis for the storyline of the HBO TV series named Deadwood.
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In the late 80s, on our way home from a western vacation, we stopped for one night in Badlands National Park. The stop included a nighttime ranger guided walk. Our 2007 trip was a daytime visit as we were camping in the Black Hills. It started out as a chilly blustery day, but, fortunately the weather improved as the day went on. The badlands is a fascinating landscape of “sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States1.”
Walk down Main Street of this 1880 town and explore more than 30 buildings authentically furnished with thousands of relics. Enjoy the rolling terrain of a sprawling homestead and envision life on the prairie. While at the 1880 town, you can also view memorabilia from the late Casey Tibbs, a champion rodeo bronc rider, and many props that were used in filming the movie “Dances with Wolves.”
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One of our first stops on our 2007 trip, after visiting family in Nebraska, was the Black Hills of South Dakota. While there, we visited Mount Rushmore national Monument.
We had stopped at Mount Rushmore once in the late 80s. We were on our way home from vacationing in Wyoming and Idaho and our visit to Rushmore was a hurried afterthought.
This trip, we took our time and got the full benefit of the visit. Mount Rushmore is worth seeing.
Ant Farm Cadillac car art, Route 66, Amarillo, Texas. 2006
Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, U.S. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
The town’s early history forms the basis for the storyline of the HBO TV series named 
