Monday, September 24, 2012

The plan for most of our group today, is to attend the :

47th Annual Buffalo Round-Up 

& Art Festival

About this time every year, the existing Buffalo herd in Custer State Park, is rounded up so it can be counted, new calves branded, old animals weeded out for action sale.  The purpose is to maintain a herd size of about 1300 Buffalo.  This is the number that the Park can safely maintain and feed during the Winter.

Viewers and Buffalo

Round-up Viewers in their encloser

To attend this round-up, it's necessary to leave our camp about 4:00am, so we can be ready to enter the Park at 6:30am when the gates open.  The round-up

 starts at 9:00am, and is usually complete around 12:00 noon.  Once the round-up starts, no one an leave the area until all the animals are in the corral.  They expect 20,000 to 40,000 viewers.


Both of the above pictures were taken this year.  They'll give you some perspective on the event.

Lauri and I decided to "Pass" on the Round-up...  4:00am, are you kidding???  We had planned all along to go to the cities of Wasta and Wall to search out information on the Batterman "Homestead", and any records that might be available on my Dad's family and their life in and around the "Badlands".

My Aunt Freda Batterman (Tupper) had written a small booklet called, "Down in Bull Creek", which is a history of the Batterman family from the time my Grandfather came here from Germany, until my Grandmother's death.  Bull Creek was the name of the small creek that ran through their 130 acre homestead.  This booklet was used in the S.D. school system as a "Local History" for years.

Driveway Arch to Homestead

Maybe an Original Structure

On the front cover of the booklet is a topographic photograph of Bull Creek and their family homestead.  By comparing this photo with current maps of the area, I was able to locate the existing farm, that is currently called the "Schell Ranch".  We knocked on the door, but no one was home.  I took some photos and reminisced about what life must have been like in the 30's when my father was born.

In the booklet, Aunt Freda indicated that both my Grandfather and Grandmother were buried in the City of Wall's Cemetery.  We went to an office on main street, right across the street from the famous (World Famous) "Wall Drug Store", that had "City Services" printed on the door.

We walk in and told the nice lady sitting at the desk what we were looking for.  As luck would have it, she was the person in charge of conducting the "Current" inventory of the residences of the Wall Cemetery.  She looked up the names, and provided us with a location and map to where my grandparents were buried.  They were right where they were supposed to be.

Now that we found them, we'll pass the information onto our kids, so they will not be forgotten.  Hopefully, they will pass the information onto their kids.  One of the problems of dieing is that people forget where you are buried.  I hope I can fix that for Grandpa and Grandma Batterman.

For me...  my ashes will be scattered at sea.  So every time you have Mahi Mahi, you can think of the 'ol Batman

 Of course, while we were in Wall, we had to visit the Famous "Drug Store".  As you can plainly see...  Lauri had a great time.

After spending some time with my Grandparents, we headed back to Rapid City to pick up the boys...  Oh, did I forget to mention, we had dropped them off at a Groom for a bath.  They really needed a bath.  Murphy loved to roll in the soft "VERY BLACK" Black Hills dirt in camp.

After getting our "Clean" boys, we headed back to camp for a group "Desert" night.  Everyone was tired from their days activities, so to bed early was order after desert.

All in all...  a good day!