Some mighty interesting folks have passed through these Black Hills. Take Babe Ruth for instance, who once played an exhibition baseball game here. It was 1922, and Deadwood hired Ruth to play for their team, which was an all-star squad from other Hills towns. A huge crowd hung on every swing of Babe's bit bat. And while the "Sultan of Swat" blasted several balls out of the park, each landed foul. Ruth did get a double and a single in three at bats, helping Deadwood to win the game.
Five years later Charles Lindbergh flew his "Sprit of St. Louis" over that same ball field. It was part of a promotion of his recent Trans-Atlantic flight.
Then there was the June day in 1877 when Mark Twain dropped in to chat with fellow journalist at the "Pioneer" office in Deadwood. He was just passing through and not yet famous enough to cause much notice.
The "Sundance Kid" minus sidekick Butch Cassidy, was once in Belle Fourche just long enough to botch up a holdup attempt of the Butte Co. Bank. He subsequently escaped from Deadwood's jail, hooked up with Butch Cassidy and went on a crime spree later portrayed in a Hollywood movie.
The famed suffragist Susan B. Anthony spoke out fop the female vote at Deadwood's City Hall in 1890. The speech didn't impress a young lady named Irene Cushman, who would write in her diary, "Miss Anthony is a tiresome old lady."
The first U.S. President to visit the Black Hills was William Taft in 1911. Taft was impressed with the large crowds which greeted him in Rapid City. But in truth most of the crowd was in town for another reason-to try their luck in one of the last great homestead lotteries.
10/01/03