George S. Mickelson Trail

One of the many tunnels along the trail.

Black Hills and Badlands


Sculpture
Mount Rushmore Crazy Horse
Geologic formations
Badlands Needles Devils Tower Bear Butte Spearfish Canyon
Mountains
Black Elk Peak, formerly Harney Peak
Caves
Wind Cave Jewel Cave
Parks, forests, and grassland
Wind Cave Custer State Park Black Hills National Forest Black Elk Wilderness Buffalo Gap National Grassland
Lakes
Sylvan Pactola

The George S. Mickelson Trail is a rail trail in the Black Hills region of South Dakota.

The main trail route extends 108.8 miles (175.1 km), from Edgemont to Deadwood, with approximately nine miles of additional branch trails, including a three-mile (5 km) paved link from Custer to the Custer State Park completed in 2007. Intermediate points along the route include the towns of Custer and Hill City, and a short branch provides access to the city of Lead.

Nearly all of the trail follows the route of an abandoned railroad branch line constructed by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1890-91 and last operated by the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1983. The trail's route is mountainous, forested, and scenic, traversing the heart of the Black Hills and largely within the boundaries of the Black Hills National Forest, although there are parts of the trail that pass through privately owned land, where trail use is restricted to the trail only.^[1] The trail alignment includes four tunnels and more than 100 converted railroad bridges. There are fifteen established trailheads spaced along the route, all of which include vehicle parking, self-sale trail pass stations, vault toilets, and tables. The trail surface is packed crushed limestone and gravel.^[2]

The trail is maintained by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission. The first segment of the trail was opened in 1991, and the entire route was completed in 1998, and is the first rails to trails project in South Dakota. The trail is named after George S. Mickelson, the South Dakota governor who helped spearhead the project.

Trailheads
Location	Milepost #	Coordinates
Edgemont	0	43°18′41″N 103°49′05″W / 43.31139°N 103.81806°W / 43.31139; -103.81806
Deadwood	108.8	44°22′14″N 103°43′42″W / 44.37056°N 103.72833°W / 44.37056; -103.72833

References

↑ "Biking in South Dakota". South Dakota Office of Tourism. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
↑ "Game Fish and Parks site". State of South Dakota.

External links

Protected areas of South Dakota

Federal

National Parks	Badlands Wind Cave

National Historic Sites and Memorials	Minuteman Missile NHS Mount Rushmore NMem

National Monument	Jewel Cave

National Forests	Black Hills Custer

National Grasslands	Buffalo Gap Dakota Prairie Fort Pierre Grand River

National Historic Trail	Lewis and Clark

National Recreational River	Missouri

National Wildlife Refuges	Huron WMD Karl E. Mundt Lacreek Lake Andes Madison WMD Sand Lake Sand Lake WMD Waubay Waubay WMD

National Wilderness Areas	Badlands Black Elk

State

State Parks	Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve Bear Butte Custer Fisher Grove Fort Sisseton Good Earth Hartford Beach Lake Herman Newton Hills Oakwood Lakes Palisades Roy Lake Sica Hollow Union Grove

State Recreation Areas	Angostura Beaver Creek Big Sioux Big Stone Island Burke Lake Buryanek Chief White Crane Cow Creek Farm Island George S. Mickelson Trail Indian Creek LaFramboise Island Lake Alvin Lake Cochrane Lake Hiddenwood Lake Louise Lake Poinsett Lake Thompson Lake Vermillion Lewis and Clark Little Moreau Llewellyn Johns Mina Lake North Point North Wheeler Oahe Downstream Okobojo Point Pease Creek Pelican Lake Pickerel Lake Pierson Ranch Platte Creek Randall Creek Richmond Lake Sandy Shore Shadehill Snake Creek Spirit Mound Historic Prairie Springfield Swan Creek Walker's Point West Bend West Pollack West Whitlock

Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming

Attractions

Scenic routes

Roads	Norbeck Scenic Byway Iron Mountain Road Needles Highway Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway

Trails	Mickelson Centennial Trail

Populated places

Cities	Belle Fourche Central City Custer Deadwood Edgemont Hot Springs Hill City Lead Newcastle Rapid City Spearfish Sturgis Whitewood

Towns	Buffalo Gap Fairburn Hermosa Keystone Pringle Sundance

Unincorporated	Dewey Four Mile Galena Hanna Johnson Siding Nemo Rochford Rockerville Silver City Three Forks

History and people

Native American	Cheyenne people Lakota people Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) established the Great Sioux Reservation Black Hills War, or Great Sioux War (1876) Black Elk Sitting Bull Crazy Horse Lone Horn Red Cloud Spotted Tail

Old West	Dakota Territory (1861–1889) Black Hills Expedition (1874) Black Hills Gold Rush (1874) Newton–Jenney Party (1875) Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Route (1876-1887) Sidney-Black Hills Stage Road (1876-1887) Rapid City, Black Hills and Western Railroad (1893–1947) Seth Bullock and Martha Bullock General George Armstrong Custer Dora DuFran Wild Bill Hickok Calamity Jane Historian Doane Robinson Sol Star Al Swearengen Charlie Utter

Ghost towns	Addie Camp Bismuth Blacktail Burdock Cambria Carbonate Etta Flatiron Greenwood Maitland Myers City Nahant Novak Pactola Sheridan Spokane Terraville Tigerville Tinton Trojan

Modern	Fossil Cycad National Monument (1922-1957) Stratobowl (1934-1959) Black Hills flood (1972) Sculptors Gutzon Borglum and Lincoln Borglum Author Joseph Bottum Politician Francis H. Case Poet Charles Badger Clark Historian Watson Parker

Road junctions

Mount Rushmore in popular culture

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.

George S. Mickelson Trail

See also

References

External links