US 14A in the Homestead Mining District and Spearfish Canyon

[Max Rockatansky]

Cobbled five of my photo albums into a single blog entry on Surewhynotnow regarding US 14A in the Black Hills  I thought it was interesting to see that at least by 1949 there was no signed state highway along Spearfish Canyon.  The routing of US 14A doesn't make much sense west of Deadwood aside from scenic value, does anyone have any insight why it was selected as an Alternate after US 14 moved onto I-90?

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/09/2016-summer-mountain-trip-part-9-us.html

[Mapmikey]

Per the '61 rand mcnally, US 14 ALT existed before any part of I-90 existed in the area and US 14 was on its pre-interstate routing...

[Max Rockatansky]

Per the '61 rand mcnally, US 14 ALT existed before any part of I-90 existed in the area and US 14 was on its pre-interstate routing...

So basically everything from Deadwood west to Spearfish?  The trouble I'm having is that the map scans I see jump from 1949/1950 to 1963.  If you have a scan or link to that 1961 Map it would be really helpful getting the backstory of 14A sorted out. 

[Mapmikey]

Went to ebay to see if scans were available to relate.  They are...

First there was a US 14 ALT that ran from Sturgis west through Whitewood back to US 14-85 at Elkhorn Peak.  I-90 follows this corridor today.  It is shown as SD 24 on the '46 Official and US 14 ALT on the '48 issue

The next 14 ALT looks to have appeared in 1956 per SD Official.  The route through Spearfish Canyon was SD 89 at least 1952-55.

The ebay maps I found didn't have very good resolution but both the first 14A and SD 89 are shown on this Topo map (select the 1957 revision of the 1957 map at scale 1:250000) https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#12/44.4064/-103.7331

The 1956 Official shows that US 14 replaced the first 14 ALT before any interstate existed and that the modern 14 ALT partly replaced US 14 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/1956-South-Dakota-Department-Of-Highway-Transportation-Map-Tourist/123346374085?hash=item1cb8044dc5:g:FiYAAOSwupRawnqb

I have a 1956 or 1957 Rand McN in my office but I won't be back there again until Thursday to check it...

[Max Rockatansky]

Went to ebay to see if scans were available to relate.  They are...

First there was a US 14 ALT that ran from Sturgis west through Whitewood back to US 14-85 at Elkhorn Peak.  I-90 follows this corridor today.  It is shown as SD 24 on the '46 Official and US 14 ALT on the '48 issue

The next 14 ALT looks to have appeared in 1956 per SD Official.  The route through Spearfish Canyon was SD 89 at least 1952-55.

The ebay maps I found didn't have very good resolution but both the first 14A and SD 89 are shown on this Topo map (select the 1957 revision of the 1957 map at scale 1:250000) https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#12/44.4064/-103.7331

The 1956 Official shows that US 14 replaced the first 14 ALT before any interstate existed and that the modern 14 ALT partly replaced US 14 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/1956-South-Dakota-Department-Of-Highway-Transportation-Map-Tourist/123346374085?hash=item1cb8044dc5:g:FiYAAOSwupRawnqb

I have a 1956 or 1957 Rand McN in my office but I won't be back there again until Thursday to check it...

Apparently SD 89 was present in Spearfish Canyon by 1950 according to the Wikipedia article (for what that's worth).  I went and updated the blog with the information available at hand presently for US 14A.

[SD Mapman]

Just thought I'd mention some things...

That thing you thought was a bore is actually one of the supports for the physics experiment that discovered neutrinos (I've seen the other one and it's not as clean).

The official version about "Scooptown" is either the Fort Meade pay story or the guys who had to clean up after the cavalry (the high school mascot is a burly blond guy with a shovel). The true version which they don't tell anyone is that Sturgis became known as "Scooptown" because all the prostitutes in Sturgis scooped up the money that the soldiers threw at them. As a Spearfisher, I am obliged to diss Sturgis whenever possible.

[Max Rockatansky]

Just thought I'd mention some things...

That thing you thought was a bore is actually one of the supports for the physics experiment that discovered neutrinos (I've seen the other one and it's not as clean).

The official version about "Scooptown" is either the Fort Meade pay story or the guys who had to clean up after the cavalry (the high school mascot is a burly blond guy with a shovel). The true version which they don't tell anyone is that Sturgis became known as "Scooptown" because all the prostitutes in Sturgis scooped up the money that the soldiers threw at them. As a Spearfisher, I am obliged to diss Sturgis whenever possible.

Now that you mention it I remember reading a display or something near the Homestead Pit describing the neutrino experiment.  If I recall correctly the Homesteak Mine was selected for the experiment given it's massive depths aided in observing neutrinos?

Regarding Sturgis you'd think a town that prides itself on catering to the motorcycle going crowd wouldn't mind having that origin story well known.  Personally I'm way more of a car person than a bike guy so really aside from just being an end point on US 14A there wasn't much there to capture my interest in Sturgis.

[SD Mapman]

Now that you mention it I remember reading a display or something near the Homestead Pit describing the neutrino experiment.  If I recall correctly the Homesteak Mine was selected for the experiment given it's massive depths aided in observing neutrinos?

Regarding Sturgis you'd think a town that prides itself on catering to the motorcycle going crowd wouldn't mind having that origin story well known.  Personally I'm way more of a car person than a bike guy so really aside from just being an end point on US 14A there wasn't much there to capture my interest in Sturgis.

Yeah, they picked the mine because all our lovely Black Hills rock blocked the cosmic rays (FYI the other support is 4850 feet down rusting in pieces in a corner).

The Rally is only one week of the whole year; outside of that we're very straightlaced and stuff like that is embarrassing.