Nemo (from www.travelsd.com):

Situated in the heart of the Black Hills, Nemo, South Dakota is
surrounded by attractions. Take a scenic drive through the beautiful
parks, forests and grasslands. Visit the Mount Rushmore National
Memorial and Crazy Horse Memorial. Check out the historic gold mining
camp of Deadwood or stay at Nemo's famous Rockridge Barnhouse, where
old-fashioned western hospitality and modern conveniences come
together to make your stay as memorable and comfortable as possible.

Copyright © 2012 South Dakota Department of Tourism

Nemo (from www.blackhillsbadlands.com):

Elevation: 4,580

This tiny mountain town sets on the edge of Paradise Valley,
overshadowed by Steamboat Rock mountain, about midway between Rapid
City and Deadwood.  Nemo was first established in 1877, but began to
flourish in 1898 when Homestake set up camp to harvest timber for use
in their gold mine near Lead. The gold mines are gone, along with
their need for lumber, but Nemo continues today as a pleasant,
beautiful respite from life's fast pace.

Nemo is frequently used as a base for camping, trout fishing,
horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, deer hunting and back
country treks. The Centennial Trail (hike, bike, horse) passes nearby.

Services include a general store, gas, food, lodging, post office,
church, guest ranch and trail rides.

For more information on the Black Hills and Badlands, give us a call
or stop by the Black Hills Visitor Information Center after you
arrive.

605-355-3600 or e-mail: info@blackhillsbadlands.com
Copyright ©2012 Black Hills Badlands & Lake Association

ATV Widening Kit Test Trip (from diamondjcustoms.blogspot.com):

The test trip to the Black Hills was great. We had 10 sport quads
with kits that got at least 20 hours on each kit. It was great
testing ground because of the uneven terrain. We were there a week.
ATV heaven to me! The trip back to Fargo was a little stressful-the
wind was 30/40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph!!!! A hair raising trip
home with the big DJC Bus! The kits we got test hours on were: Kymco
Mongoose 50 cc Kymco Mongoose 250 cc Suzuki Quad Sport LT 80 cc
Polaris Predator 90cc Honda TRX 90 cc Honda Sport Trac 250 EX Honda
Sport Trac 300 EX Honda Sport Trac 400 EX Yamaha Blaster 200cc Yamaha
Raptor 250 SE On one short side trip we took the Honda 300, Kymco 250
and a utility up to Nemo, SD. The terrain was some of the most rugged
we have ever been on. I am sure for those of you who live around the
Rockies, it would have been a cake walk -- but you have to remember
we are from Fargo, ND. It is VERY FLAT. (I mean very flat, the Ice
Age Glaciers scrapped it a like a big road grader.) So it was a fun,
exciting, challenging and breath-taking ride. I am one of the most
inexperienced riders in our test group. I could not have imagined
taking my Kymco 250 on the Nemo run without a widening kit and
different shocks on it. (We put a shock conversion kit on the Kymco
too so we could use 400R shocks.) The terrain was so uneven and bumpy
-- I would have been shook to death without softer shocks. As we
traveled home down the highway and we had so many pickups pass up
with a 4 wheeler and HUGE elk horn racks in the back! Go elk hunters! 

Friday, October 31, 2008

Ride in Nemo, South Dakota (from diamondjcustoms.blogspot.com):

This post is a report on the amazing ATV trail going out of Nemo, SD.
If you haven't been there -- you need to go there! There is an
extensive trail that has been well groomed by the local ATV group. It
is well marked, has some rest areas along the way and also has maps
available. The scenery is amazing and it so peaceful! We were there
on a Thursday during the day in the late fall, so there were NO OTHER
RIDERS! I am sure there are times of the year when it is very busy.
You can tell the local ATV club has spent time and money developing
the trail. There are spots that are just naturally challenging
because of the rocky, hilly terrain. In other areas they have added
bumps, jumps, and mud holes to add to the excitement. We only rode
about 7 miles out of Nemo and it took just about 2 hours. If you
followed the entire trail system to its end, it would be a lovely
day's ride. Map to Nemo, SD
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Nemo&state=SD Link to SD Forestry
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills/faq/index.shtml#q10 Link to Local
ATV Club http://offroadriders.org/ It is our understanding that tax
dollars have been set aside for the mapping and development of these
trails, but that there is some confusion as to who is to use the
money to work on the trails -- the Forestry service or local ATV
enthusiasts and that has slowed the progress some. We think the local
club at Nemo is doing an outstanding job and we encourage you to
support them, if possible. Here is a slideshow just of our Nemo day
trip. I wanted to show you the scenery and trail, but please also
note the Kymco 250 going down one particularly steep trail. It was a
complete drop-off to the left side. The video really demonstrates how
a widening kit with longer shocks can make a trail easier to
navigate. 

ATVing (from www.blackhillsbadlands.com)

In the 1.2 million acre Black Hills National Forest in western South
Dakota, there are 5,000 of miles of primitive roads ideal for ATV or
ORV riding. Most of these roads are open to off-roading fun. The BHNF
has no trail designated for ATVs or motorcycles. Riders are directed
to use the many miles of low-standard "two-track" roads that
crisscross the forest. Generally you can ride anywhere in the Black
Hills National Forest, guided by the "open-unless-closed" principle.
That means area where you should not ride will be posted or gated. Be
careful, because hundreds of acres of private property are
intertwined among the Forest Service Land. An official Forest Service
map shows not only public and private land, but also trails, tracks,
mines, springs, fire lookouts, etc.  These are available at the Black
Hills Visitor Information Center and at Forest Service Offices.

We have liberal and enlightened ATV policies...but you must ride
responsibly if we are to continue to be able to ride in the Black
Hills!

In some portions of the Black Hills National Forest, travel
management rules prohibit off-road riding to protect soils and other
natural features, timber harvests or wildlife refuges. Please
remember that over-aggressive driving can cause extensive resource
damage and wildlife disturbance.

The Black Hills National Forest encourages all motorized users to
follow the Tread Lightly! Pledge: Travel and recreate with minimum
impact. Respect the environment and the rights of others; Educate
yourself ? plan and prepare before you go. Allow for future use of
the outdoors ? leave it better than you found it. Discover the
rewards of responsible recreation.

Areas that are strictly off limits to ATV and ORV riders include
Black Elk Wilderness, Victoria Lake, Spearfish Canyon, Bear Mountain,
Polo Peak, Jasper and Elk Mountain fire burns, campgrounds, picnic
areas and lake areas. Hiking trails including George S. Mickelson
Trail are closed to ATV and ORVs.

A portion of the Centennial Trail, through the Black Hills National
Forest near Nemo, is designated for ATV riders.

One popular riding area for dirt biking and ATV riding is located on
the north edge of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, south of
Farmingdale. The dirt bluffs and grassy knobs at the Railroad Buttes
ORV Area are filled with challenging trails and jumps. Go only when
it's dry; in wet weather this area is a quagmire of slippery,
super-sticky clay that locals call "gumbo."

ATVs in South Dakota are governed by state motorcycle law. There is
no minimum age or license for off-road drivers; however,
manufacturer?s operator guidelines should be followed. On-the-road
drivers need a valid drivers license and a licensed ATV. ATV use is
prohibited on the interstate highway system. A complete list of laws
regulating ATV use in the state can be found at www.offroadriders.org

Copyright ©2012 Black Hills Badlands & Lake Association 

Nemo (from DeadwoodMagazine.com):

A log cabin built by the Patterson family about 1885 stands on the
site where Custer's expedition camped in August 1874. This photo of
the Patterson family (circa 1904) was taken by pioneer photographer
Fred Farrar and is in the collection of Chuck Childs, Rapid City, who
until 1995 owned the cabin that is still in use. Mr. Patterson sold
vegetables from his farm to the Homestake Mercantile store at Nemo.
Photo courtesy of Chuck Childs.

Homestake Hotel Annex: William and Jenny Boylan (far right) were
pioneer homesteaders in the Piedmont area who ran the Nemo hotel in
the early 1900s while their son Ed (in doorway) and wife Helen
(seated at left) operated the Piedmont ranch. William Boylan hauled
mail from Piedmont to Nemo. William and Jenny Boylan's grandson,
Basil, lives in Piedmont and at age 90 is still active enough to help
his grandsons move cattle.

We are like a family here.

Enchanted by the scenic setting, the history and people of a tiny
Northern Hills community, a Colorado attorney is renovating the
century-old buildings of a former Homestake company town.

After buying the Nemo Guest Ranch and Ox Yoke Ranch last fall, Jim
Hansen and his wife Nancy embarked on an ambitious restoration
program, beginning with the structure that was originally a company
store, a branch of the Hearst Mercantile Company.

"We've committed to honoring the land and the history," said general
manager Brian Einspahr, "and we're taking great care to restore the
buildings without changing the historic elements."  Einspahr and the
Hansens have discovered there's a wealth of Black Hills history
centered in the little logging town located 10 miles northwest of
Rapid City, 15 miles southeast of Deadwood. Even before the Nemo Post
Office was established in 1889, out-of-luck newcomers, finding all
available placer claims taken up in Deadwood Gulch, fanned out to
locate claims along Boxelder Creek that flows through the valley.

Various theories have developed about the origination of the Nemo
name. Some oldtimers say it was derived from Jules Verne's 1864
subterranean fantasy, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; others
claim it's an Indian word meaning "nowhere" and still a third faction
maintains it's 'omen' spelled backwards.  However the name was
conceived, Nemo became one of the 67 post offices established in
Lawrence County in the late 1800s and is one of six still in
operation, along with Deadwood, Lead, Spearfish, St. Onge and
Whitewood.

The men with Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition were possibly the
first white men to traverse the area's rugged terrain. Enroute back
to Fort Abraham Lincoln after exploring the Southern Hills, Custer's
expedition camped west of Nemo while scouts looked for a pass through
the limestone canyon walls. Their exit route is now known as Custer
Gap.

Once the news of Custer's gold discovery on French Creek spread
across the country, eager gold seekers rushed into the Indian treaty
lands. From Deadwood Gulch they fanned out to settle little
communities throughout the Northern Hills.

Benchmark. Greenwood. Slabtown. Rotting logs and scattered stones
mark foundations of log cabins the miners left behind when those
settlements became just names on Forest Service maps. But the town
that was born from a mining company's timber needs refused to die,
although the population dropped from 258 in 1910 to 40 in 1988.

Two years after Custer's 1874 expedition left the Black Hills the
Manuel brothers took $5,000 worth of gold from their Homestake mining
claim in Lead. In June 1877 California mining entrepreneur George
Hearst bought paid $70,000 for the claim and incorporated it as the
Homestake Mining Company.

Homestake's expanding mining operation consumed a staggering amount
of timber each year (five million board feet of lumber and 20,000
cords of wood) as fuel for steam-powered mills and railroad engines,
mine supports and employee housing. Shortly after Shortly after
President Grover Cleveland set aside a million acres of timber as the
Black Hills Forest Reserve in 1897, the nation's first application to
purchase timber was submitted by Homestake superintendent T. J. Grier.

Homestake built a sawmill at Este, three miles southwest of Nemo, ran
a branch line of a narrow gauge railroad through Nemo to Este and
bought out the 143-acre Nemo placer claim, present site of the Nemo
Guest Ranch, for company headquarters. The mining company constructed
offices for a superintendent and clerks and houses for families of
sawmill employees. Single men lived in the boarding house or 16-room
hotel, paying a dollar of their $3.25-per-day paychecks for board and
room. A store, butcher shop and one-room school served the day-to-day
needs of the 200 residents.

In 1913 Homestake moved milling operations to Nemo. The town grew
into a thriving little community with the Hearst Mercantile store as
a central gathering place. After finishing their shift, sawmill men
stopped in to pick up snuff or tobacco, gloves or overalls, hoist a
cool one and swap tales. Housewives didn't linger when they did last
minute shopping for the evening meal; the store was primarily male
territory.

Some things haven't changed much in the past 110 years. Although the
present store is about half its original size it is still the hub of
the Nemo community. Today's shopper picks up a loaf of bread or
carton of milk, instead of a 100-pound sack of flour, a slab off the
huge cheese wheel, a block of salt or bag of feed. And men still
stand around the pot-bellied stove, swapping stories over a can of
beer.

Bob Deen, whose father ran the store in the 1930s, compared Nemo to
Garrison Keillor's fictional Lake Woebegon, but "it wasn't fiction,"
he said. "It was one place where Norman Rockwell could have spent a
lifetime and never run out of material."

Between 1900 and 1920 Nemo's population more than doubled, from 200
to 500 residents. Overcrowded school facilities were replaced with a
modern new schoolhouse (containing such conveniences as indoor
bathrooms) in 1926.

Described as one of the best preserved buildings of its type in the
Black Hills region, the two-story white schoolhouse on the National
Register of Historic Places is now a vacation home to five couples
from Minnesota who bought the abandoned school building in 1995 for
$38,000.

From 1933 to 1942 young men enrolled in President Franklin
Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps lived at the C.C.C. camp at
Este. They built campgrounds, roads and Forest Service houses, and
improved thousands of acres of timber in the Nemo area. Another
Civilian Conservation Center (Job Corps) became part of the community
in 1965. At the live-in facility four miles northwest of Nemo,
disadvantaged young men and women study for their GED while
participating in vocational training programs

After Homestake moved its milling operation to Spearfish in 1940,
Nemo was virtually a ghost town until a Martin cattle rancher brought
new life to the dying town.

Frank Troxell bought the town in 1946 and his dream of Black Hills
dude ranch became a reality. Naming the resort for their 4 T brand,
the Troxells set to work restoring the aging timber camp buildings.
Homestake's office building became a western-themed restaurant;
vacant homes and the old meat market were remodeled into lodges and
cabins; the old Hotel Annex became home to Troxell family members.

Hollywood discovered Nemo in the 1950s. Western film makers shot
location scenes at the 4 T, utilizing as authentic props the antique
stage coach and chuck wagon still on display at the site.

Meantime, just a few miles down the road, Harley and Freddie Roth
were staging championship rodeos at their Ox Yoke ranch with the help
of South Dakota's own World Saddle Bronc Champion Casey Tibbs. Casey
married Miss South Dakota of 1954, Cleo Ann Harrington, at a New
Year's Eve ceremony. The wedding reception was held at the Ox Yoke in
January of 1959.

Roth also supplied mules, cowboys, horses and old army supply wagons
for the movie makers. An article in the Tri-State Livestock News said
Roth's spread had "movie stars living in the guest rooms, bronc
riders in the bunkhouse, cattle buyers in the kitchen."

Much of the excitement at the Ox Yoke Ranch died when Harley Roth was
killed in a plane crash in 1961. A new generation of fun-seekers
attended concerts and dances at the big red barn in the 1970s and
80s, but in 1991 the Ox Yoke's red barn,a landmark on Nemo Road for
nearly 90 years, burned to the ground

Through several changes of ownership in the past 30 years and a name
change, the Nemo Guest Ranch has remained the heartbeat of the little
Lawrence County town. In the past few months the store, the 4 T cabin
and the Brandin' Iron restaurant have been extensively renovated by
the new owners, Jim and Nancy Hansen, who were married in the store
last December.

Designated an official Centennial Community, Nemo held a three-day
celebration of its 100th birthday in 1989. Current and former
residents contributed articles to a commemorative book detailing the
town's history. Nemo, South Dakota: One Hundred Years was edited by
Elton and Norma (Troxell) Adams. "The optimistic thinking of the Nemo
people is a special quality that binds us together.We are like a
family here," the book said.

Enthusiastic residents support a Nemo Community Association, a little
log church, the volunteer fire department and auxiliary (the Nemo
Fire Belles), serve on the Job Corps Community Relations Council,
organize clean-up days and an annual Pioneer Picnic, yet still find
time to lend a helping hand to neighbors.

It's a close-knit community filled with people who wouldn't think of
living anywhere else. In the Nemo centennial book Lois Weston wrote:

"When Custer and his men camped in this valley over 100 years ago, he
called it 'Paradise Valley' ... and that's exactly the way I feel as
I sit at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee, looking down this
peaceful, tranquil valley.

Editor's Note: Our thanks to the Nemo Centennial Committee whose
commemorative book has provided much of the resource material for
this story.

Copyright 2000 © Deadwood Magazine