A trip down Wagon Canyon Road

A road trip took Ren and Scott of @xcountytravelers through a corner of South Dakota (US) recently. En route to their destination, they opted to take less-traveled back-roads instead of the major highways. Regarding that, the adventurous Ren said:

We hate taking the main path. If it is gravel and curved, it is a pretty sure bet that we will take it.

Their rambling on the back-roads certainly paid-off in photos, as they came back with shots of several wonderful barns! The one that amazed me the most is the following barn:

For one thing, it is a cute little barn, even though it needs a bit of repair work done to it, and it is situated right beside a dirt road with a lovely, green field behind it! As usual, I ran through the usual steps I take when processing Old Barn photos and came up with this artistic rendering:

One of the strangest things about this barn — as well as many other barns that they saw in the same general area — was the roof. Instead of being covered with large pieces of sheet-metal as is done in most places in the US, this one was completely covered with round plates of metal. Ren, Scott, and I all agreed that it is probably old harrow blades from a farm plow.

I am glad that Ren zoomed-in to get a closeup shot of the harrow blades which the owner used to shingle the roof... absolutely amazing, and a quite clever use for recycling an item no longer serviceable for its original purpose!

Across the dirt road from the barn is a simple and rustic cottage, most probably inhabited by the landowner. It is very close to a small creek, so small that it isn't named on most maps, although one map gives its name as "South Fork" — although I could not find any other creek from which it forked... 😂 There is a pump-house for a well on the property (the low shelter between the house and the creek) and another little shed in the background that looks like a little red barn (but appears more like a metal shed than a true barn).

The following shed is also on the property, situated on the same side of the road as the barn in the first photo. Note that the shed has the same roof as the barn, 'shingled' with old harrow blades, and they cover at least one side of the structure, too.

I really like the following screenshot of the homestead from an aerial perspective, also from BING Maps. The little valley along Wagon Canyon Road is so attractive and charming, flanked by forests and mountains on all sides! 😊

This entire piece of property lies within the Black Hills National Forest, which is over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km²) in size. As such, it is a very rural area with remarkably few houses, probably homesteads that existed from long ago before the region was designated a protected area in 1897. The following screenshot from BING Maps shows the location of the property with the 'pin' icon, and only two other homesteads appearing in this entire view. If one were to zoom-out that screenshot on BING Maps, there would be plenty more undeveloped area in the view, along with several mountain peaks, trees, a few dirt roads, and nothing more.

The following map shows the location of the homestead in relation to the Black Hills National Forest as a whole. The largest city of any size is Rapid City, South Dakota. A little north of Rapid City is the town of Sturgis, made famous by the annual motorcycle rallies that have been held there since 1938. Southeast of Rapid City is the Badlands National Park, and to the south is Custer State Park and the famous Mount Rushmore monument. So, this entire area is laced with history.

Thank you, @xcountytravelers, for bringing these delightful photos to us of this wonderful little homestead and its fascinating barn! I thoroughly enjoyed researching the area and exploring the maps of nearby places! You will be receiving half the rewards of this post!