Hello friends and fellow Hivers. My vacation ended a few days ago but I still have a few things to share with you. Today I share with you a place I stopped at on my way to Rapid City, South Dakota.
The place I visited was called 1880 town. It's not a real town but is a place that has a lot of historical buildings and artifacts from that time period. The buildings are real and they all come from towns around the region.This place use to be a pasture and was turned into what it is today in the early 1970's.
A 1880 town is not complete unless you a have an iron clad piece of metal on wheels, a train. This one is dated a ways back but no numbers or identification on it. I tried Google Lens and I'm not for sure of it's age but I'm pretty sure it falls some where in the late 1800's.
Next we have some rail cars. The first one is a live stock car, look at the old patina on that old wagon in front of it. The last car is a caboose followed by it's interior.
This train is steam engine locomotive and they need water so hence the water tower. A small town with rails running through it needs a train depot. This put together town has one. This isn't it for train related stuff there is more but I'll wait until later.
Here we have an old Fire department building. You see the rope off to the right? Well that's connected to a bell and anyone walking by is allowed to ring it. It's amazing to think 120 years ago horses pulled the fire fighting equipment around. The old equipment is really cool to look at both outside and inside this fire department.
A Blacksmith played a very important part back in the day. They use to be a staple of every town. A matter a fact I grew up in a small town and we had one into the 1980's. Our Blacksmith followed in his father's footsteps. The guy was incredible with medal. I lived in the country so we had a tractor that was used for gardening,bailing alfalfa, snow removal, and even mowing the grass. I can remember my father going to him often to have repairs done on that tractor and the equipment it used. He repaired and welded many things for us. He sometimes even rescontructed parts that turned out as good as new. He worked well into his 80's and it was sad to see such a trade disappear once he stopped working.
This building had a shop inside which included many of the tools needed to be a blacksmith. You can't be a blacksmith unless you have the minimum which includes a forge, anvil, and hammer. Of course many other tools are required but those are probably the most used.
This building was used for many uses. It was a salon, hotel, a brothel, and even a theater. Above is it's use as salon. Today you can buy some unique soda beverages, candy and even popcorn and have a seat at one of many tables on both the main floor or on it's second level.Let's see some of its other uses.
Oh some old pianos, I know @mipiano would appreciate these. There's more pianos I will share later. These weren't just for display, about every 90 minutes a show went on. Our timing was off so we weren't able to see a show. It was nice seeing this stage and it made me wonder how much entertainment it provided back in its hey day.
Also on the second level of the building contained hotel style rooms. It looks like this would have been a nice place to stay at for the night back in the day. A very unique style bathtub right? The red themed room I don't think was for over night stays.
A very typical one room school house. Most would be about this size or smaller back than. Kids from all grades would have attended and there would be just one teacher. I imagine students would have been been working on assignments a lot. The teacher would have had many lesson plans due the range of ages of the students. Teacher would have had to keep all students busy working on things to keep control I think.
A small time period house which often was one floor with two rooms. You can tell this house is old and could use some TLC. A lot of artifacts were in these houses that were in this town. A very good look at how life was back than by looking at cabinets, stoves, beds, and musical entertainment. Perhaps there were more musically inclined people back than? Most houses didn't have bathrooms they had outhouses. The house I grew up in was built around the turn of the century. We had a bathroom in the house but there was a outhouse on the property. I used it when it was convenient but I never sat down while inside it, haha.
This building served just one purpose as a saloon. Many of these buildings here had horse parking where you simply tie them to cross posts. This was one of the first places where you weren't able to enter all the way into the building. I can understand, a lot of glass with some historic liquor bottles and such. I imagine this place with high wooden chairs at the bar packed elbow to elbow. Though small I also think some gambling was done via card games like poker at the tables.
Every town needs a bank. There weren't alarm systems back than so closed in cages were used to deter thieves. Also pictured is the bank manager's office. I hope these bank employees were paid well because at these times I'm sure there were many bank robberies. I know it wouldn't be a job I would have wanted to hold.
These small old towns usually had a place to worship. Most old churches remain in the towns unless the foundations become week. A town where I use to live near still has a church that is used today that is over 130 years old. I'll have to admit I was a little freaked out walking inside the church. There was music playing and the manicans looked so real. The thing that got me is the manicans did settle head movements and twitched a bit. I just wasn't expecting that, haha.
Our next journey led us into a large 14 sided barn. I forgot to capture a photo of it. It was a two story barn and the first floor contained the entry and exit point to the town. Also on the first floor was a small gift shop and a rather large collection of assorted stuff. The thing about the assortment of stuff is it's for sale at the right price. There were no prices on much of the items.
The first photo above is a cool looking French coach wagon that is dated from 1870. I also enjoyed seeing the demolition box. Yes I played with it by push the lever up and down, haha. I wonder when the last time it got used.
I took a photo of some saddles, they had a lot of them. There was a large range of them and it's remarkable despite their age they could be used today still. Thick layered leather holds well through the test of time. I'm sure they were maintained with great care as well.
Last thing that caught my attention was these pianos. They would make good furniture pieces in anyone's house. The one had a note that it automatically plays one tune. I don't know it appears to me that the other one would do the same as well. Anyways if I had one of these in my house I would have to invite a pianists over because I don't how to play.
The upstairs of this barn holds many relics and things that were used by the movie business. Probably the biggest known movie with artifacts upstairs is Dancing With Wolves starring Kevin Costner. Not just here but many other places in South Dakota were used for this movie. This site has been used for a few movies due to a lot of buildings having such a historic value.
After we walked through 1880 Town and explored we were getting a little hungry. Here we have a retired 1950's diesel locomotive which was hooked up to 3 identical railcars. The last one was attached to a small building.
So this whole line of cars is a restaurant. The name of it is the Santa Fe Train Diner. Once walking in I seen this little poem. Hey I'm not starving I think I will take a walk through before eating.
So this train diner had a 1950's theme. From the checkered floors right down to the what I think is 50's style carpet. Music playing through speakers placed throughout the cars was from the fifties. I'd like to tell you the food was delicious but it was awful. So awful I didn't bother taking any pictures. The best part of the meal were the bag of chips and the water bottle I bought. Oh well not everything can be perfect and I did enjoy the free walk through though, lol.
The 1880 Town is a much a worthy visit. We spent a good three hours here and didn't check out all of the buildings. The town every so often receives new stuff and yes that includes additional buildings too.
That would be all folks. I appreciate you taking your time to read this article. Be safe and enjoy the rest of your week.