West 2008: Thursday, July 24, 2008

In South Dakota we learned about the power of dreams.

When most people looked up at the rock faces of the Black Hills of South Dakota, they saw, well, rock faces. But Gutzon Borglum looked up and saw faces in the rock. He envisioned the faces of four presidents carved into the surface of Mt. Rushmore. It was his desire to showcase democracy and the development of the United States through four distinct phases each represented by the president associated most with that phase.

George Washington would represent the birth of the nation. Thomas Jefferson would represent the growth of the colonies into a nation. Theodore Roosevelt would represent the development of the country as it expanded toward the west, and Abraham Lincoln would represent the preservation of the country through the Civil War.

The work began in 1927. It was dangerous and tedious and slow work involving 400 workers and dynamite, drilling, and carving from slings hung from the side of the mountain. Fourteen years later, in 1941, as the country entered World War II, and Borglum died, the work ceased.

Today visitors walk through the Avenue of Flags to the Grand View Terrace to view the sculpture. A trail begins at the terrace and takes visitors to the base of the mountain to view the faces up close. The trail continues from this point, but becomes very strenuous.
Of course, there is a visitor center, and there is a gift shop where many items can be purchased, proceeds of which do help in the maintenance of the monument.

Another dream, and another place for visitors to spend their money, can be found about an hour and a half down I-90 from Mt. Rushmore National Monument. It is the realization of a dream and then some.

In 1931, Nebraskan pharmacist Ted Hustead decided he wanted to open a drug store in a small town. He purchased a store in a town in South Dakota with a population of 231 souls. Business, as you might expect, was slow. That is, until Ted’s wife had an idea. Why not offer free ice water to people traveling the nearby highway? After all, they were near some natural wonders that were attracting more and more people.

It worked, and soon Wall Drug was a prospering business. It has continued to grow due to its extensive use of advertising billboards along major highways in South Dakota and neighboring states.

Today Wall Drug is a complex series of stores spreading out over several buildings. Virtually anything that appeals to tourists can be purchased here. And, yes, they do sell drugs and fill prescriptions.

Wall, South Dakota is the entrance to a land that is itself a dream, or a nightmare, depending on your perspective.

When the westward bound settlers came across the prairies on their journey to what they may have viewed as a promised land, they thought the prairie would never end. But it did. And when it did, they encountered a terrain so rugged they called it the badlands.

Mile after mile of subtle yet bold colors spread below in the Badlands National Park of South Dakota. This seemingly twisted, tortured land has actually been home to human beings for several millennia. In the 19th century, it was the Lakota Indians who called this home. They regarded these irregular formations as sacred, and they hunted buffalo to support their way of life.

But when settlers from the east arrived, conflict was inevitable. What the Lakota saw as sacred the settlers saw as a nuisance, an impediment to their progress and the establishment of their way of life. The culmination of this conflict occurred in 1876 some 370 miles west of the Badlands when Lt. Col. George Custer and Lakota chief Sitting Bull squared off over retaliations for settler invasions of Indian lands. The Lakota won the battle of the Little Bighorn River, but they lost the war.

Around every bend of the road it seems there are new versions of eroded rock. It is a constantly changing view that unfolds before the visitor. Colors can be vibrant or subdued, but the pallette used to paint these rocks was certainly a kaleidoscope of hues.

Some say these rocks are the product of millions of years of erosion, of sun and wind and water and ice remolding the rock and forming it into the fantastic shapes that we see today. But I take a different view.

I believe in a God-created universe, where every feature of landscape and every form of life is the work of a Creator of infinite wisdom and imagination and endless love for that which He created. I believe these formations began as a result of the flood reported in the book of Genesis. I believe God used the raging waters of that flood as it receded to create the beauty we see as we stand on the flat places and look out over the rugged places. I believe the Badlands are the work of God.

Although it may not be politically correct to say so, I believe the conquest of the west was also a work directed by God. The settlers brought with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not mean that every one of them were loving, faithful Christians; many were not. But the westward advance across the prairies and the badlands and the mountains did bring the Gospel to new areas and to peoples who had never heard what God did for them at the cross. I believe God wanted that to happen. A belief in sacred hills and rocks was replaced with the good news that God through Christ had offered a way for sinners to be free of the death penalty sin demands, something sacred rocks could never do.

God’s dream, if you will, is for all to come to Christ and escape the badlands that result from human sin.

Photos: Mt. Rushmore National Monument, Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park all in South Dakota.