2/19/20

Fire could reignite downtown Hot Springs


Hot Springs was part of my marketing territory for eight years when I was with Twin City Fruit in Deadwood and for another year after Sysco bought us in 1990.

In 2014 this interested party passed a Black Hills State University article on community organizing to a Hot Springs official. The town then expanded its social media platform and the Mammoth Site is at the focus of scientific research on a 9300-year-old mummified bison uncovered there. In 2015 Hot Springs hosted a visiting New Mexico couple to breakfast, walks through the historic downtown, the Veterans Administration complex, the Pioneer Museum and the Mammoth Site: a test of cannabis possession in several jurisdictions. Nearby Wind Cave National Park is a perennial favorite destination for ecotourists and is within biking distance of the Mickelson Trail. Real estate is affordable and historic properties abound.

In 1921 my maternal grandparents rode the train from Humphrey, Nebraska and honeymooned in Hot Springs where Evans Plunge became the Black Hills' first commercial tourist attraction and if passenger rail ever happens again nearby Maverick Junction will no doubt be a stop. After the 1987 fire that burned Deadwood's Syndicate Building to the ground Democrats rallied to bring legal gambling to the Gulch. Hot Springs could be something someday, too.

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