George S. Mickelson Trail: Deadwood

The Deadwood segment is the northern 24 miles of the George S. Mickelson Trail, from Rochford over the trail's summit at Dumont and down to the old railroad depot on Sherman Street in Deadwood. From Rochford the trail passes Tunnel D and climbs through open high meadows and aspen to Dumont, then drops through spruce and pine past Englewood into the Whitewood Creek gulch, where slate walls close in and the grade is the steepest on the whole trail. Kirk Trailhead near Lead marks the junction with the Fantail loop. South of Rochford the trail continues as the Mystic segment; the Fantail segment branches west between Kirk and Englewood.

• Dumont is the highest point on the trail, and the nineteen miles from Deadwood up to it is the longest incline on the whole route.
• Englewood began as Ten-Mile Ranch, a stagecoach stop of the late 1870s, and its post office ran from 1892 to 1943.
• From Englewood the Burlington's Spearfish branch made what one historian called a torturous little trip up to Trojan and Portland, then down Spearfish Canyon.
• The Spearfish branch closed after flooding in Spearfish Canyon wiped out its track.
• Dumont was named for an early French settler, Charles Dumont; by 1972 a historian found only its cattle pens and the ruins of a section house.
• Deadwood was named for the burned trees miners found in the gulch when they arrived looking for gold.
• The Deadwood trailhead sits beside the old railroad depot on Sherman Street, and about two and a half miles of trail lie inside the city limits.
• Whitewood Creek's fast, rocky channel below Kirk is a good place to spot an American dipper, and belted kingfishers work the creek even in winter.

Burlington and Missouri River crews graded the High Line from Edgemont to Deadwood in 1890 and 1891, blasting four hard rock tunnels and building more than 100 timber trestles in under a year. Gold had opened the country first. Custer's 1874 expedition reported gold on French Creek, and the next summer Jenney and Newton found it on Castle Creek. Camps such as Sitting Bull, later Mystic, and Rochford grew along the creeks the rails would follow. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy ran the line, hauling passengers, mail, coal, livestock, and general merchandise to the mining towns and their mills. Its successor, Burlington Northern, abandoned the Custer to Deadwood portion in November 1983 and the Edgemont to Custer portion in 1986. Governor George S. Mickelson pushed to turn the corridor into a trail. The first six miles were dedicated in 1991 as South Dakota's first rail trail. Mickelson died in a plane crash in April 1993, and the trail took his name. The full 109 miles from Edgemont to Deadwood opened in 1998, managed by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy inducted it into its Hall of Fame in 2010. This northern segment carries the line over its summit at Dumont and down Whitewood Creek to the Deadwood depot; Englewood, once the Ten-Mile Ranch stage stop, became the junction where the Spearfish branch left the High Line.

• RochfordMILE 0Directions
• DumontMILE 9.9Directions
• EnglewoodMILE 15.8Directions
• Kirk TrailheadMILE 20.7Directions
• DeadwoodMILE 24.2Directions

• Wikipedia · George S. Mickelson Trail
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks · George S. Mickelson Trail: Trail Policies and Etiquette
• Mickelson Trail Affiliates · Mickelson Trail Information
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks · A Birder's Guide to the George S. Mickelson Trail
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy · A Milestone for the Mickelson Trail: Celebrating 25 Years
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks · George S. Mickelson Trail map and trailheads
• MTB Project · Mickelson: Deadwood to Edgemont
• Wikipedia · Englewood, South Dakota
• Spearfish Area Historical Society · Railroads of the Black Hills
• Spearfish Area Historical Society · A Black Hills gem: The Mickelson Trail
• South Dakota Public Broadcasting · Some Black Hills Ghost Towns and Their Origins
• City of Deadwood · George S. Mickelson Trail | City of Deadwood
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (TrailLink) · George S. Mickelson Trail History
• Black Hills Visitor · George S. Mickelson Trail
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks · Snowmobiling