George S. Mickelson Trail: Edgemont

The Edgemont segment is the southern 45 miles of the George S. Mickelson Trail, from the Cheyenne River at Edgemont north through Minnekahta and Pringle to Custer. It is the open half of the trail: short grass prairie, sagebrush, sandstone bluffs, and cottonwood draws until the pines close in near Custer. The crushed limestone surface climbs at rail grade nearly the whole way northbound, with trailheads at Edgemont, Minnekahta, and Pringle spaced about sixteen miles apart. Sheep Canyon, a steep sandstone gorge with the old trestle fill, is the landmark of the lower half. Beyond Custer the trail continues north as the Custer segment toward Hill City.

• The Sheep Canyon trestle, built by the Burlington in 1890, stood 700 feet across and 126 feet tall at its highest point.
• In the summer of 1899 the railroad buried the trestle in rock, with 1,486 trains of fifteen cars each hauling fill between April 24 and September 8.
• Edgemont was founded in 1889 as the railroad's base camp for building the line into the Black Hills.
• Minnekahta began as a water stop and the junction where the Hot Springs branch left the main line.
• Sanator took its name from the state tuberculosis sanatorium beside the trail south of Custer; its post office ran from 1921 to 1962.
• A large prairie dog town sits in open grazed prairie near milepost 5, about halfway between Sheep Canyon and Edgemont.
• Granite gives way to sandstone at Pringle, where the pines grow smaller and the country turns drier.
• The Cheyenne River flows through Edgemont under a town forest of cottonwoods.

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 southern segment holds the prairie end of the line: Edgemont, founded in 1889 as the railroad's base camp, the Minnekahta water stop where the Hot Springs branch left the High Line, and the filled Sheep Canyon trestle of 1890.

• EdgemontMILE 0Directions
• Minnekahta TrailheadMILE 16.2Directions
• PringleMILE 32.5Directions
• White Elephant TrailheadMILE 36Directions
• CusterMILE 44.9Directions

• 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
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks · George S. Mickelson Trail map and trailheads
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy · A Milestone for the Mickelson Trail: Celebrating 25 Years
• Story of the Sheeps Canyon Trestle
• MTB Project · Mickelson: Deadwood to Edgemont
• Wikipedia · Sanator, South Dakota
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (TrailLink) · George S. Mickelson Trail History
• Black Hills Visitor · George S. Mickelson Trail
• Spearfish Area Historical Society · A Black Hills gem: The Mickelson Trail
• Black Hills Hiking, Biking, and More · Minnekahta Trailhead to Edgemont Trailhead - Mickelson Trail