George S. Mickelson Trail: Fantail

The Fantail segment is the western arm of the one loop on the George S. Mickelson Trail, about five miles from Kirk Trailhead near Lead up past the Sugarloaf trailhead to the junction where the two arms rejoin north of Englewood. It climbs steadily the whole way in a narrow, wooded gulch of spruce, aspen, and pine, on crushed gravel laid over old railroad ties that still show through in places. A short spur drops into Lead. Ridden with the eastern arm it makes a loop of about eight miles from Kirk with no backtracking. The eastern arm and the rest of the corridor north to Deadwood and south to Dumont belong to the Deadwood segment.

• The Kirk power plant was built in the 1920s to help power the Homestake gold mine, burning coal that came by rail from Wyoming and using water piped from Englewood.
• George Hearst and his partners bought the Homestake claim at Lead in 1877 for $70,000.
• Homestake reached 8,000 feet deep and produced more than forty million troy ounces of gold before mining ended at the close of 2001.
• The old mine is now the Sanford Underground Research Facility, chosen by the National Science Foundation in 2007 for deep underground physics experiments.
• This is the only loop on the Mickelson Trail; the western Fantail arm is about two miles longer than the eastern arm.
• Old railroad ties are still in place under the gravel between the Sugarloaf trailhead and Deadwood.
• A spur of eight tenths of a mile connects the loop to the town of Lead.
• Whitewood Creek below Kirk is a good place to see an American dipper, a songbird that walks underwater in fast, rocky streams.

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. The Fantail is the western leg of the only loop on the trail, swinging past the Sugarloaf trailhead below Lead, where the Kirk power plant of the 1920s burned Wyoming coal brought in by rail to run the Homestake mine.

• Kirk TrailheadMILE 0Directions
• Sugarloaf TrailheadMILE 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
• 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
• MTB Project · Mickelson: Deadwood to Edgemont
• Bike Mickelson · Kirk Trailhead, Lead SD on the Mickelson Trail
• Wikipedia · Homestake Mine (South Dakota)
• Bike Mickelson · Sugarloaf Trailhead, Lead SD on the Mickelson Trail
• Komoot · George S. Mickelson Trail: Sugarloaf Fantail Loop
• 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