Journey to the Center of the USA

As we were planning our stay in Spearfish, South Dakota, we learned that the geographic center of the USA is nearby, about 20 miles north of Belle Fourche.  Before Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states, the geographic center of the USA was in Lebanon, Kansas.  However, with the addition of those states in 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey calculated how that changed the geographic center.  In 1962, a survey marker was installed at the calculated location.

Others have written about it.  Our mission was to find it.

First we checked in at the Center of the U.S. Visitor Center in Belle Fourche, SD, a short drive up US Highway 85 from our campground.  The visitor center has a large monument memorializing the fact that Belle Fourche is the town closest to the centerpoint.  It wasn't hard to find that monument:

Luckily, the visitor center has pamphlets with directions to the true surveyed centerpoint.  We snapped one up, hopped in the truck, and started out on our hunt.

The first direction was to drive almost 13 miles north of Belle Fourche on US 85, where a sign marks the Old Highway 85.  That highway sign is supplemented by a sign reassuring that we were on the right track:

Old Highway 85 is a gravel road that rambles up, down and through South Dakota prairie:

We wondered how long ago Old Highway 85 was in use and marvelled that such a highway was only gravelled.  That was a question to be answered another day, for now we had arrived at the exact spot.

We had been instructed to look for an old barn on the left approximately 7.8 miles up Old Highway 85, then spot the stone cairn on the right:

Obviously, someone cares about this, for the cairn had been hand-built, and was accompanied by a sign that had also been hand-made.  We're not sure what the cross and flowers at the base of the cairn were memorializing.

A red cattle fence gate allowed us into the adjoining field and we marched over to an American flag mounted on a concrete base.  Kathy couldn't help helping the flag fly a little for the photo:

The spot marks the geographic center of the country.  Its GPS coordinates are Latitude North 44 58 02.07622, Longitude West -103 46 17.60283.  We were so impressed with the scene that we took a 360-degree panoramic video of the location and its setting.

Here is a close-up of the flag's base, with "1959" written to memorialize the year this spot attained significance, and the USGS survey marker:

Here's a close-up of the survey marker:

As we walked back to the truck, Kathy noticed that someone had left an offering hanging at the cattle fence gate:  a Terrible Towel from some Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  Unfortunately, we had nothing Igglish to respond with in kind, so the black-and-yellow towel continues to wave unchallenged at this strategic location.

Under a flat rock by the cairn is a plastic box with a register in it.  Visitors are invited to write the fact and date of their visit and any comments.  In the photo below, Kathy ponders the comment she will leave while poring over various mementoes left in the box by prior visitors:

Given that our motto is to leave nothing but footprints, we had nothing to put in the box other than our own comment.  However, we got a bonus.  As we turned to leave, Kathy spotted movement at a nearby hole in the ground.  It was a small bunny, who cooperated in sitting still long enough for Kathy to snap this close-up:

When we had driven into the site, we had seen perhaps four hawks hunting the fields.  We couldn't imagine what could sustain four hawks in such a small area.  We now had a clue.  We hoped that the fact that this bunny inhabits a hole in the center of the nation will give him some karmic protection against the (almost) inevitable fate of most bunnies who live near hawks.