It’s pretty cool to have Mike Bender on the team and build on his work over the years in Deadwood on the various historic cemeteries on the hills above town. Mt. Moriah is one he has years of history working on.
In 2020, the City of Deadwood hired us to assist them with identifying additional repairs, maintenance and preservation needs within the over 140-year-old Cemetery. The project included on-site reviews and documentation of current conditions in the cemetery, developing priorities for the preservation activities and ongoing maintenance of the historic cemetery which is the final resting place of numerous famous residents of Deadwood including James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, Calamity Jane, Potato Creek Johnny and Preacher Smith to name a few.
Following the site review and analysis, the area of Wild Bill Hickok’s gravesite and the walkways, walls, pavements, railings and fencing leading up to and surrounding it were identified as the top priority for the 2021 project focus. With this project, providing maintenance activities for the 2004 improvements was the key focus. With hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, the area around Mount Moriah’s most famous resident had become worn and needed repairs. These repairs included refinishing railings, repairing the historic ironwork, repointing stone masonry walls and paving, and repairing deteriorated concrete steps. The project was completed in August of 2021 with MAC Construction of Rapid City performing the general construction work.
Mike is currently developing plans for the next maintenance and preservation project in the cemetery which will focus on stone wall reconstruction for several gravesites. This will take place in the Summer of 2022
Here’s a few scenes from the first phase of 2021 work:
Anyone recognize this guy?
Sometimes the project is defining the appropriate measures to ensure our well loved treasures can withstand the thousands of visitors that want to see them. Historic Preservation meet durability.
Clean, tidy, and safe.
A few years back Tanya and Matt worked on a restoration project where the challenge was to find a way to reclaim a 100 year old path that had worn into a gulley. That project was complete in 2016. Here’s what that looked like:
Trail bustin’!
Getting there!
Before (below) and After (above)! Not bad!