Belle Bits
all this and more at the Tri-State Museum & visitor Center “We’re Burnin’ Daylight” The 1972 Western Classic, “The Cowboys,” is a cowboy tale of a 400-mile cattle drive to Belle Fourche, led by John Wayne as “Wil Andersen.” Three of the film’s stars — Al Barker, Norman Howell, and Mike Pyeatt, who played “Fats,” “Weedy,” and “Homer,” respectively — visited Belle Fourche to check out the town of the movie’s plot. The actors said they were impressed with the community, the people, and the hospitality.
President Woodrow Wilson In July 1918, a telegram was sent to President Wilson offering a donation of a prize lamb which brought $5,425 at a Red Cross Auction during the first Black Hills Roundup in Belle Fourche. The president replied, “I appreciate your telegram and admire the work for the Red Cross…thanks for thinking of me, but I have no means to care for such a lamb.”
Women’s Hats A local milliner — or, women’s hat maker — gave the girls at the brothels first choice of hats crafted. Once a hat was chosen, that model was taken off the market so “proper” women of the town would not be seen wearing the same hat as a brothel worker.
Tipperary Rejected by military horse buyers during World War I for bucking off every rider, the colt was won in a poker game by a saloonkeeper, who then bet a local bronc rider $500 that the horse couldn’t be ridden. When the cowboy was indeed bucked off, he sat in the dust singing, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Tipperary began a career that lasted until 1928, dumping 80 riders before Yakima Canutt made the first qualifying ride in 1920. The following year, Canutt rode the horse for the second and last time, in Belle Fourche. Tipperary was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979.
Calamity Jane
Spoiling the Fun
In 1903, Calamity Jane returned to the Black Hills, where she was employed by her friend Dora DuFran — one of the leading, most successful madams in the Old West. Jane earned her keep as the Belle Fourche brothel’s laundress and cook until her death on Aug. 2.
Belle Fourche once had a traveling house of prostitution that floated up and down the Belle Fourche River. In 1919, the town “tried to spoil a man’s fun” — they voted out prostitution, and voted in prohibition.
The Great
Capt. Don Smith Lt. Don Smith, Belle Fourche High School Class of ’36, USAA Corps, piloted a plane off the aircraft carrier Hornet as part of the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, and crash landed off the coast of China. He was awarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Military Order of China by Madame Chiang Kaishek, and earned the rank of captain. He was also honored by his hometown of Belle Fourche at the 1942 Black Hills Roundup. Capt. Smith was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame in 2012.
Butte County Bank Robbery Keeping the Cowboys in Town when they came to ship livestock
The cowboys wanted gambling, drink, dance, and girls. The merchants of Belle Fourche, like Madame Dora DuFran, saw to it that the cowboys’ wants were met, lest they take their money to Deadwood.
The Great Butte County Bank Robbery in 1897 was committed by the Hole-In-the Wall Gang including Kid Curry, the Sundance Kid, and Tom O’Day. The former Wells Fargo Bank currently sits on the site of the Butte County Bank.
Potato Creek Johnny On March 13, 1907, John C. Perrett, “Potato Creek Johnny,” who found the largest gold nugget in the Black Hills, married Mollie Hamilton at the Butte County Courthouse. They had no children and divorced after nearly 20 years. Mollie died in Belle Fourche in 1944, and is buried in Pine Slope Cemetery.
Photos courtesy of tri-state museum & Visitor Center
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