Pine Crest Tourist Park – by Marjorie Pontius
Up to 1924, tourists who visited Deadwood could tent in the grassy area east of the race track in the Amusement Park. But far-seeing people felt that there was a need for better facilities; the city purchased an area at the top of Spearfish Hill, and Pine Crest Tourist Park was started. Water from the city supply was pumped up to a storage tank on the ridge of Sunrise Mountain, picnic tables were supplied by various businesses, each table bearing one or more advertisements, and Pine Crest Park opened for tourists in the spring of 1924. Bert Webber was caretaker. Frequently, issues of the Deadwood Daily Pioneer carried front page lists of "Tourists Registered at Pine Crest." The July 20, 1924 issue carried a story entitled "Building Progressing," explaining that the excavation for the basement of the Community Building had been completed. It was to be a spacious log structure with fireplace and piano upstairs. In the basement were to be showers, restrooms, a furnace room to maintain hot water for the showers, and a kitchen. (Plans for the kitchen were scrapped at sometime, for the completed house had no kitchen facilities. Some years later a kitchen was built across the highway, with gas plates and long serving tables for the convenience of campers and picnickers.) The project was a community one, with individuals purchasing logs at five dollars each, with an "Honor Roll" displayed over the fireplace or in the corner by the telephone.
A Pioneer Times news item in the September 9, 1924 issue reports, "Pine Crest, when the season opens in 1925, with the Community House ready for entertainment of guests, will be one of the best equipped parks in the west, and is certain to attract and hold large numbers during the warm days and cool evenings of our Black Hills summer” The Juso brothers, skilled artisans with the broadax, built the Community House. It was completed and ready for the tourist season of the summer of 1925. Roy Ostrander was caretaker; he and his family used the office cabin as a home, supplemented by a large army type tent on a rough plank floor. The tent furnished damp and cold accommodations during the rainy springs, drippy cold accommodations during the snowy late fall (The camp opened May 1 and closed October 1 each year) as well as delightfully cool accommodations for the main part of the season.
Tourists enjoyed the camping facilities, and they also enjoyed the social evenings of visiting, singing, dancing and/or reading before a crackling fire in the fireplace. A lady from Terraville came out many nights to play for the assembled tourists. A Deadwood women's group furnished many copies of the Golden Song book, and song fests were enjoyed frequently. Various people, either tourists or Deadwood natives, would enjoy furnishing music for singing and dancing. The Community House was used by many groups as well as by the tourists for card parties, programs, various meetings, and several weddings. The Park was also used for such other activities as end-of-school picnics, booster groups, church groups, extension clubs, etc. Roy and Pearle Ostrander were gracious hosts over the years; many patrons came back year after year, or every two or three years to visit with this friendly couple. Among the "repeaters" were Orlen and Margaret Baker, an artist and his wife from Great Bend, Kansas. Roy's response to profuse thanks for some kindness was always, "Just pass it on."
Deadwood Dick, or Richard Clark, was established in the Park about 1927. He first lived in another of those square army tents located just back of the office and up the hill. We were glad when the Chamber of Commerce built a small log cabin some distance up the hill. His habits of cleanliness left much to be desired. He entertained tourists with accounts of his early experiences and attended various functions arranged by the Chamber of Commerce until his death in 1930. As he requested, he was buried on the peak of Sunrise Mountain. It was a cold, snowy spring day, and it was a difficult, slippery labor to carry the casket up the last rods to the gravesite. Nine pallbearers joined hands in groups of three in wing formation to accomplish the task. Even after his death the cabin was maintained as a tourist attraction, and some people were immensely impressed. One viewer gushed "Wonderful! It will go down in history just like Lincoln's log cabin!”
During the depression years many newcomers to the area spent weeks or even months in a cabin at Pine Crest as they "rustled" at Homestake and/or sought work elsewhere in the area. As the demand for tourist accommodations grew, some thought that the city should no longer be in the tourist business and that private enterprise should have the revenue. The beginning of World War II further complicated things. Eventually Pine Crest was sold. It changed ownership several times. The Community House was remodeled into a nightclub (called Club ’76) and finally burned under mysterious circumstances. Then in 1959 everything was burned the disastrous forest fire – the cabins, community kitchen, entrance towers, and all. Fortunately the area was replanted with seedling pines promptly after the fire and a good stand of young pine is covering some of the scars.