Of Trails and Towns: in the Black Hills and Badlands

by Edith-Maria Redlin

Have you ever gotten lost in the Black Hills at sundown? It can happen even to experienced hikers like Edith-Maria Redlin and her husband Kent. In this book, she writes about this and many other adventures in her entertaining and informative way. Some of her stories will take you back in time and explain the rise and fall of ghost towns. There are towns built on the hopes of mining claims like Spokane. Others, like Cascade, were built on the dreams of utilizing warm mineral waters for a health resort. And then there is the mysterious town of Scenic near the Badlands, and the question What will become of it in the future? Redlin takes you to the beginnings of Rapid City, she explores and swims in Rapid Creek, and then she and her husband are off into the woods again, hiking to the top of Black Elk Peak on a hot June day, walking in the Badlands wonderland in winter, following an old railroad bed in the most remote Big Elk Canyon and living in a little cabin in the woods for a few days. Whether Redlin probes into the history of the sign above Custer or into the dwellings of bats, ground squirrels and some unknown animals—each of her stories is fun to read, maybe it will even be fun to trace her steps through the Black Hills and Badlands?

126 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2017