Custer, SD (Antelope: home, subdivision, to live)

[Chris19]

I have been to Custer on two different occasions and found it to be a neat town. I also know a few college friends from there and are great people. The city is clean for the most part and the trees add additional beauty to the town. It is one of my favorite towns in the Black Hills due to its size, scenic value, and proximity to other places in the Black Hills.

Summertime is nice and the city is in a higher altitude than many other Black Hills communities. The air is dry and comfortable in the summer. If it is 50-80 degree weather with their drier air, it is heaven (in my opinion).

Their HS basketball team (Wildcats) has traditionally been strong and meet a number times in the State As with the Lennox Orioles. I am biased toward the Orioles due to being from the area. They have won several times and we have won a couple of times. Both basketball teams respect each other and it is an interesting rivalry. I gave the Custer friends a hard time when Lennox won the State As several years back over Custer. They give me a hard time but it is all good.

[Deanise]

Thank you so much for the information, now I could start my plan to move down to Custer.

[erosinspirit]

Hi all,
I have been off of the forum for a while. My wife and I were planning on coming up to our property for three weeks in June/July and then my wife got sick in April. She ended up in the hospital on the 26th of April and has been off work ever since. She just saw the Dr. yesterday (Sept 23rd) and got the green light to go back to work on the 1st of October. I am glad that she is finally well enough to go back. It has been a long summer. She is still on oxygen at night. She had problem with her lungs and breathing. She is better now, but still needs oxygen at night.
But that threw all of our plans out the window for our trip this year. So we are regrouping and making our plans for next year. We actually have another couple of friends that will be coming up with us. One of them has a motorhome too so we are planning on convoying up next summer and camping on the land. I hope to have my tipi by then and set it up then too. I can't wait.
I hope that the summer months have treated everybody well. I sure would have liked to be up there with you.
Jan and I moved just before she got sick. We bought a mobile home in Vista, CA., which is right next to Oceanside, CA. We are about 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean and the weather is pretty nice all year long. We found a 1400 sq. ft. doublewide in a park that has a year round stream behind it. There is a 40ft. ramp that goes from our back yard down to the "beach" as I call it, next to the stream. It was at one time part of the beach because there are sea shells all in the sand there. It is a private beach in that neither of the other homes on either side of us, have access to go down to the stream and it is quite quiet and peaceful there. I go down there with a book and just sit and read or watch the ducks and listen to the babbling brook. It is a perfect hideaway. I never thought we would find something like that here in Southern California. But it is a little piece of heaven.
I would love to hear from anyone up there as to what has been going on for your this summer.
Les

[Jammie]

Les, it's good to hear from you again. I wondered what had happened to you and your wife. I'm sorry to hear that she had gotten so ill. Sometimes things like that just seem to get in the way of our plans.

We've had a beautiful summer in the state. All the nice summer activities and the Fairs are pretty much over with and we're all getting ready for autumn. (NOT winter though.)

It sounds like you live in a fabulous place. When I was young~back in the 60s and early 70s, EVERYONE that I knew wanted to live in Southern Cali. It sounds like there is an area that is still Paradise. Unfortunately, many of us stayed right here because the cost of living there would've been WAY beyond our means.

[erosinspirit]

Hi Jamie,
I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason. I don't know the why yet, but that is OK. We will just go from where we are and plan our trip for 2009.
I am glad that you are having a good autumn there. Wish I could drop in up there for a few days and enjoy it with you. But the time will come when we will be there enjoying the wonderful fresh air and having the time of our lives.
Thanks for responding. Southern California is still here and if you ever get down this way, please know that you have an invitation to stop by.
Les

[DannyBanany]

Les, it's great to hear that all is going well now for you and your wife. I like it when good things happen to good people. Just think, it's only a year!

[erosinspirit]

Thanks. We really missed coming back this year BUT, for this next year we have some friends planning on coming back too. We will be bringing two motor homes and camping for three weeks on our property. Until we retire, that is probably as long as we will be able to stay at one time. Getting the time off of work is a problem. So...
I am glad that all is well up there. I trust that the summer was spectacular as ever.
I have reading as much as I can get my hands on about the Black Hills. Since that is where our property is, I would like to get a feel for the history there. You are very rich in history in that area. So there are a lot of places that I want to visit, just in that area. We will just not have enough time to see everything we want to see on this trip. We will just have to keep coming back.

[blackhillsdreams]

Hey Eros. Hope you get to go there soon! If you want some very nice FREE printed info sent to you, go to: Free South Dakota Vacation Guide - South Dakota Tourism and request any of the free publications you want and they'll send them out within a week or so.

I did this prior to my trip there this past June and some of these publications were just great to have.

[sd_gjax]

Eros, I had the privilege of living in Custer Highlands back in 2000-2001, the year of the fires! I was on Antelope drive facing Elk Mountain. This was about year three of the drought that just broke just this year, so things were dry. However I had five fires get within three miles of my home, one was a scant 400 yards away! It was a lightning strike that burned about a quarter acre. I ended up driving my pickup with my water tank about half full to the edge of the fire to put out the stump of the tree that got hit, while neighbors dug the fire line. The volunteer fire department was dealing with four similiar fires throughout the area. That was exciting! The Elk Mountain fire was interesting in that the prevailing winds were from the west and they were blowings ashes and cinders to the property. I used to love thunder and lightning storms but living on that property made me really edgy.

There are some issues with the Custer Highland development:

Water is a HUGE issue, at least it was back then. Almost everyone hauled water from either Newcastle or Custer. The general problem is that you are on top of the same limestone that contains Jewel cave (the second ot third largest cave in the world). It is extremely pourous and as such it was estimated that to have a good well, you would have to go 700ft!

The road from 16 was an issue back then, not sure if it has been resolved yet, the road however is not county maintained and it gets really messy and rough in the winter time. There were several attempts at creating a road district for maintenance but it was shot down by other members of the development who didn't want to pay the annual fee and liked the isolation that the bad road gave them.

That leads me to the third issue, while there were good people in the development, there are also some scary ones and you are REALLY isolated out there. There have been a couple of fatal shootings over the years though as far as I know they were all part of domestic dissputes.

And finally, I miss living there. I had to leave because it was too isolated. I was single at the time and having that lack of companionship finally got to me. I did love it there though, there is no place where the stars are brighter. I was watching TV one night, heard a noise outside and when I went to investigate realized it was the train in Dewey...it wasn't the horn, it was the sound of the train on the tracks! That tells you how quiet it is! As expected, wildlife abbounds. I have personally seen deer, turkeys, skunk, porcupine, coyotes and even an antelope once! Hawks are always around as well as owls and my favorites, the seasonal Junco. Living across the valley from Elm Mountain, you can watch the weather as it comes to you. The colors of the clouds are amazing. The forest service to the east has a lot of canyons, the biggest one is teepee canyon about 4 miles east. I spent a lot of time in that forest service, running, hiking and biking. I will always consider my time there as one of the highpoints of my life. It's a very spiritual place if you let it be.

I know I started out this message on a negative tone but it's better to be prepared than to be surprised. It's been seven years so maybe some of the negatives have been rectified. Based on some of your other messages, I think that you will do fine and I know you will love it out there.

Kevin

[blackhillsdreams]

Great info Kevin. Thank you very much. You didn't say but were you hauling potable water?