-I'm in a destination where the natural landscape is spectacular, where spending time in state and national parks fills you with a deep awe and irrepressible pride.

Oh, my gosh.

It's a place where a younger generation is making certain that what their ancestors stood for is still honored today, and where the Native American story is being told in powerful ways through words, music, and dance.

It's a place that still has incredible stories to tell.

I'm in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

[ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel in the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Oceania Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and Samantha Brown's "Places to Love."

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Oceania Cruises offers gourmet dining and curated travel experiences aboard boutique, hotel-style ships that carry no more than 1,250 guests.

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♪ -Nothing makes you more unique than 1,500 head of bison.

-Exactly.

I've never seen anything like this in my life.

It touches your heart in a way you didn't expect.

-So this is about as safe as distance as we can get?

-This is a good distance away from the buffalo.

What we like to say that the park is, if you can hold your thumb up and cover the animal with your thumb, then you're in a safe distance.

-So this is a safe distance.

You're pushing it.

Sure nice knowing you.

So were the bison always here on this land, or were they brought to it?

-Well, the park bought them in in 1914, where they purchased 36 animals.

-Oh.

-The herd grew from 36 animals to what we got here, around 1,300 to 1,500 animals today.

-And that's all naturally, right?

These are free-roaming bison.

-Yes, ma'am, yep.

-I can't believe the amount of babies I see.

-We typically see anywhere from 450 to about 500 calves per year.

That's how we base our management decisions on in the fall when we have to cut the herd back to go into wintertime.

-But I got to tell you, the bison are kind of adorable.

They're fuzzy.

Like, they've got all the cuteness appeal.

Like, they really win that award of just cuteness.

-Yeah.

And that's why we call them fluffy cows.

-[ Laughs ] But every year you do what is famous, which is the Buffalo Roundup.

What does that entail?

-So that occurs the last Friday in September.

We gather all the animals up and we bring them into the corral system.

We usually use about 60 horse riders, bring them into the corrals, just check to see if the cows are pregnant, vaccinate the calves, and then we'll start deciding which animals we're going to put into the auction.

-And why do they go into the auction?

-We have to cull the herd down.

It's really based on how many calves we have born in the spring, and we try to be under 1,000 animals in the wintertime.

-Because the land will support them better?

-Correct, yes.

-And they'll be healthier for that.

-Right.

Yes.

-I've been looking forward to this drive for a very long time.

This is Needles Highway.

14 miles.

It's considered one of the greatest drives in the nation.

So if you love a good drive, you have to do this one.

It is... Oh, my gosh!

Unbelievable.

The rock formations.

And I'm not sure if Needles Highway gets its name from the fact that the rocks sometimes look like spires and, therefore, needles, or like we ourselves are just needles threading through this rugged landscape.

Either way, it is unbelievable.

Is this one way?

♪ Made it to Sylvan Lake, which, as you can tell by all the people, it's a -- it's a bit of a hot spot here.

Just thinking of where I was this morning with the bison, the undulating green hills, going to this sort of more rugged landscape, it's hard to believe I'm in the same state, let alone the same state park.

♪ ♪ Deadwood has that picture perfect pioneer town look.

You would be forgiven if you thought this was all fabricated, build like 10 years ago.

But that's quite the opposite of what Deadwood is.

-Absolutely.

Because we're a national historic landmark, Samantha.

-What put Deadwood on the map?

-Well, first of all, it was, of course, "Wild Bill" Hickok being shot on August 2nd, 1876, here in Deadwood.

And that was a travesty for him, but, unfortunately, good for Deadwood.

-[ Laughs ] -And then, of course, "Calamity" Jane came through Deadwood multiple times.

She was loud, profane, and she was a severe alcoholic, so she was fun to party with.

-[ Laughs ] Party and gamble they did at places like Saloon No.

10, which lives in infamy as the saloon wild Bill was shot and killed in.

Still open for business.

And both wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried in this town, and people will pay tribute to these icons of the Wild West with cards and money.

And speaking of money, Deadwood was the location for the last gold rush in the United States.

So is this where they would sort of provision up and then stay?

-There's all these men here, and, so, what are they to do?

Well, they need alcohol and they need gambling and they need prostitution and they need restaurants, they need to be fed and they need hotels.

So that's what sprung up in Deadwood in those early years.

-You can still feel that edge here.

People are still enjoying that Western sort of wildness.

-Yeah.

Right.

There is something super special about Deadwood.

And for one thing, I think we're a lot of fun.

[ Laughter ] -For 30 years, tens of thousands of visitors on route to Badlands National Park never knew that they were traveling across a prairie that held terrifying power.

-When I first came to work here, I was surprised that there were as many people that didn't realize that we were here.

Now, your locals all knew about us, and we're hidden in plain sight as far as that went.

-Well, you know, I'm -- I'm really impressed.

It's all very normal for people who could possibly press a button that would, you know, destroy the world.

-[ Chuckles ] I'm Jim Boensch, I'm a National Park Service ranger here with Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

-The building stops looking like a quaint home pretty quickly as Jim takes me into the security control center.

-Our missiles, see, were anywhere from 4 to 14 miles away from us.

-Oh, okay.

-We're right there, and they were at least three nautical miles away from each other.

That was to keep the Russians from getting more than one target with one bomb.

We carried a 1.2 megaton warhead.

That's 1.2 million tons of TNT equivalent.

Two of our warheads had more firepower than all the bombs dropped in World War II by all the sides, including the bombs over Japan.

Just two of our warheads.

-I feel like I need to sit down, and I'm not -- I'm not joking.

That is a phenomenal amount of power and destruction just right here.

Jim is a park ranger now, but years ago, it was his job to monitor the missiles and, if required, launch them.

-We're going to go down 31 feet, 8 inches, and back 40 years.

[ Laughs ] -I was still processing the first half of the tour when Jim walked me into the final part -- Launch Control Center Delta-01.

It's incredible hearing a firsthand account from Jim, who takes you through the daily practices of manning a nuclear launch site.

-If you'd like, we can step through what World War III would have looked like.

If this is an appropriate time to do it.

-I thought you'd never ask, Jim.

-Okay, well, Tim and I are here.

We're at a higher state of readiness, and we get that warble tone again.

[ Warbling ] And we get a lead in that goes something like, "Kilo, Lima, Sierra, Mike, Oscar."

Tim says, "Boss, we got to get in that red box right now."

We head back there, we unlocked.

We take our authenticators, we lay our keys down, we authenticate the message individually.

We both agree it is a valid and authentic execution message from the president.

The first thing we're going to have to do is insert our keys there.

And Tim's goes in the computer, in the side.

-Why are you so far away from each other?

-That's an old Minuteman I restriction.

We didn't want two crew members going crazy and bashing their partners in the head and starting World War III.

We've got the keys in.

He's got to dial in that code and throw a switch down, arming all 50 missiles.

Whoever gets to it first arms them.

So we're watching that hand on the clock.

It ticks down to five seconds before key turn.

We've got our hands on the keys.

I call out to Tim, "On my mark.

Three, two, one, mark."

We turn the keys, hold them for about 10 seconds.

And that little green message transmitting light comes on and goes off.

[ Bell ringing ] Launch commanded.

That's one launch vote.

Launch in process, two launch votes.

Okay.

And then, you get your missile away.

We know it's lifted off.

Lower umbilical separates, and it's out of there, heading anywhere from up to 6,000 miles.

Delivery time, 25 to 30 minutes over the North Pole.

-And that's understanding that there could be another missile coming our way, as well.

-Oh, certainly.

-Right?

So... -There probably would be before we had launched, sure.

-The Russians knew that this was here.

-Oh, yeah.

-Do they also know all the different fail-safes that you have in place?

-We were revealing top secret and secret information to the Russians as early as 1963, because we felt like they weren't as safe as they should be, and we leaked safety hints to them just so they didn't accidentally hose us.

-Oh, my gosh.

-So, oh, yeah.

I find it, rather than disturbing, I find it rather comforting when you look back over the last 63 years, 70 years, whatever, and you see the things that could have happened that didn't happen.

-If it took 30 minutes for a nuclear missile to reach its target in the Soviet Union, there's some comfort knowing that only 10 minutes from the Delta-01 site is Wall Drug, where their famous doughnuts and coffee have been free to veterans for decades.

When I walked in, I was immediately overwhelmed by the inside scape.

Do you have maps of Wall Drug?

-You do have a map.

People are going around, "I wish there was a map of this," and here we are.

There is.

-Wall Drug is a family business that is approaching 100 years in operation.

I sat down with third and fourth generation, Rick Husted and his daughter, Sarah, who both got their start bussing tables.

This is what Wall Drug looks like now.

But this is how it started.

-We started out across the street.

My grandparents purchased the store there, and the original store was 24 by 60.

-Okay.

And they were living in the back 20 feet of the store behind a red curtain with their four-year-old son, Billy, My dad.

-[ Laughs ] It was the Dirty '30s.

Unemployment was at an all-time high, and travelers hot and thirsty kept bypassing the town of Wall, when Dorothy had an ingenious idea how to make them stop.

-She said, "Ted, we should put up a sign along this highway.

'Get a soda, get a beer, turn next corner just as near to Highway 16 and 14.

Free ice water.

Wall Drugstore.'"

-Like a little jingle, really.

-Yeah.

She was an English major.

-[ Laughs ] They lettered the signs, put them up along the highway.

And before Ted got back to the store after doing that, the first customers had stopped.

He thought, gee, if one sign had that kind of impact, what would 20 or 30 Wall Drug signs do?

And he kept putting more and more.

And that's still what keeps us in business today.

-What do you love about being the generation taking care of quite a legacy of a family business?

-I really like seeing our customers come in and leave happy.

Just the connections that we can make with travelers.

And I like to think that we are a slice of Americana and they're taking that slice with them.

Mm-hmm.

Any plans to expand even further?

-We always could.

-[ Laughs ] You're on a prairie.

♪ This is my first time to Badlands National Park, and I've always wanted to come here just on its name alone.

Right?

Because Badlands.

Well, why would you name a national park Badlands?

And it's not bad at all.

It's absolutely phenomenal.

But the word itself, its name comes from a Lakota word meaning -- a direct translation, "bad lands."

And I guess, when you look at it from their perspective, eh, you know, it might be a little bit challenging to live here or maybe cross the land.

But, yeah, it's just like, oh, my gosh.

♪ -This area that we're in now, the Black Hills, this is believed to be the birthplace of the Lakota people, the creation being right here in a cave called Wind Cave.

-Mm-hmm.

So there's hundreds of sacred sites all throughout the Black Hills.

And this is why Chief Henry Standing Bear selected this place to be the memorial for his cousin, Crazy Horse.

-This mammoth mountain sculpture was an idea motivated by the completion of nearby Mount Rushmore.

The mission of Crazy Horse Memorial is to protect and preserve the culture, traditions, and living heritage of the North American tribes.

You're really trying to create a stronger relationship with the future non-natives with Native Americans.

How do you accomplish that?

-Over 600 different tribes, all with their own languages, customs, traditions.

And, so, by bringing natives and non-natives together, you're educating people.

-The monument project began in the late 1940s at a very different place in history.

-If you go up on the mountain, you look around the face area, you follow the hand and the finger, it points to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where Crazy Horse's relatives and ancestors are.

-When I first started, they were transitioning from blasting down below us on the benches to working on the hand.

And, so, for me, I really just got to see the whole thing come alive and take shape, which has been incredible.

Obviously, it makes it like my favorite part of the carving right now.

-I'm getting a view and conversation like no other with Von Ziolkowski, grandson to the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, who was personally chosen by Henry Standing Bear for the Crazy Horse monument.

Did you ever get to meet your grandfather?

-No, I did not have the pleasure of meeting him.

He passed away in 1982.

-Uh-huh.

-And I was born about five years later.

-Ugh.

-But I really look up to him.

His dedication, his -- I don't know -- his ability to see kind of into the future and see what the carving would look like and just, like, sticking with it through the, for sure, the hardest years of the project.

-Is there a deadline?

-There's not a deadline set in stone, no pun intended.

But if we were to carve at the pace we were able to carve the hand, we're looking at about 60 years, probably.

-Wow.

-This is all dependent on funding and other things, as well.

-And, so, when guests come here, we're able to tell the history and the facts of what took place in our country, but at the same time introducing the arts, the songs, the languages, the stories.

So by bringing that all together, we're really, in essence, inspiring people to do better.

We do better when we know better.

♪ ♪ -So, hello.

My Lakota name is Brave Starwoman.

My English name is Star Chief Eagle, and I'm a member of the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Tribe, also known as Sicangu Lakota of the Oceti Sakowin.

-When did you first learn to hoop dance?

And who taught you?

-So, it's a family tradition.

-Okay.

-It was passed down from our father, Dallas Chief Eagle.

He helped to teach it, helped to share it, helped to bring this tradition back.

So myself and my siblings, we started when we were just babies.

-Brought it back.

So it had disappeared?

-A lot of people don't know that, for almost 100 years, you know, our ceremonies, songs, dances, practices were actually outlawed within the United States.

-The stage we're in now is a little more hopeful, right?

You get to tell the perspective of your history.

-I feel like hoop dancing is a great way to bring people in, draw people in.

And with hoop dance representing unity, representing balance, representing healing, you know, it's just a great way to bring us together and to be able to learn together, to share together.

I do believe that that is the path forward towards healing is through education, sharing, understanding.

♪ -The gateway city to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota is Rapid City.

And that's where you'll find Prairie Edge Trading Post.

Located in a 19th century building with its original facade.

Not to mention its same creaky wood floors.

-We're in the proximity of so many different Northern Plains tribes.

The Cheyennes and the Crows are probably the second to the Lakotas, but there's so many different native tribes out here in the Northern Plains, and we try to approach them all.

-Founded in 1980, Prairie Edge is where you can be absorbed in the culture and talents of the Northern Plains tribes, as well as view and purchase their finest creations.

One artist whose work is prominently featured here is Lakota painter Del Iron Cloud.

How did this scene come to you?

How do you know when you have a blank canvas what you're going to paint next?

Does it come with a full image, a scene that you want to paint?

Did it come in a dream the night before?

How do you start?

-When I start a painting, I usually start with the sky.

-The sky, -And of course, and then the background.

-Mm-hmm.

-As I was going along, I started adding people in there.

It would seem too dark here, so I said, well, let me put the campfire in there, and next thing you know, you're saying, what are they cooking?

Well, they're cooking food, but where is the food coming from?

So you put that up here.

And perhaps, how did they go get it?

Well, they went on horses, you know.

So everything's pretty much tied together as I go along.

There are times for some paintings that I do that are actually depicting the Black Hills.

It's a symbol of our land, the Lakota's land.

And it still is.

It still is our land.

It's just been occupied by immigrants.

-Mm-hmm.

[ Laughs ] -[ Chuckles ] -Del always finishes his paintings with a peace pipe as an essential part of his signature.

To have a place with this type of artwork, you yourself have to have a great relationship with the artists... -We do.

-...and with the nations and tribes you're working with.

-You know, there's a thing and it's called the moccasin telegraph, and it's way faster than the Internet.

-Okay.

-But it's the way native people just talk.

-Basically word of mouth.

-It is.

-And they say, this guy can be trusted or this guy cannot be trusted.

-Yep.

Right.

Exactly.

-All right.

And as I look at things that are hanging, beautiful garments and beadwork, all I keep thinking of is this is a very big deal.

And is it okay for me to own something like this?

Like a headdress?

-It is.

And, again, there's certain responsibility that comes with almost everything that is created here.

It gives people who are true collectors a real honorable way to have something that didn't get taken off of a body or stolen or whatever.

-I see.

-And you can hang it on your wall without any regrets whatsoever, because it is newly made.

-Newly made and truly stunning pieces of art by Native American artists.

♪ -[ Yodeling ] ♪ -So, tonight our menu is fire fried potatoes.

-Fire fried potatoes, okay.

-We'll have our cowboy beans.

We'll have our steaks.

We have hot dogs for the little kids.

-Okay.

-And then, we'll do the steak on the grill, and then our peach cobbler will be for dessert.

And plenty of good black cowboy coffee.

-That's fantastic.

I mean, the fire itself and how you're cooking is so authentic.

-Everything was cooked right over the fire.

Yeah, it's as close to a cowboy meal you'd have got years ago out on the trail that the food health inspectors allow us to serve nowadays.

-[ Laughs ] Ronda and Clayton Sanders and their kids, Addie and Leighton, help give travelers a chuckwagon dinner.

Lard and bacon get their favorite side dish going.

-Yeah.

So, in order to be cowboy beans, you got to have lots of bacon in it and steak.

And that's what we'll be adding next.

Once this gets rendered down.

-And you've got 120 people coming in tonight.

-That's right.

-That's incredible.

They're all coming and they're all going to be hungry.

-They're all going to be hungry, yeah.

-♪ He jumped in the saddle the day he was born ♪ -Everyone is getting ready before the guests arrive.

Vegetables are chopping, meat is sizzling, and musicians are strumming.

-♪ ...fight off the lonesome, he'd strum his guitar ♪ ♪ ♪ Hide your horses, take off your gun ♪ ♪ And show you how the West was won ♪ [ Yodeling ] ♪ -Come get it!

♪ There you go.

-Thank you very much.

-Enjoy.

-Can't wait to taste the beans!

-Sir.

-Well, a traveler to South Dakota is going to experience everything that represents America, in my mind.

From the open spaces, you can see the open grasslands, the mountains, and just the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

-Yeah.

I came when I was their age and remember it being a surprisingly fun vacation.

-I ride a Harley and I love the Black Hills.

You don't have to ride a motorcycle to enjoy them.

The Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road going down to Custer State Park.

Some of the most gorgeous rides in the United States.

-Have you gone to the Badlands?

-Oh, yes.

-Badlands was something else.

-Yeah.

That view at the top of the hike was -- -Unbelievable.

-So you've done the Badlands.

You've done Custer State Park.

You've done this.

-Wall Drug.

-Wall Drug, that's right.

-Mm-hmm.

-Mount Rushmore today.

-Did you get our itinerary for our show?

[ Laughter ] ♪ -When you come to South Dakota, people such as myself are willing to share about our culture and our traditions.

And, you know, we like to share our own story and our own truth about who our native peoples really are.

And what we have to do as a people is we have to work together to start these conversations.

-When you get to enjoy beautiful parks, from state to national, when you get to listen to the people who know their story, when the beauty of the land leaves you openmouthed and absolutely speechless, that is when we share a love of travel.

And that's why the Black Hills of South Dakota is a place to love.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel to the United States, and in more than 100 countries, from exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Rhodes Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Oceana Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and Samantha Brown's "Places to Love," sailing to more than 600 destinations around the globe, from Europe to Asia and Alaska to the South Pacific.

Oceania Cruises offers gourmet dining and curated travel experiences aboard boutique hotel-style ships that carry no more than 1,250 guests.

Oceana Cruises.

Your world.

Your way.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪